And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:
Joshua went up from Eglon to Hebron with all Israel and fought against it as part of his thorough conquest of the land. He did not count the battle finished while any enemy remained, pressing on with all Israel until the petty kingdoms in his path were overcome. The souls smitten at Hebron and throughout Joshua 10 were whole persons, the people living in the cities, so that to destroy their souls was to slay all the people. Those souls were mortal and could be killed with the sword, showing that the soul is the whole living being and not an undying or immortal part of man that lives on apart from the body.
Campaign Against Hebron
And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron, and they fought against it. Joshua, whose name means saviour, was one of the two of his generation who wholly followed the Lord during the forty years of temptation and the wilderness, and he entered his greatest work at about eighty years old. The attack on Hebron was part of leading Israel through the Jordan, dividing the land for them, and setting them in a fair way to conquer all their foes and find the promised rest, with the Captain of Jehovah's hosts with him in all his work of victory.
Victory came by the invisible army of God when Israel trusted, as when Jericho the first-fruit of that evil land fell, and defeat came when Israel failed to trust, as at Ai. Faithfulness would soon have given possession of the land, while backsliding brought repeated captivity and years lived in adversity instead of prosperity.
The king mentioned in the account of Hebron's capture was a ruler left to govern the city while its king, Hoham, joined the other kings in battle, and after Hoham was killed that local ruler would naturally be called king. The battle formed part of the campaign in which Israel conquered several petty kingdoms, and sparing their people would have been a perversion of mercy because they would continue to propagate a like seed. The verse belongs to the account of Joshua's victories and illustrates his thoroughness in that he did not regard the battle as finished while any enemy remained.
Soul Means Mortal Person
In Joshua 10:28-39 Israel slew many souls with the sword, showing that soul can refer to mortal human beings who can be killed. The conquest from Eglon to Hebron where Joshua and all Israel fought against it belongs to that same account in which the people in the captured cities were destroyed, and souls there refers to the people themselves who could be killed. In Joshua 10, including the campaign against Hebron, souls means whole persons, the people who lived in the cities Joshua conquered. To destroy the souls of certain cities meant the whole people were destroyed and all the persons were slain.
The chapter uses the word soul over and over to mean persons, and the soul is the whole being, the whole creature, the whole man, the entire man, a living person. The souls there were the people in those cities and they were utterly destroyed that day, meaning they were killed. This shows the soul is living and can die, and is never deathless, undying, or immortal. Soul means a person, not an inner man breathed into man.
The souls smitten at Hebron and throughout the chapter are dead souls in the original, proving a soul is the being himself who is living when breath is in him and lifeless and slain when it is taken away. The Hebrew nephesh translated soul means person, the whole man, and the souls slain in Joshua 10:28-40 are persons killed in battle, not an inner living thing within man and not something saved from annihilation apart from the body. The word there carries the same person meaning as man becoming a living soul, and it never means an immortal part of man capable of conscious existence apart from man. The term living soul in this person sense applies even to the very lowest kinds of creatures possessing animal life.
Joshua went up from Eglon to Hebron with all Israel and fought against it as part of his thorough conquest of the land. He did not count the battle finished while any enemy remained, pressing on with all Israel until the petty kingdoms in his path were overcome. The souls smitten at Hebron and throughout Joshua 10 were whole persons, the people living in the cities, so that to destroy their souls was to slay all the people. Those souls were mortal and could be killed with the sword, showing that the soul is the whole living being and not an undying or immortal part of man that lives on apart from the body.
Campaign Against Hebron
And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron, and they fought against it.
Joshua, whose name means saviour, was one of the two of his generation who wholly followed the Lord during the forty years of temptation and the wilderness, and he entered his greatest work at about eighty years old.
The attack on Hebron was part of leading Israel through the Jordan, dividing the land for them, and setting them in a fair way to conquer all their foes and find the promised rest, with the Captain of Jehovah's hosts with him in all his work of victory.
Victory came by the invisible army of God when Israel trusted, as when Jericho the first-fruit of that evil land fell, and defeat came when Israel failed to trust, as at Ai.
Faithfulness would soon have given possession of the land, while backsliding brought repeated captivity and years lived in adversity instead of prosperity.
The king mentioned in the account of Hebron's capture was a ruler left to govern the city while its king, Hoham, joined the other kings in battle, and after Hoham was killed that local ruler would naturally be called king.
The battle formed part of the campaign in which Israel conquered several petty kingdoms, and sparing their people would have been a perversion of mercy because they would continue to propagate a like seed.
The verse belongs to the account of Joshua's victories and illustrates his thoroughness in that he did not regard the battle as finished while any enemy remained.
Soul Means Mortal Person
In Joshua 10:28-39 Israel slew many souls with the sword, showing that soul can refer to mortal human beings who can be killed. The conquest from Eglon to Hebron where Joshua and all Israel fought against it belongs to that same account in which the people in the captured cities were destroyed, and souls there refers to the people themselves who could be killed. In Joshua 10, including the campaign against Hebron, souls means whole persons, the people who lived in the cities Joshua conquered. To destroy the souls of certain cities meant the whole people were destroyed and all the persons were slain.
The chapter uses the word soul over and over to mean persons, and the soul is the whole being, the whole creature, the whole man, the entire man, a living person. The souls there were the people in those cities and they were utterly destroyed that day, meaning they were killed. This shows the soul is living and can die, and is never deathless, undying, or immortal. Soul means a person, not an inner man breathed into man.
The souls smitten at Hebron and throughout the chapter are dead souls in the original, proving a soul is the being himself who is living when breath is in him and lifeless and slain when it is taken away. The Hebrew nephesh translated soul means person, the whole man, and the souls slain in Joshua 10:28-40 are persons killed in battle, not an inner living thing within man and not something saved from annihilation apart from the body. The word there carries the same person meaning as man becoming a living soul, and it never means an immortal part of man capable of conscious existence apart from man. The term living soul in this person sense applies even to the very lowest kinds of creatures possessing animal life.