Study Desk

Now therefore you are cursed, and there shall never fail to be of you bondservants, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.

They answered Yehoshua, and said, Because it was certainly told your servants, how that the LORD your God commanded his servant Moshe to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were sore afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.

That day Yehoshua made those wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, to this day, in the place which he should choose.

Come up to me, and help me, and let us strike Giv`on; for it has made shalom with Yehoshua and with the children of Yisra'el.

The men of Giv`on sent to Yehoshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Don't slack your hand from your servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amori that dwell in the hill-country are gathered together against us.

The LORD said to Yehoshua, Don't fear them: for I have delivered them into your hands; there shall not a man of them stand before you.

Yehoshua therefore came on them suddenly; [for] he went up from Gilgal all the night.

There was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD listened to the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Yisra'el.

but don't stay; pursue after your enemies, and strike the hindmost of them; don't allow them to enter into their cities: for the LORD your God has delivered them into your hand.

It happened, when they brought forth those kings to Yehoshua, that Yehoshua called for all the men of Yisra'el, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who went with him, Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings. They came near, and put their feet on the necks of them.

Yehoshua said to them, Don't be afraid, nor be dismayed; be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom you fight.

All these kings and their land did Yehoshua take at one time, because the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, fought for Yisra'el.

The LORD said to Yehoshua, Don't be afraid because of them; for tomorrow at this time will I deliver them up all slain before Yisra'el: you shall hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

Yehoshua turned back at that time, and took Hatzor, and struck the king of it with the sword: for Hatzor before was the head of all those kingdoms.

But as for the cities that stood on their mounds, Yisra'el burned none of them, save Hatzor only; that did Yehoshua burn.

All the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Yisra'el took for a prey to themselves; but every man they struck with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any who breathed.

For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, to come against Yisra'el in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moshe.

So Yehoshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD spoke to Moshe; and Yehoshua gave it for an inheritance to Yisra'el according to their divisions by their tribes. The land had rest from war.

Moshe the servant of the LORD and the children of Yisra'el struck them: and Moshe the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession to the Re'uveni, and the Gadi, and the half-tribe of Menashsheh.

These are the kings of the land whom Yehoshua and the children of Yisra'el struck beyond the Yarden westward, from Ba`al-Gad in the valley of Levanon even to Mount Halak, that goes up to Se`ir; and Yehoshua gave it to the tribes of Yisra'el for a possession according to their divisions;