Joshua 12

Conquests east of the Jordan River (vs. 1-6)--The writer now draws the boundaries of the land that the Israelites conquered, or were to conquer. They had already obtained all the land they were going to have east of the Jordon by their defeat of the Amorties and Bashanites (the story is related in Numbers 21). The exact extent of that land is related in these verses. The reader is encouraged to check a Bible map to see exactly where the boundaries were. This territory was given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh (v. 6).

The kings conquered west of the Jordan (vs. 1-24)--The rest of the chapter largely consists of a listing of the names of the kings, and their cities, that Joshua conquered. These were all west of the Jordan River. Remember that the city-state was the primary form of government in ancient times, thus all of these cities had their own king. There were 31 of these monarchs conquered (v. 24). Interestingly, verse 10 mentions that "the king of Jerusalem" was defeated, but this was a Jebusite city that the children of Israel were unable to take until the time of David (II Sam. 5). He will make it the seat of his government, moving from Hebron. The name of their king was Adonizedek (Joshua 10:1). The Jebusites were descendants of Noah's son Ham, through Ham's son Canaan. These people appear only once more in the person of "Araunah the Jebusite" (II Sam. 24:18), who sold his threshing floor to David on Mount Moriah as a site for an altar to Jehovah.