Joshua 10:32
And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah. And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.
The verse records the capture of Lachish on the second day of siege, when Israel struck down every person inside with the sword and left none alive, just as had been done to Libnah. The souls named are the people or persons who were in the city, whose lives were taken when it was destroyed. Soul here means the whole person, the entire living man and living creature, which is its primary meaning in Scripture. A soul is therefore mortal and can be killed, slain, destroyed, and left lifeless, and does not mean an inherently immortal being or conscious part surviving apart from the body. The Hebrew word is nephesh, the same word used for soul everywhere in the Old Testament, which is liable to death and destruction, so its mere use determines nothing about immortality.
Conquest History and Lesson
Joshua was about eighty years old when he led the conquest to which the taking of Lachish belongs, having been one of the two men of his generation who wholly followed the Lord through the forty years of temptation in the wilderness. Under him Israel passed through the Jordan, received the divided land, and was set in a fair way to conquer every foe and find the promised rest, with the Captain of Jehovah's hosts present in all the work of victory. Jericho as first-fruit fell by the invisible army of God, while failure to trust brought defeat as at Ai. The land could have been possessed quickly had Israel been faithful, but backsliding after Jericho brought repeated captivity, so Israel lived in adversity the years she might have lived in prosperity.
Lachish was taken on the second day and every soul in it was smitten with the sword with none left remaining. This showed a thoroughness that never counted the day won while a single foeman breathed and refused to quit until the work was fully done. The same thoroughness requires fighting for the freedom of schools until of all the debts there are left none remaining.
Meaning of Soul
In Lachish the souls were the people or persons who were in the city, slain and destroyed with the edge of the sword when Israel took it, according to all that had been done to Libnah. The same expression is used repeatedly for the other cities destroyed in Joshua 10, where the inhabitants of the captured towns were likewise killed. Souls there means persons rather than a disembodied entity, the people themselves destroyed in the conquest.
Soul here means the whole person, the entire man and whole being, the whole living person and living creature. This is the primary meaning of soul in Scripture, the whole being rather than a separate inner man breathed into the body. Here all the souls therein means all the persons therein, the people or lives whose lives were taken when the people in Lachish were described as souls destroyed by the sword.
A soul is therefore mortal and can die, be killed, slain, and destroyed, and can be lifeless. The souls smitten with the sword were mortal persons who were slain, living persons who can die rather than inherently immortal beings. The term does not mean an immortal part surviving death, living separately from the body, or a separable, disembodied, conscious entity capable of sentient existence apart from man. It uses soul for a living person, not for an immortal part that survives death nor for an immortal, conscious entity separate from the body.
The Hebrew word is nephesh, the same word used for soul everywhere in the Old Testament. In the original language the souls smitten with the sword are called dead souls, people who were killed and a soul that can be lifeless and be slain. Nephesh, the soul, is liable to be killed and destroyed, as when all the souls in Lachish were smitten with the edge of the sword. The mere use of the word soul therefore determines nothing about immortality, and it never signifies an immortal part nor a soul immortal or capable of sentient existence apart from man.