Confident in God

Adoni-Zedek and his royal allies apparently have even less courage to stand against God’s attack than their soldiers. At some point during the battle at Gibeon, they flee together and enter a cave in the vicinity of Makkedah, southwest of the battlefield. They are attempting to hide from the pursuing Israelites, but they are found and their location is reported to Joshua. The Israelite leader, however, does not permit the discovery of the kings to distract Israel from the pursuit of its retreating enemies. He orders the mouth of the cave to be blocked with stones and guarded, but he sends the main body of Israelite soldiers to press on behind the fleeing Canaanites.

Israel’s pursuit is so effective that only a few of the Canaanites straggle into their walled cities in the south. Israel has won a smashing victory, so smashing that “no one moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.” In other words, “they were not threatened by any danger at all after their victory, no, not so much as the barking of a dog,” Matthew Henry says, quoting Exodus 11:7. But the crowning blow is still to come. As the Israelite armies reassemble at Makkedah, Joshua orders the five kings brought out of the cave and lain prone on the ground. Then, in the sight of all of Israel’s fighting men, he calls the captains to come forward and place their feet on the kings’ necks. This symbolic gesture is intended to drive home the significance of the triumph God has brought about—five kings lie defeated under the heels of desert nomads, the sons of slaves. “ ‘Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,’ ” Joshua says to them. “ ‘Be strong and of good courage, for thus the LORD will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.’ ” These words are quite similar to the words God spoke to encourage him (1:6, 9). Having seen God attack Israel’s foes and lengthen the day to seal Israel’s victory, Joshua is brimming with confidence and faith, and he strives to encourage his men to the same assurance.

Joshua is ruthless to God’s enemies; he executes the five kings and, as he did to the king of Ai, hangs their bodies on trees until evening to show their accursedness. But the corpses are taken down by sunset and, in an ironic twist, placed in the cave where they hid. Then yet another memorial stack of stones is raised at the cave’s entrance to preserve the memory of Israel’s great, God-given victory.