Joshua 10,1-15: The Southern Conquest and Jerusalem

In Joshua 9 there is another problematical situation when Joshua and the leaders of Israel make peace with the Gibeonites.  They were led to believe Gibeon was not in Canaan when, in fact, it was just over the hill.  See the “Central and Southern Conquest” map below.

In 9:8-11 we see something we need to consider.  The men from Gibeon said glowing things about the God of Israel.  If the leaders of Israel respected their God they would have inquired of Him before extending the hand of friendship to Gibeon. But they didn’t.  Pride does this: accepting God's praise for myself.  So I act very “wise” and make a decision without consulting God. But the problem is that it's “wisdom in my own eyes,” the way that seems right to man.

Much of the geography referred to in Joshua 10 can be identified today.  For example, the Valley of Aijalon (v12) where the sun stood still is on the road from Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem.  Furthermore, you can see how the battle went, as the northern entrance to Aijalon gives access if you are in retreat from Gibeon, where the battle started.  And there’s more.  Aijalon Valley is the first of the five valleys of the Lowland.  The city/states that gathered against Joshua were located in those valleys.  Thus, as they retreated from north to south in Aijalon they would come to the entrances to the other valleys and might be able to make it to the walled city they called home.  Thus, you understand why Joshua first defeated the armies and killed the kings of those cities (10:6-27), and then had to come to the various cities and take them one by one (10:28-43).

In the list of kings who were executed, one was the King of Jerusalem.  But you will note that in the list of cities that were destroyed, Jerusalem is not included.  The status of Jerusalem during the time of Joshua and the Judges can be a bit confusing so let us seek to clarify the issue.

·       Josh. 10:1: Jerusalem was a leader in the southern federation (v3,5,23).  Joshua defeated the army of the confederation but when Israel then went from city to city they did not make war against Jerusalem (Josh. 10:28-29).

·       Josh. 15:8: Judah’s northern border (Benjamin was to the north) was the southern slope of Jerusalem (Valley of Hinnom).  But Jebus (Jerusalem) was in the tribal territory of Benjamin (Josh. 18:28).

·       Josh. 15:63: Prior to the time of Joshua’s death, Judah had taken control of the city (Judges 1:7-8) but were unable to completely remove the population of Jebusites so that they lived side-by-side.  At the same time Benjamin was unable to control their part of Jerusalem (Jud. 1:21), so that a long time thereafter it was still considered the city of the Jebusites (Jud. 19:10-12).

·       2 Sam. 5:6: In David’s time the city was still controlled by the Jebusites until taken by Joab, at which time it was totally under control of Israel.

How do we make sense of this?  Keil and Delitzsch (Carl F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, German scholars who, writing in the 1800’s, wrote from a more conservative viewpoint than what was popular at the time in Germany) understand that Judah took Jerusalem but that it was soon re-taken by the Jebusites. 

Barnes Notes (Albert Barnes) has the view that Judah had taken the lower part of the city (which is to the south) while the upper (northern) part of the city, which sat on Mt. Zion, was Benjamite.  He actually uses the term “probably.”  I do appreciate this idea as, having been in the area of the Old City, I can see how this would work.  Even now, the walls built in Ottoman times surrounds the upper city but not the lower city.  We have included a photo of the model of Jerusalem in Jesus time, from the Israel Museum, that shows the upper and lower parts of the city. 

The Central and Southern Campaign of Joshua.
The battle started around Gibeon, and then the federation
armies began to retreat to their hometowns, south through
the Valley of Aijalon and then to Azeka, Lachish, etc.

Model of Jerusalem in Jesus' day, at the Israel Museum.
The lower city is on the near side of the Temple Mount and
may have been in the tribal territory of Judah.  The upper
city, left and beyond the Temple Mount was in the
tribal territory of Benjamin.

In this panorama the right side of the photo is looking north while the left side looks west.
The mountains in the far distance on the right side are where Gibeon was located.  Retreating
soldiers clearly would have had an escape route trying to get to the walled cities they called
home in the Lowlands in southern Israel.