Bibliorum

 

Joshua 11

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1 Kun Jaabin, Haasorin kuningas, sen kuuli, lähetti hän sanan Joobabille, Maadonin kuninkaalle, ja Simronin kuninkaalle ja Aksafin kuninkaalle

2 ja niille kuninkaille, jotka asuivat pohjoisessa, Vuoristossa, Aromaassa Kinarotista etelään päin, Alankomaassa ja Doorin kukkuloilla lännessä,

3 kanaanilaisille itään ja länteen, amorilaisille, heettiläisille, perissiläisille ja jebusilaisille vuoristoon ja hivviläisille Hermonin juurelle Mispan maahan.

4 Nämä lähtivät liikkeelle kaikkine joukkoineen; väkeä oli niin paljon kuin hiekkaa meren rannalla ja hevosia ja sotavaunuja ylen paljon.

5 Ja kaikki nämä kuninkaat liittyivät yhteen, tulivat ja leiriytyivät yhdessä Meeromin veden rannalle sotiaksensa Israelia vastaan.

6 Silloin Herra sanoi Joosualle: "Älä pelkää heitä, sillä huomenna tähän aikaan minä annan heidät kaikki voitettuina Israelin valtaan; heidän ratsujensa vuohisjänteet sinä katkot, ja heidän vaununsa sinä poltat tulessa".

7 Niin Joosua ja kaikki sotaväki hänen kanssaan yllätti heidät Meeromin veden rannalla ja hyökkäsi heidän kimppuunsa.

8 Ja Herra antoi heidät Israelin käsiin, niin että he voittivat heidät ja ajoivat heitä takaa aina suureen Siidoniin, Misrefot-Majimiin ja itään päin Mispan laaksoon asti; ja he voittivat heidät, päästämättä pakoon ainoatakaan heistä.

9 Ja Joosua teki heille, niinkuin Herra oli hänelle sanonut: heidän ratsujensa vuohisjänteet hän katkoi, ja heidän vaununsa hän poltti tulessa.

10 Sitten Joosua kääntyi takaisin ja valloitti Haasorin ja surmasi miekalla sen kuninkaan; Haasor oli näet muinoin kaikkien näiden kuningaskuntien pääkaupunki.

11 Ja he surmasivat miekan terällä ja vihkivät tuhon omaksi jokaisen, joka siellä oli, niin ettei jäänyt jäljelle ainoatakaan henkeä; ja Haasorin hän poltti tulella.

12 Kaikki nämä kuninkaankaupungit ja niiden kuninkaat Joosua sai valtaansa, ja hän surmasi miekan terällä niiden asukkaat, vihkien heidät tuhon omiksi, niinkuin Herran palvelija Mooses oli käskenyt.

13 Mutta kukkuloilla olevista kaupungeista Israel ei polttanut ainoatakaan, paitsi Haasorin, jonka Joosua poltti.

14 Ja kaiken, mitä näistä kaupungeista oli saatavana saalista, ynnä karjan israelilaiset ryöstivät itselleen; mutta kaikki ihmiset he surmasivat miekan terällä ja tuhosivat heidät, jättämättä eloon ainoatakaan henkeä.

15 Niinkuin Herra oli käskenyt palvelijaansa Moosesta, niin oli Mooses käskenyt Joosuaa, ja niin Joosua teki; eikä hän jättänyt tekemättä mitään kaikesta siitä, mistä Herra oli Moosekselle käskyn antanut.

16 Niin Joosua valloitti koko tämän maan, Vuoriston, koko Etelämaan ja koko Goosenin maakunnan, Alankomaan ja Aromaan, niin myös Israelin vuoriston ja sen alankomaan-

17 maan Seiriin päin kohoavasta Sileästä vuoresta aina Baal-Gaadiin saakka, Libanonin laaksoon, Hermonin vuoren juurelle; kaikki heidän kuninkaansa hän sai valtaansa ja löi heidät kuoliaaksi.

18 Kauan aikaa Joosua kävi sotaa kaikkia näitä kuninkaita vastaan.

19 Eikä ollut ainoatakaan kaupunkia, joka olisi tehnyt rauhan Israelin kanssa, paitsi ne hivviläiset, jotka asuivat Gibeonissa; vaan kaikki valloitettiin asevoimalla.

20 Sillä Herralta tämä tuli; hän paadutti heidän sydämensä, niin että he kävivät taisteluun Israelia vastaan, jotta heidät armotta vihittäisiin tuhon omiksi ja hävitettäisiin, niinkuin Herra oli Moosekselle käskyn antanut.

21 Siihen aikaan Joosua tuli ja hävitti anakilaiset vuoristosta, Hebronista, Debiristä ja Anabista, koko Juudan vuoristosta ja koko Israelin vuoristosta; Joosua vihki heidät kaupunkeineen tuhon omiksi.

22 Israelilaisten maahan ei jäänyt anakilaisia; ainoastaan Gassaan, Gatiin ja Asdodiin niitä jäi.

23 Näin Joosua valloitti koko maan, aivan niinkuin Herra oli Moosekselle puhunut; ja Joosua antoi sen perintöosaksi Israelille, heidän sukukunnilleen heidän osastojensa mukaan. Ja maa pääsi rauhaan sodasta.

   

Commentarius

 

Exploring the Meaning of Joshua 11

By New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

Joshua 11: Joshua conquers the entire land.

In this chapter, the Canaanite kings of the north, east and west heard that Israel had conquered all of the southern Canaanite territories. Jabin, king of Hazor, called upon the other Canaanite kingdoms to join forces and attack Israel with a great army.

