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CHAPTER 10 : The Battle of Gibeon - Conquest of the South of Canaan -
The Battle of Merom - Conquest of the North of Canaan - State of the land
at the close of the seven-years' war.
(JOSHUA 10-12)
THE surrender of Gibeon would fill the kings of Southern Canaan with dismay. It was,
so to speak, treason within their own camp; it gave Israel a strong position in the heart
of the country and within easy reach of Jerusalem; while the possession of the passes
leading from Gibeon would throw the whole south of Canaan open to their incursion. In
the circumstances it natural that the chieftains of the south would combine, in the first
place, for the retaking of Gibeon. The confederacy, which was under the leadership of
Adoni-Zedek,^105 king of Jerusalem,^106 embraced Hoham,^107 King of Hebron (about
seven hours' south of Jerusalem); Piram,^108 king of Jarmuth, the present Jarmuk, about
three hours' to the south-west of Jerusalem; Japhia,^109 king of Lachish, and Debir,^110
king of Eglon, both cities close to each other, and not far from Gaza, to the south-west
of Hebron.
The march of the combined kings was evidently rapid, and the danger pressing, for it
seems to have found the Gibeonites wholly unprepared, and their entreaty to Joshua for
immediate succor was of the most urgent kind. That very night Joshua marched to their
relief with "all the people of war, that is, the mighty men of valor."^111
The relieving army came upon the enemy as "suddenly" as they had appeared in sight of
Gibeon. It was probably very early in the morning when Joshua and his warriors
surprised the allied camp. Gibeon lay in the east, surrounded, as in a semicircle, north,
west, and south, by its three confederate cities. The five kings had pushed forward
within that semicircle, and camped in the "open ground at the foot of the heights of
Gibeon." Animated by the assurance which God had expressly given Joshua: "Fear
them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand
before thee," the host of Israel fell upon them with an irresistible rush. The Canaanites
made but a short stand before their unexpected assailants; then fled in wild confusion
towards the pass of Upper Beth-horon, "the house of caves." They gained the height
before their pursuers, and were hurrying down the pass of the Nether Beth-horon, when
a fearful hailstorm, such as not unfrequently sweeps over the hills of Palestine, burst
upon them. It was in reality "the Lord" who, once more miraculously employing natural
agency, "cast down great stones from heaven upon them;" "and they were more which
died from the hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword."^112
It was but noon; far behind Israel in the heaven stood the sun over Gibeon, and before
them over Ajalon in the west hung the crescent moon. The tempest was extinguishing
day and light, and the work was but half done. In the pass to Nether Beth-horon Israel
(^)