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strong and of good courage: for thus shall Jehovah do to all your enemies against whom
ye fight."
The death of these five kings proved only the beginning of a campaign which may have
lasted weeks, or even months, for we find that successors of these five kings afterwards
shared their fate. In the end, the whole south of Canaan was in the hands of Israel,
though some of the cities taken appear to have been afterwards again wrested from
them, and occupied by the Canaanites.^118 The extent of the conquest is indicated
(10:41) by a line drawn south and north, westwards - "from Kadesh-barnea even unto
Gaza" - and eastwards, "from the district of Goshen^119 unto Gibeon."
The campaign thus finished in the south had soon to be renewed in the north of Canaan.
The means, the help, and the result were the same as before. Only, as the danger was
much greater, from the multitude of Israel's opponents - "even as the sand that is upon
the sea-shore," - and from their formidable mode of warfare ("horses and chariots very
many"), hitherto unknown to Israel, the Lord once more gave express assurance of
victory: "I will deliver them up all slain before Israel." At the same time He enjoined "to
hough (or hamstring) their horses, and burn their chariots with fire," lest Israel should
be tempted to place in future their trust in such weapons. The allied forces of the
northern enemy were under the leadership of Jabin,^120 king of Hazor,^121 which
"beforetimes was the head of all those kingdoms." They consisted not only of the three
neighboring "kings" (or chieftains) of Madon, Shimron, and Achshaph,^122 but of all the
kings "in the north and (on the mountain" (of Naphtali, Joshua 20:7), of those in the
Arabah, south of the Lake of Gennesaret, of those "in the plains," or valleys that
stretched to the Mediterranean, and in "the heights of Dor," at the foot of Mount Carmel
- in short, of all the Canaanite tribes from the Mediterranean in the south-west up to
Mizpeh^123 "the view") under Mount Hermon in the far north-east.
With the rapidity and suddenness which characterized all his movements, Joshua fell
upon the allied camp by the Lake Merom (the modern el-Huleh), and utterly routed the
ill-welded mass of the enemy. The fugitive Canaanites seem to have divided into three
parts, one taking the road north-west to "Zidon the Great," another that west and south-
west to the "smelting-pits by the waters" (Misrephoth-Maim), and the third that to the
east leading to the valley of Mizpeh. In each direction they were hotly pursued by the
Israelites. One by one all their cities were taken. Those in the valleys were burnt, but
those on the heights, with the exception of Hazor, left standing, as requiring only small
garrisons for their occupation. Altogether the war in the south and north must have
occupied at least seven years,^124 at the end of which the whole country was in the
possession of Israel, from the "smooth mountain (Mount Halak) that goeth up to Seir," -
that is, the white chalk mountains in the chain of the Azazimeh, in the Negeb - as far
north as "Baal-gad," the town dedicated to "Baal" as god of "fortune," the Caesarea
Philippi of the Gospels (11:16- 18). More than that, Joshua also drove the Anakim, who
(^)