Joshua 11:10 - Meaning and Application

We see here the same result from this victory as from the one in the previous chapter. Hazor is singled out for special notice because this bold attack on Israel was planned there and by its king (Joshua 11:10, Joshua 11:11). The king of Hazor seems to have escaped the battle and felt safe once he reached his city, while Joshua went after the scattered enemy troops another way. But what he thought would help him became his snare. He was caught as in a bad trap, slain there, and his city was burned because of him.

Even so, when Israel did not keep close watch over the ruins, the Canaanites rebuilt Hazor and settled there again under another king with the same name (Judges 4:2). The other cities in that region are only mentioned in general terms. Joshua took them all, but he did not burn them as he did Hazor, because Israel was meant to live in large and fine cities they had not built themselves (Deuteronomy 6:10), and these cities were among them.

Here we see Israel gaining both blood and treasure from their enemies. They struck down all the people of those cities (Joshua 11:1), and left no one alive who could breathe (Joshua 11:14). This kept them from being polluted by the sins of Canaan and from later troubles over the land. Even the children were destroyed, so they would not one day claim the land as heirs of their parents.

They also took the enemies’ wealth. The spoil and the cattle became their plunder (Joshua 11:14). Just as Israel had once been enriched with the goods of the Egyptians when they left Egypt, providing for the cost of their long time in the wilderness, so now they were supplied from the goods of their enemies for their new life in Canaan. In this way, the wealth of sinners is stored up for the righteous.