JOSHUA - CHAPTER 14
JOSHUA - CHAPTER 14
— 10. This makes about seven years for Joshua’s wars up to this. It was seven years from the time of crossing Jordan, or in the seventh year when Caleb came to get possession of Hebron. The details, and as to Debir must be enquired into. In northern Palestine Joshua had long war. The southern kings he seems to have conquered more rapidly. Probably while engaged in the north, remains of the Amorite tribes and Anakim had returned to their cities, and Caleb had to drive them out. It is the detail of what is related in the end of chapter 11, there, in a general way, ascribed to the leader in chief appointed of Jehovah. This would tend to make the time from Jordan to Joshua’s death thirty or forty years — say he was thirty, a young man, when Caleb was forty; thirty-eight years in the wilderness = 68; 110 - 68 = 42. Thus he outlived the wars perhaps thirty-five years, compare chapter 24: 29 and chapter 23: 1.
— 13 - 15. As to Kirjath-Arba and Hebron; the name “Hebron” is as old as “Kirjath-Arba”, only it appears at first to have been the name of a district. We read in Numbers 13:22, “Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt”. It had received the name of “Arba” from some great man among the Anakim. But in Genesis 13:18, we have “the plain of Mamre which is Hebron”; it is evident that “Hebron” was the local name of the city — its first name, perhaps from the district. Some great chief among the Anakim attached his name to it, but this was merely occasional though it prevailed while they held it, which in the time of Caleb they did; he restored its ancient and true name.