Bible Question: That the Israelite's movement into Canaan was rapid and that their conquest of that land was quite thorough. |
Bible Answer: Hi Sarah, What you have to consider is the difficulty of conquering and then settling a country when the inhabitants are more familiar with the terrain than you are and there are many great forests to hide in, (Canaan was covered with forests), to say nothing of mountains in which to find shelter. Joshua undoubtedly swept victoriously through the land, aided by the fact that during his first movements the Philistines had not yet arrived from the Aegean. But what he did was capture cities and kill kings, persuading them to leave Israel alone, and then move on, and we should note that killing a king and defeating an army was not the same thing as capturing the city. Furthermore he did not have sufficient force to settle all the cities and hold them against the return of the inhabitants. That is why he had to capture some cities more than once. As soon as his forces moved on the inhabitants would creep back and resettle a city. Meanhwile what his conquests did was enable the Israelites to settle in various places and establish themselves in places where they would be left alone. Their opponents did not want to attract Joshua's attention. The cities in the plains of Esdraelon, Jezreel etc (e.g. Megiddo) were very powerful, and with their chariots were more difficult to deal with. And they were well populated. Thus their conquest was more gradual. Then the Philistines arrived and carved out lands for themselves along the Coastal Plain. Thus when Joshua died Israel were settled in conclaves throughout the land alongside Canaanites and as they grew stronger were able to weed out the Canaanites. But unfortunately for them instead of driving out the Canaanites they took advantage of them for forced labour. The arrival of the powerful Philistines in waves around 1200 BC caused a new problem to which Saul had no answer. It was left to David to subdue the Philistines. But that was roughly 200-400 years or so later (dating depends on a number of questions and is hotly disputed in this period). The actual period of the conquest would have been very complicated. It is one thing to defeat an army (of which many escape) it is quite another to make the country safe (especially when there is a tendency to be disobedient). Best wishes Jonp |