In prior readings, the king of Jerusalem had assembled four other kings with him against Jesus [Joshua] and against the sons of Israel.^[1] But now no longer does someone assemble four or five; on the contrary, see how great a multitude one person assembles. . . .

You see how many swarms of opposing powers and of malicious demons may be stirred up against Jesus [Joshua] and the Israelite army. Before the coming of our Lord and Savior, all those demons, undisturbed and secure, were occupying human spirits and ruled in their minds and bodies. But when grace appeared in the world, the mercy of God our Savior^[2] instructs us to live piously and purely in this world, separated from every contagion of sin, so that each soul may receive its liberty and the image of God^[3] in which it was created from the beginning. Because of this, fights and battles spring forth from their iniquitous old possessors. If the first ones are overthrown, far more rise up afterwards, and they unite into one and conspire in evil, always remote from the good. And if they are conquered for a second time, again a third time other more wicked powers will rise up. So perhaps the more the people of God are increased, and the more they thrive and are multiplied, there are that many more who conspire to assault. HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.1.^[4]

First of all, the one who is designated the author of this war, who collects the others and summons them to a conspiracy of wickedness, is named Jabin, who was king of Hazor. For he is the one who is said to have called the others together. But Jabin means thought or prudence. What, then, is this thought or prudence, if not that which the prophet Isaiah calls proud thought? For he says, And moreover, I shall strike out the proud thought of the prince of the Assyrians, who said, ‘I shall bring it to pass by my power, and, by the wisdom of my perception, I shall remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their power.’ ^[5]

Therefore, the one who is called proud thought in that place is this king of the Assyrians. But here, Jabin is thought or prudence. For it is written that in paradise the serpent was more prudent than all the beasts^[6] who were upon the earth. And even that steward of iniquity is said to have done prudently^[7] that which he did. This Jabin, then, is king of Hazor. But Hazor means court. Therefore, all the earth is the court of this king, the devil, who holds the supremacy of the whole earth as though of one court. But do you wish to verify that the court is itself the earth? In the Gospels it is written that the strong one sleeps unconcerned in his own court until a stronger one comes, who may both bind him and carry away what he possesses.^[8] The king of the court, therefore, is the prince of this world.^[9] HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 14.2.^[10]

For, at that time, every opposing power will be pulled down and the inmost part will be conquered when you see that those who are on the left are told, Go into the eternal fire that God has prepared for the devil and his angels.^[11] Then if, following Jesus the leader, we have conquered and have been able to take possession, even we shall occupy the kingdom that the Father has prepared for his saints and for these who have fulfilled his commandments and righteousness^[12] through our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to whom is the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen!^[13]

The horses and the chariots that are removed seem to hold the figure of those who, although placed in the heavens, fell away through wantonness and pride, either when they set themselves aflame to desire the daughters of humankind or when they followed him who said, I shall place my seat above the clouds and I shall be like the Most High.^[1] Perhaps it is for that reason that the prophet also says, False is the horse for salvation.^[2] And again, concerning those who trust in demons, he says, These call on chariots and those on horses, but we shall call upon the name of our God.^[3] Certainly Scripture would not apply chariots and horses to God, at least as far as invoking them. But, by all means, it shows that just as we ourselves call upon the true God, so the nations invoke chariots and horses, that is, demons, those whom the nations who waged war against Israel invoked. Moreover, Scripture also mentions the horses of the Egyptians, even those very ones ordered to be destroyed at that time.^[4] HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 15.3.^[5]

But now, if by chance anyone is stimulated and pricked by the words of God through what we say; if he who yesterday might have been carried into lust, flying headlong and impetuous as a horse, yet today, after hearing these things, repents and is converted; if this person even, according to the prophet, is subdued by the fear of God,^[6] bridles himself, withdraws from sin and henceforth loves the chaste and continent life, then indeed we shall seem to have hamstrung horses by drawing the sword of the word of God.^[7] For the precept of God is more fittingly accomplished by this than by someone who hamstrings equine animals captured from the spoils of enemies.

One should not at all think it a horrible cruelty that Joshua did not leave anyone alive in those cities that fell to him, for God himself had ordered this. However, whoever for this reason thinks that God himself must be cruel and does not wish to believe then that the true God was the author of the Old Testament judges as perversely about the works of God as he does about the sins of human beings. Such people do not know what each person ought to suffer. Consequently, they think it a great evil when that which is about to fall is thrown down and when mortals die.

