Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
on the one hand, and the rest of Israel, in which the double tribe of Joseph and then the single tribe of
Ephraim acquired such peculiar prominence, on the other, shape itself more and more in the mind, and
what already existed in the germ begin to attain maturity even here? And what could be more natural than
that the mountains in which the "children of Judah" had their settlements should be called the mountains
of Judah; and the mountains where all the rest of Israel was encamped, where the "children of Israel"
were gathered together, be called the mountains of Israel , and, as that particular district really belonged
to the tribe of Ephraim, the mountains of Ephraim also? (Josh 19:50; 20:7; also 24:30.))
Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod were towns of the Philistines; of these Gaza and Ashdod
were allotted to the tribe of Judah (Josh 15:47), but were never taken possession of by
the Israelites, although the Philistines were sometimes subject to the Israelites (see at
Josh 13:3). - With v. 23a, "thus Joshua took the whole land" etc., the history of the
conquest of Canaan by Joshua is brought to a close; and v. 23b, "and Joshua gave it
for an inheritance unto Israel," forms a kind of introduction to the second part of the
book. The list of the conquered kings in ch. 12 is simply an appendix to the first part.
The taking of the whole land does not imply that all the towns and villages to the very
last had been conquered, or that all the Canaanites were rooted out from every corner
of the land, but simply that the conquest was of such a character that the power of the
Canaanites was broken, their dominion overthrown, and their whole land so
thoroughly given into the hands of the Israelites, that those who still remained here
and there were crushed into powerless fugitives, who could neither offer any further
opposition to the Israelites, nor dispute the possession of the land with them, if they
would only strive to fulfil the commandments of their God and persevere in the
gradual extermination of the scattered remnants. Moreover, Israel had received the
strongest pledge, in the powerful help
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