NOTES for Jos 12:1-24

The list of defeated kings provided in the Book of Joshua closely resembles lists of the same kind known from Egyptian and Babylonian sources. They were not so much a boast as a kind of memorial record: after all, the conquered kings usually became vassals and tributaries of the victor. The descendants of both the victors and the defeated could ascertain the validity of the claims of the former and the obligations of the latter. And in general, for subsequent generations, such lists were a kind of archival record confirming the authenticity of events known to them from other sources. Looking at the list of names enumerated in the book, one might think that almost half the world had been conquered. In reality, it is a matter of a territory that was comparatively small, but at that time highly fragmented: every city-state had its own king, and every tribe its own chief. There were many cities in Palestine, and even more tribes in those times. Obviously, the Hebrews captured most of the country during their campaigns of conquest, although not all of it entirely.

The sacred writer, however, by providing this list, intends not only to glorify the valor of his people or to leave a testimony for the memory of future readers. By enumerating names that mean nothing not only to us but, most likely, to the overwhelming majority of his contemporaries as well, he seems to say: for us these names mean nothing anymore, but before God each of them has its own meaning, just as every person who bore this or that enumerated name has his own significance in His eyes. Of course, it is a list of the defeated, and not of the victors, but after all, victory and defeat are meaningful for God only in the context of His fulfillment of His plan. And He wants to save everyone — both among the victors and among the defeated — and therefore remembers the name of everyone who one way or another ended up in the path of His people.