The Lord reassured Joshua, “Be not afraid because of them: for tomorrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel” (verse 6). So Joshua counterattacked, and Israel defeated the Canaanites just as the Lord had said.

The rest of the chapter is an account of Joshua’s victories, now here, now there. Israel destroyed each of the Canaanite cities and territories and not one of them was left undefeated (See Swedenborg’s work, The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 161-164). In all of Canaan, only the Gibeonites were spared because they had made a peace treaty with Israel. The chapter closes with these words: “So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses, and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land had rest from war” (verse 23).

Now we turn to the spiritual meaning of all this, and its meaning for us. Because of our inherited, human nature, each of us has internal things we have to contend with in our natural life. These Canaanites - the faults we must overcome - are described by the compass points: north, south, east and west. Here are the spiritual meanings of the four cardinal directions (see Swedenborg’s work, Heaven and Hell 141-153):

West = less love

East = greater love

North = less light and wisdom

South = greater light and wisdom

Swedenborg tells us that heaven is organized by this principle. Angels with the clearest perception of love live in the eastern region of heaven, while those with a more hazy understanding live in the west. The same thing applies to the north/south axis; those in a “clear light of wisdom” live in the south, and those in a “dim light of wisdom” live in the north (Heaven and Hell 148). These poles represent angels’ states of love and wisdom, and their use. Just like people on earth, angels experience varying states of love and wisdom - sometimes more, sometimes less - but with angels this leads to them turning again to the Lord to acknowledge that he is their God.

The same pattern exists in hell, but instead of love and wisdom there is self-love (or even hatred) and false thinking from this distorted love. In hell, the degree of intensity in these states is between the rage to dominate and the exhaustion of failing.

In our life on earth, we experience states of both heaven and hell. As we are only partly regenerated, we rapidly switch between these states because of our emotions and the upheavals of life in this world. This chapter about the conflict between Israel and the Canaanites represents our own, personal decisions about what will be the ruling influence in our lives - heaven or hell (See Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 5982).

The end of this chapter offers two important statements describing the conflict between heaven and hell. The first one (in verse 20) says the Lord hardened the hearts of Israel’s enemies so that they came to attack, and consequently were destroyed. This tells us that we have to see our evils for what they are in order to turn away from them (See Swedenborg’s unpublished work, Charity 179-180).

The second statement (verses 21-22) says that Joshua completely destroyed the Anakim, except beyond the borders of the land. The Anakim were giants, and they stand for those enormous tensions and rages which evil spirits from hell bring us at times. This (reassuringly) helps us see that we are not like that ourselves, but we could be if we let those evil spirits make a home in our hearts and minds (Arcana Caelestia 2909[3]).

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #5335

Studere hoc loco

  
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5335. 'And Joseph was a son of thirty years' means a state when the quantity of remnants was complete. This is clear from the meaning of 'thirty' as a completed number of remnants, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'years' as states, dealt with in 482, 487, 488, 493, 893. In the Word the number thirty can mean some existence of conflict, or else it can mean a completed number of remnants. The reason why that number has this twofold meaning is that it is arrived at by multiplying five and six, or else by multiplying three and ten. When it is the product of five times six it means some existence of conflict, 2276, because 'five' means some, 649, 4638, 5291, and 'six' conflict, 720, 737, 900, 1709. But when thirty is the product of three times ten it means a completed number of remnants, because 'three' means that which is complete, 2788, 4495, and 'ten' means remnants, 576, 1906, 2284. A composite number implies much the same as the simple ones of which it is the product, 5291. Remnants are the truths joined to good which have been stored away by the Lord in a person's interior parts, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 660, 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135.

[2] A completed number of remnants is likewise meant by 'thirty' - as it is also by 'sixty', and by 'a hundred' too - in Mark,

The seed which fell into good ground yielded fruit growing up and increasing. One bore thirty-fold, and another sixty, and another a hundred. Mark 4:8, 10.

Each of these numbers, being a multiple of ten, means a completed number of remnants. Also, because no one can be regenerated - that is, permitted to enter into spiritual temptations, by means of which regeneration is effected - until he has received a completed number of remnants, it was therefore laid down that no Levite should carry out any work in the tent of meeting until he was fully thirty years old. Their work or function is also called 'military service', being referred to in Moses as follows,

Take a census of the sons of Kohath from the midst of the sons of Levi - from sons thirty years of age and over, up to sons fifty years of age, everyone coming to perform military service, to do the work in the tent of meeting. Numbers 4:2-3.

Much the same is said regarding the sons of Gershon, and much the same regarding the sons of Merari, in verses 22, 23, 29, 30, and then in verses 35, 39, 43. Of that same chapter in Moses. And something similar is implied where it says that David began to reign when he was a son thirty years of age, 2 Samuel 5:4.

[3] From all this one may now see why the Lord did not make Himself known until He was thirty years of age, Luke 3:23. At that age a completed number of remnants existed with Him, though these remnants which the Lord possessed were ones that He Himself had acquired for Himself. They were also Divine ones and the means by which He united His Human Essence to His Divine Essence and made that Human Essence Divine, 1906. In Him therefore lies the reason why 'thirty years' means a state when the quantity of remnants is complete and why the priests the Levites began to perform their specific functions when they were thirty years old. And because he was to represent the Lord's kingship, David did not begin to reign until he was that same age. For every representative is derived from the Lord, and therefore every representative has reference to Him.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.