The verse says, Just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, ordered him. Here, the word of the law itself is called Moses, the servant of the Lord, just as it says in the Gospel, They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.^[1] Therefore, the law commanded us to destroy all of sin’s kings, who incite us to sin. Jesus [Joshua] accomplished this, and he did not transgress anything from all that Moses established for him. Indeed, according to the first stage of explanation, we said that whatever the law of God—which here is called Moses—ordered, Jesus fulfills in us and is himself the one who destroys vices in us and overthrows the most vile kingdoms of sin. Nevertheless, it can also be said about our Lord and Savior himself, that everything Moses commanded in the law, Jesus accomplished, and he did not transgress anything, since the apostle indeed says, When the fullness of time had come, God sent his own Son, made from a woman, made under the law.^[2] If, therefore, he was made under the law, since he was under the law, everything that the law commanded, he fulfilled, so that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. He also says concerning himself, I came not to abolish but to fulfill the law.^[3]

It is asked how this can be true, since the Hebrews were not altogether able to capture all the cities of those seven nations either in the times after the judges or in the times of the kings. But one must understand it to mean that Joshua never approached any city with hostile intent that he did not capture. Or it may mean that no city remained uncaptured except for those which were in the regions mentioned above. For those regions were enumerated in which there were cities concerning which the conclusion was made: and he captured all of them in war.

For as long as the hostile powers that work sin in us do not come and incite us to sin or provoke us to fight, they cannot be killed or exterminated. For that reason, therefore, God is said in like manner to permit, even to excite, opposing powers to go out into battle against us so that we may seize the victory and they may pursue destruction.

It is said that their heart was strengthened through the Lord, that is, that their heart was hardened, just as in the case of Pharaoh. There can be no doubt that this is justly done by a divine and lofty judgment, when God abandons someone and the enemy takes possession of him; the same applies in this case as in Pharaoh’s. But here something else sets in motion, as it is said that their hearts were emboldened to arise against Israel in war and therefore the Israelites would not show any mercy to them. The Israelites may very well have showed them mercy, if the Canaanites had not gone to war, since God had ordered that none of the Canaanites were to be spared and yet the Israelites had spared the Gibeonites because they had represented themselves as having come from a far-off country and had made a treaty with them. But because the Israelites showed mercy to some, albeit against the command of God, it must be understood that it was said with this intention that the Canaanites waged war in such a manner so that the Israelites would not spare them, nor would the Canaanites be able to convince the Israelites to show mercy and neglect God’s command. I cannot believe that this could have happened in any other way, even though Joshua was their leader and diligently obeyed all of God’s commands. Nonetheless, not even Joshua would have annihilated them so quickly had they not gone against him in such a dastardly fashion. Thus it could have happened that Joshua, taking care to fulfill God’s commandments, would have defeated them in a rather minimal way and they would have remained until the time when the Israelites could spare them after Joshua’s death, when the Israelites did not do God’s commandments with such care. For even while he was still alive the Israelites spared some Canaanites, although they subjugated them to their authority; some Canaanites, in fact, they never could conquer. But these things were not done while he was their leader but when as an old man he had retired from warfare and merely divided up the territories for the Israelites. He divided it with the intention that the Israelites would take possession of those lands that were emptied of the enemy and capture the rest by fighting, although he himself would no longer wage war. And the fact that they were able to conquer some of the Canaanites in a rather minimal way was owing to divine providence, as is clear in certain places in the Scriptures.

It did not say that by war Jesus [Joshua] took some and did not take others but that he took all into his possession, that is, he captured and destroyed all. And, indeed, the Lord Jesus has purged every kind of sin and destroyed all. For we all were irrational, unbelieving, errant, serving various desires, acting in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another,^[1] and [we possessed] every type of sin that is found in persons before they believe. Therefore, it is well said that Jesus kills all who have gone to war. For Jesus—who is the Word and the wisdom of God—is greater than any kind of sin, no matter how terrible.^[2] For he overcomes and conquers all sins. Or do we not believe this, that every kind of sin is carried away when we come to the saving bath?^[3] For the apostle Paul also alludes to this, who, when he had enumerated the whole class of sins, adds something after them all and says, And indeed you were these; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.^[4] Therefore, in this way, Jesus [Joshua] is said to have seized all in battle and to have destroyed all. It happened that, through the work of the Lord, their heart predominated and they hastened into battle against Israel and were exterminated.