Joshua did to them as Yahweh told him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
Parallel Translations
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Joshua did to them as Yahweh told him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
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And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.
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And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him; he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Joshua 11:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joshua 11:6 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid because of them; for tomorrow at this time, I will deliver them up all slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.”
- Ezekiel 39:9-10 “ ‘ “Those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out, and will make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs and the spears, and they will make fires with them for seven years; so that they will take no wood out of the field, and not cut down any out of the forests; for they will make fires with the weapons. They will plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jos 11:9 And Joshua did unto them as the…
Jos 11:9 And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.
Ver. 9. See Jos 11:6.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade…
And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him,.... Namely, in the following instances:
he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire; not consulting his own worldly interest or that of the people of Israel, but the command of God, which he carefully obeyed, and reserved none for himself or them, as David in another case afterwards did; see Sa2 8:4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. He houghed their horses] The Hebrew word…
Verse 9. He houghed their horses] The Hebrew word עקר akar, which we render to hough or hamstring, signifies to wound, cut, or lop off. It is very likely that it means here, not only an act by which they were rendered useless, but by which they were destroyed; as God had purposed that his people should not possess any cattle of this kind, that a warlike and enterprising spirit might not be cultivated among them; and that, when obliged to defend themselves and their country, they might be led to depend upon God for protection and victory. On the same ground, God had forbidden the kings of Israel to multiply horses, De 17:16. See the note there containing the reasons on which this prohibition was founded.
Burnt their chariots] As these could have been of no use without the horses.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him--(See…
Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him--(See Jos 11:6). Houghing the horses is done by cutting the sinews and arteries of their hinder legs, so that they not only become hopelessly lame, but bleed to death. The reasons for this special command were that the Lord designed to lead the Israelites to trust in Him, not in military resources (Psa 20:7); to show that in the land of promise there was no use of horses; and, finally, to discourage their travelling as they were to be an agricultural, not a trading, people.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. he houghed their horses] “he kuttide the sinewis…
9. he houghed their horses] “he kuttide the sinewis at the knee,” Wyclif. The command, to render the horses useless, was intended to lead Israel not to place its confidence in horses and chariots (Psa_20:7; Psa_147:10), and wisely incapacitated them from extending their conquests beyond the borders of Canaan. See Deu_17:16.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) He houghed their horses.—In what particular way this…
(9) He houghed their horses.—In what particular way this was done we are not informed; we cannot, therefore, be certain whether it was done so as to destroy the lives of the horses, or merely to make them useless for purposes of warfare.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.