Joshua 11 Remember the Anakim?

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Joshua 11:12 Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. 13 Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds—except Hazor, which Joshua burned. 14 The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed. 15 As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.

16 So Joshua took this entire land: the hill country, all the Negev, the whole region of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, 17 from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings and put them to death. 18 Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. 19 Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. 20 For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

21 At that time Joshua went and destroyed the Anakites from the hill country: from Hebron, Debir and Anab, from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. 22 No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive.

23 So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.​

So, I see in verse 20 "it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel". Now Pharaoh's heart had been hardened. Now we read all the people in Canaan were affected by God in the same way.

IMHO....That tells me that if God wanted to... He could make our heart do whatever He wants it to do.... but He doesn't want us to follow Him because He wants us to. He wants us to love Him on our own.

This is from the easy English site.

‘A long time’ was about 7 years.

‘The Lord himself made the people angry.’ God did this because he wanted to punish the Canaanites. The Canaanites were very evil. God used the Israelites to punish the Canaanites. See Exodus 11:10 and Exodus 14:8. In these passages in Exodus, God made the king of Egypt angry. God did this because he wanted to punish the people in Egypt.

God promised to give this land to the family of Abraham (Genesis 17:8). The Israelites belonged to the family of Abraham. God always keeps his promises. God gave each Israelite family its own land.

According to the blueletterbible.org commentary, each family had to clear the Canaanites off their own little plots of land.

This brings us to another section of the book of Joshua. The power of the Canaanite kings within the land has been crushed, and in this sense, Joshua took the whole land. Yet, not every small town and village had been conquered and occupied. That was up to each individual tribe to do in the land that was apportioned to them.

It was a fear of the Anakim - this tribe of exceptionally large and strong people - that had made Israel too afraid to enter the land some forty years ago (Numbers 13:27-33).

Here, the foes of 40 years ago fall. They were no match for an army that was blessed and directed by God.

Finally.... this is from Bible.org.

11:21 "the Anakim" This was a very tall tribe which inhabited Hebron (Jos. 15:13). There seem to be three names used in the OT to describe these very tall people: (1) Nephilim (Gen. 6:4); (2) Rephaim (Gen. 14:5; 15:20; Jos. 12:4; 13:12); and (3) Anakim ( Num. 13:22,28; Deut. 1:28; 9:2; Jdgs. 1:20). Anak means "long necked".

Goliath and his brothers were probably related (Jos. 11:22).​

So... the walled cities are cleared out. The main enemy armies are gone. There are a few stragglers on the private land but the bulk is cleared out. We're going to hear from the Canaanites again.... because some were not home during the wars. Some fled and came back. So far tho... everything is going according to plan. Abraham's people are finally walking on the Promised Land. Their stock was eating the grass from the pastures and those infamous grapes [that are so big that bringing home a cluster of grapes requires two men and a pole] now belong to the Israelites.

:coffee:
 
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