04 October 2009

There was not any left to breathe.

In God’s last killing, everyone in seven cities was massacred, along with the kings, with the land taken by the Israelites. When King Jabin of Hazor heard about it, he sent a letter to all the surrounding kingdoms (those that hadn’t yet been slaughtered by the Israelites) to form a coalition to defend against the Israelites.
When Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, And to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west, And to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh. Joshua 11.1-3
And it worked, too. All the kings (around 20 or so) joined the coalition, forming an army with more soldiers than the grains of sand on all the ocean’s beaches.
And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel. 11.4-5
But God told Joshua not to be afraid because tomorrow he would kill them all and deliver their dead bodies to Joshua.
The LORD said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel. 11.6a
God told Joshua to hamstring ("hough" in the KJV) their horses and burn their chariots.
The LORD said unto Joshua ... thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. 11.6b
And that’s what happened.
The LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them … until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire. 11.8-9
The Israelites killed the King Jabin of Hazor and his people until “there was not any left to breathe.”
Joshua … took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire. 11.10-11
Then they did the same to all of the other kings and cities in King Jabin’s coalition.
All the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. 11.12
Joshua, of course, killed all the kings.
So Joshua took ... all their kings ... and smote them, and slew them. 11.16-17
But the most disgusting thing about this whole bloody, genocidal affair is that it was completely unnecessary. God purposefully hardened the kings’ hearts so that he would have an excuse to kill them, along with all the men, women, children, and babies in their kingdoms.
For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses. 11.20
Such a God, if he existed, should be hated by every decent person on earth.

(I estimated 20,000 for this killing, 1000 from each kingdom.)

10 comments:

busterggi said...

Any decent kingdom should have several thousand inhabitants but these being biblical kingdoms (i.e. villages) you've still got to give them at least 100 inhabitants each. So go with 2200 for a round number.

Steve Wells said...

busterggi,

Yeah, I agree. But I've been using 1000 for each city and kingdom in my previous counts, so I'll probably stick with that.

But I'm not sure how many kingdoms were massacred in this killing. The Brick Testament came up with 22. Has anyone else tried to count them?

TWF said...

I am not sure, but I think the Reverend is associating the 22 cities in the allotment of northern lands given to the tribe of Asher in Joshua 19:24-31 (specifically 19:30) with the lands gained by conquering the Northern Kings.

Wikipedia has a nice tribal allotment map which may suggest that the Neftali, Zabulon, and Isachar tribes may have had a stake in those northern lands as well. But I must confess that I have not scrutinized the details to know for sure.

Markus Arelius said...

You know, Steve, if you consider the primitive intellect of this epoch, with all of this laying waste of civilizations and wanton massacres of men, women, children and cattle taking place all around it would actually not be reasonable for these cretins to believe in this particular God.

These "Adventures of Joshua" basically lay it out in a pretty straight forward manner: "Remember the conquest of Joshua? See what happens when you don't believe in Yahweh?! Yeah, I thought we could rely on you joining the believers (and your offerings, ka-ching!)! Mwahahahahah!"

Fear can be a powerful motivator.
Until you start asking questions and investigating the truth, that is.

Matthew Blanchette said...

Wow... that's what I get for thinking God likes animals.

twillight said...

Let me try to count the kingdoms:
1) Jabin, king of Hazor
2) Jobab, king of Madon
3) king of Shimron
4) king of Achshaph
5) king of the hill-country
6) king of Arabah
7) king of the lowland
8) king of the highland of Dor
9) king of the eastern canaanites
10) king of the western canaanites
11) king of amorites
12) king of hittites
13) king of perizzites
14) king of jebusites
15) king of hivites

But the 10,000 after the previous numbers you put on the killings in the book of Joshua seems perfectly fitting, independently from the number of kingdoms.

Steve Wells said...

Thanks for counting the kingdoms, twillight. That's probably about as accurate as we can get. So I guess I'll stick with 10,000.

Brucker said...

You know, as I said when I covered Joshua, the cruelty against the horses is really something that I can't fathom. If you want to get rid of the horses, why not just kill them? Why leave a battlefield full of live but destroyed horses? With all the things for which I've come up with possible justification, this one still escapes me.

எழில் said...

Ancient tribal societies wrote their own history by declaring the god (their own god) is in their side.

The problem with the current christians is trying to justify such Judea tribal history/myths as if it is their own. And somehow they think that this tribal god is the supreme god of all. And somehow they want to say this is really compassionate god that they want to display today.

Except conservapedia guys, I think the normal christians really struggle to extricate such god from the morals of today.

- ezil

The Squatting Monkey said...

Where is all the humor? I mean, i guess after a while all these stories of brutal murders start to weigh on the mind. I have never killed anyone. Its a horror i cannot imagine. Perhaps its because i lived a safe and comfortable life. Perhaps its because i live in a time where science has tripled my expected lifespan versus my ancestors. Perhaps im just a moral person. Perhaps its because I'm an atheist. But your comment is well made.