Joshua 10:23, commentary and pictures

Joshua 10:23 belongs to the conquest in Joshua 1-22 led by Joshua, whose name means saviour, one of the two who wholly followed the Lord through the forty years of wilderness temptation. He began his greatest work at about eighty years of age, leading Israel through the Jordan, dividing the land, and setting them to conquer foes and find promised rest with the Captain of Jehovah's hosts with him. It belongs to the battles and campaign in which Israel conquered several small Canaanite kingdoms and towns.

The verse records that the five kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon were brought out of the cave where they had hidden to Joshua. The kings had left their cities to join forces in battle, and rulers left behind in those cities could afterward be called kings. This explains why a king of Hebron is mentioned again after Hoham was killed. Sparing the people would have been a perversion of mercy because they would have continued to produce a like seed.

The verse shows victory given by God's invisible army when Israel trusted, in contrast to defeat at Ai when trust failed. It shows how soon the land could have been possessed by faithfulness before backsliding brought adversity instead of prosperity. The souls said to be slain in the chapter mean whole mortal persons who could be killed, not a separate inner man breathed into the body or a separate immortal entity. In the original language they are called dead souls, showing that a soul can be lifeless as well as living.