Joshua 10:36

And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:28-43 Joshua made speed in taking these cities. See what a great deal of work may be done in a little time, if we will be diligent, and improve our opportunities. God here showed his hatred of the idolatries and other abominations of which the Canaanites had been guilty, and shows us how great the provocation was, by the greatness of the destruction brought upon them. Here also was typified the destruction of all the enemies of the Lord Jesus, who, having slighted the riches of his grace, must for ever feel the weight of his wrath. The Lord fought for Israel. They could not have gotten the victory, if God had not undertaken the battle. We conquer when God fights for us; if he be for us, who can be against us?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Gezer lies on the southern border of the tribe of Ephraim Joshua 16:3. It was considerably to the northward of Joshua's present line of operations, and does not appear to have been captured at this time. He contented himself for the present with repulsing the attack made upon him, killed Horam (compare Joshua 12:12), inflicting a severe defeat upon his people, and then continued to pursue his conquests over the confederated kings and their allies in south Canaan.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Jos 10:28-42. Seven More Kings Conquered.

28-42. that day Joshua took Makkedah—In this and the following verses is described the rapid succession of victory and extermination which swept the whole of southern Palestine into the hands of Israel. "All these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Which though they took and killed all its inhabitants, yet they did not keep it; and therefore when Joshua and his army had forsaken it, and were returned to Gilgal, it seems the giants and other Canaanites being burnt out, or driven away from their former seats, planted and fortified themselves there; which made it necessary for Caleb to take it a second time, as is recorded Joshua 15:14 Judges 1:10. Or this is the same story, and the same conquest of Hebron, which is here generally related, and afterwards repeated, and more particularly described, Joshua 15:13,14.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron,.... Which lay in the hill country, and therefore they are said to go up to it from Eglon, which lay lower; and, according to Bunting (g), it was sixteen miles from it:

and they fought against it; it making some resistance at first, and did not surrender at once, as demanded.

(g) Ibid. (Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 96.)

Geneva Study Bible

And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

36. unto Hebron] which lay next in a tolerably direct line. He is said to have “gone up” to it, for, in order to invest it, he had to march from the plain to the hill country.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 36. - Went up. The accuracy of the geographical details must here be noticed. Joshua "passes" from one city to another in the plain. He "goes up" to Hebron, which is situated among the hills. See note on ver. 3; cf. also Joshua 11:21; Joshua 14:12. Hebron. Commentators of the school of Maurer and De Wette regard the taking of Hebron and Debir as irreconcilable with Joshua 11:21; Joshua 14:12; Joshua 15:13-17. But this is by no means certain. The operations of Joshua were sudden, and, so far as they went, decisive, But it is never pretended that his conquest of southern Palestine was complete. It is impossible to assert this in the face of such passages as Joshua 16:10, 17:12, 13, and especially in the face of such a fact as the continued existence of the Philistine power. Joshua extirpated the inhabitants of the cities he took, but there were many others - some of at least equal importance - which he did not take. We may instance Gaza, Garb, and Ashdod. See Joshua 11:22. Their inhabitants came and occupied again the cities which Joshua had destroyed, first when he was engaged in operations in the north and west, and again when the Israelites had begun to repose upon their laurels, and to neglect the task God had set them, namely, the complete extermination of the Canaanite race from Palestine. Thus Joshua returned from the north and found a large part of the country he had subdued reoccupied by the giant tribes of the south. He "cut them off from Hebron and Debir," i.e., he compelled them to evacuate those cities, but there was no necessity for a second of either. Yet at a later period they still lurked in the neighborhood (Joshua 14:12), perhaps in the mountain fastnessess (a very common thing in the history of nations, as the history of our own country, of the Basques in the Pyrenees, and of Swiss freedom shows), and were strong enough to regain Debir (Joshua 15:17). Jerusalem itself (see note on ver. 1) had a similar fate. After the capture of Jerusalem the Israelites were unable to hold it permanently (Joshua 15:63; cf. Judges 1:8, 21). And such expressions as "all the cities thereof" show that the south of Palestine was thickly populated. Each city was, like Gibeon, the head of a small confederacy. And as the chief cities smitten by Joshua would have been but a tithe of the confederations existing in the south, the task of reoccupying must have been an easy one. It seems to be implied in Judges 1. that Caleb took Hebron and Debir after Joshua's death. Joshua 10:36

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From Eglon he went up from the lowland to the mountains, attacked Hebron and took it, and did to this town and its king, and the towns belonging to it, as he had already done to the others. The king of Hebron cannot of course be the one who was taken in the cave of Makkedah and put to death there, but his successor, who had entered upon the government while Joshua was occupied with the conquest of the towns mentioned in Joshua 10:28-35, which may possibly have taken more than a year. "All the cities thereof" are the towns dependent upon Hebron as the capital of the kingdom.