“Adonai handed them over to Israel — they attacked and chased them to Greater Tzidon, Misrefot-Mayim and eastward to the Mitzpeh Valley; they attacked them until none of them was left. Y’hoshua did to them what Adonai had ordered — he hamstrung their horses and burned up their chariots.”-Joshua 11:8-9
From verse 8, we’re told Israel kicked some serious butt.
I mean it was a complete and utter slaughterhouse.
Once each king saw saw his army being defeated by Joshua and his men, they threw in their towels and like scared rabbits raced back to the protection of their fortified towns and cities.
We’re told that Israel chased them all the way to Greater Tzidon, Misrefot-Mayim and eastward all the way to the Mitzpeh Valley.
At this time, Greater Tzidon was the Phoenician capital.
The word “Greater” being used for “Greater Tzidon” here just means it was the city where the king and his army were headquartered.
Now we have no idea where Mitzpeh (or Mitzpah) was located.
Why?
Because “Mitzpeh” was simply a common Hebrew word that meant “watchtower” and pretty much every town, city and village had watchtowers in order to keep a lookout for possible invasions.
Onward.
We’re told that Joshua was completely obedient to the Lord in terms of obeying the command to hamstring all the horses and burn down the chariots.
As I mentioned yesterday, this was done to take away the enemy’s main battlefield weapons so they would cease to be a threat.
It’s important to understand that horses and chariots were the key element in the northern alliance’s war strategy.
Minus these war tools in their arsenal, they were as helpless as a lion who had just had his jaw crushed by the stomp of a huge elephant.
After this battle, the northern coalition of kings would never be able to regroup and attack Israel again.
What’s interesting is that there’s another spiritual reason why God ordered Joshua to destroy the enemies’ horses and chariots that went beyond simple war strategy.
We’ll get into that the next time we meet.
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