Joshua 12:7

And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon even unto the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir; which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:7-24 We have here the limits of the country Joshua conquered. A list is given of the kings subdued by Israel: thirty-one in all. This shows how fruitful Canaan then was, in which so many chose to throng together. This was the land God appointed for Israel; yet in our day it is one of the most barren and unprofitable countries in the world. Such is the effect of the curse it lies under, since its possessors rejected Christ and his gospel, as was foretold by Moses, De 29:23. The vengeance of a righteous God, inflicted on all these kings and their subjects, for their wickedness, should make us dread and hate sin. The fruitful land bestowed on his chosen people, should fill our hearts with hope and confidence in his mercy, and with humble gratitude.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The names of the kings are given in the order of their actual encounter with Joshua. Those enumerated in Joshua 12:10-18 either belonged to the league of the southern Canaanites (Joshua 10:1 ff), the power of which was broken in the battle of Beth-horon, or were at any rate conquered in the campaign following that battle. Those mentioned in Joshua 12:19-24 were in like manner connected with the northern confederates (Joshua 11:1 ff), who were defeated at the Waters of Merom.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jos 12:7-24. The One and Thirty Kings on the West Side of Jordan, Which Joshua Smote.

7. Baal-gad … even unto … Halak—(See on [188]Jos 11:17). A list of thirty-one chief towns is here given; and, as the whole land contained a superficial extent of only fifteen miles in length by fifty in breadth, it is evident that these capital cities belonged to petty and insignificant kingdoms. With a few exceptions, they were not the scenes of any important events recorded in the sacred history, and therefore do not require a particular notice.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And these are the kings of the country,.... After particularly named, Joshua 12:9,

which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west; that is, on the west of Jordan:

from Baalgad, in the valley of Lebanon, even unto the mount Halak,

that goeth up to Seir; of which see Joshua 11:17,

which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession,

according to their divisions; as after related in this book.

Geneva Study Bible

And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon even unto the mount {b} Halak, that goeth up to Seir; which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;

(b) Read Jos 11:17.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7–24. Catalogue of the Kings vanquished on the West of the Jordan

7. And these are the kings] This and the following verse coincide with ch. Joshua 11:16, and Joshua 10:40-42. They introduce the following narrative.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And these are the kings of the country. We now proceed to the enumeration of the kings whom Joshua had overcome on the western side of Jordan. And the first thing that strikes us is their immense number, as compared to the two potentates who alone occupied the large tract of country subdued on the other side of Jordan. Such a divided territory could hardly have maintained itself in the face of the powerful monarchs Sihon and Og to the eastward of Jordan. We are thus led to the conclusion that the smaller kings must have been tributary to some more powerful monarch who was the head of the confederacy. Such Bretwaldas, to borrow a term from our own history, the kings of Jerusalem and Hazor appear to have been, the one the head of the northern, the other of the southern tribes of Palestine, while possibly the five Philistine cities may have constituted another league, as they appear to have successfully defied the power of the Israelites from the first. That such confederacies existed at a much earlier time, we find from Genesis 14:1-5, where the king of Elam, or Persia, appears as the head of such an one, though of a more extensive character. The resistance to his power organised by the kings in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea is another case in point. Possibly in later times Persia and Babylon found their hands full in their conflict with one another, and with Egypt under Thothmes III., as afterwards under the all-conquering Rameses II., better known as Sesostris, and they had to leave the tribes of Palestine awhile to themselves. Or the rulers of the central power at Carchemish (see Introduction) may have exercised a kind of suzerainty over all. The next point to be observed is that, in the list of kings that follows, a good many are mentioned beside those enumerated in ch. 10. No doubt, as in the earlier history of this island, there were not only heads of leagues, and their tributary monarchs, but under kings also, who were actually subject to the reigning monarchs, and involved in their fall. Compare the other cities mentioned in connection with Gibeon, Joshua 9:17. Baal-Gad, in the valley of Lebanon. See for this whole passage note on Joshua 11:16, 17. Joshua 12:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

List of the thirty-one kings of Canaan whom Joshua smote on the western side of the Jordan, "from Baal-gad, in the valley of Lebanon, to the bald mountain that goeth up towards Seir" (see Joshua 11:17). This land Joshua gave to the other tribes of Israel. (On the different parts of the land, see at Joshua 9:1; Joshua 10:40, and Joshua 11:2.)