JOSHUA 11 – DOES GOD PREFER WAR? · Sukkat Shalom B'nei Noach

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Can Mercy Become Cruelty? Lessons from Joshua 11

This post is a summary of a Torah class on Joshua chapter 11. It is only a short version of the lesson. I recommend watching the whole class, because it has much more detail, maps, and commentary than I can include here.

The big question

Can an act of compassion become an act of cruelty?

Imagine a man who has attacked other people again and again. Now someone is finally able to stop him, and he asks for mercy. He talks about peace and about the suffering that more fighting would bring. We feel the pull of this, because we are human and we do not want more death.

But what if he does not want real peace? What if he only wants time to get strong again and attack again? Then who pays for our mercy? The people who are attacked afterwards.

The Midrash puts it in one sentence: whoever is merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful.¹ The example is King Saul. He spared Agag, the king of Amalek, and later the priests of the city of Nov were killed.² Feeling compassionate does not prove that a decision is compassionate. We must ask whom it protects, whom it makes stronger, and who is put in danger.

The story of Joshua 11

In Joshua 11, Yavin, king of Hatzor, gathers a huge coalition of Canaanite armies in the north. They have many horses and chariots, and the soldiers are “like the sand of the sea.”³ God tells Joshua not to be afraid. Joshua attacks suddenly, wins, and then does something strange. He cuts the legs of the enemy horses and burns the chariots.⁴

Why would he destroy such valuable equipment? The commentators explain that Israel must not trust in military power alone.⁵ First there is a danger of fear before the battle, and then a danger of pride after the victory. Both come from giving weapons too much importance. The Torah also warns a king not to collect too many horses.⁶ Later, in the time of Devorah and Barak, the enemy general Sisera had 900 iron chariots. They looked impossible to beat, but the Kishon river swept them away.⁷ Still, Joshua is not passive. His faith leads to action, but it does not replace action.

The chapter also says that Hatzor was burned because it was the head of all these kingdoms.⁸ An army is more than the soldiers you see in one battle. There is also leadership, support, and politics behind it.

The hard verse

The most difficult verse says that God hardened the hearts of the Canaanites so that they would fight Israel and receive no mercy.⁹ Why would God block a request for peace?

Here are the main ideas from the commentators:

The Abarbanel says that if the Canaanites had truly asked for peace, Israel would have accepted it. The Torah says to offer peace before a war.¹⁰ The Rambam also teaches that the seven Canaanite nations must be offered peace first.¹¹ But real peace means a real change: submission, leaving idol worship, and keeping the basic moral laws. The word “peace” alone is not enough.
The Radak says the hardening was a punishment for their long history of wrongdoing, like with Pharaoh. He also says it fits the command that these nations could not stay in the land.¹² The Torah already hints at this when it says that “the sin of the Amorites” was not yet complete.¹³
The Rambam teaches that very serious wrongdoing can lead to losing the chance to repent.¹⁴
The Alshich says that if they had come in submission, Israel might have shown them mercy, to their own detriment. He suggests the hardening stopped an appeal like the one the Gibeonites made.¹⁵ The Abarbanel and the Alshich disagree, and the lesson leaves that disagreement open.

The teacher also adds a warning: we are not prophets, so we cannot say that a modern enemy has lost the chance to repent. This verse is about God’s judgment of the Canaanites at that time.

The Gibeonites

Only one city made peace: Givon.¹⁶ The lesson is careful here. The Gibeonites used deception, and the Torah says so.¹⁷ Their plan worked, but that does not make the deception righteous. Their goal was survival, though, and the text does not say they planned to attack later.

Many years later, the Gibeonites demanded that seven of Saul’s descendants be put to death.¹⁸ That shows a lack of compassion. The Talmud says that Israel is known for being compassionate, modest, and kind, and it brings this up when it discusses the Gibeonites.¹⁹ This is also hard to understand, because the Torah says that a person is not put to death for another person’s sin.²⁰ The Talmud explains it as a very special case, to stop a public disgrace of God’s name.¹⁹ Israel had made an oath to protect the Gibeonites, and that oath could not be ignored. So their bad behavior did not cancel the promise. This is the discipline that moral judgment needs: we must see manipulation, but we must not use it as an excuse to do wrong ourselves.

The lesson for today

The teacher gives this principle: judge a request for peace by its real results, not only by the feeling it creates in us. A person can be truly afraid and still be dangerous. A pause in the fighting may bring good things, but it does not mean the threat is gone. At the same time, we must not become so afraid of being tricked that we lose all compassion. The teacher applies this to the current situation in Israel, and he stresses that Joshua’s special command is not a model for modern wars.

The chapter also ends with the Anakim, the “giants” who frightened the spies forty years earlier.²¹ Joshua defeats them.²² Israel should not feel helpless before a strong enemy, and it should not feel self-sufficient after winning. We always depend on God. The last words of the chapter are “the land rested from war.”²³ Rest and peace are the goal.

Final thought

Before we call a decision compassionate, we should ask: compassionate toward whom, and at whose expense? Sometimes mercy needs concessions. Sometimes responsibility means refusing them. The test is whether a decision protects life and serves justice, or whether it only takes away our discomfort.

Again, this is only a summary. The full class has much more depth, so I recommend watching it.

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S출처

Kohelet Rabbah 7:16; also Midrash Tanchuma, Metzora 1.
1 Samuel 15 (Saul and Agag); 1 Samuel 22:18–19 (the killing of Nov).
Joshua 11:1–5.
Joshua 11:6–9.
Radak, Ralbag, and Malbim on Joshua 11:6.
Deuteronomy 17:16.
Judges 4:3 and Judges 5:21.
Joshua 11:10–13.
Joshua 11:19–20.
Deuteronomy 20:10; Abarbanel on Joshua 9 and 11.
Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 6:1–4.
Radak on Joshua 11:20.
Genesis 15:16.
Rambam, Hilchot Teshuvah 6:3.
Alshich on Joshua 11:19–20.
Joshua 11:19.
Joshua 9:3–15.
2 Samuel 21:1–9.
Talmud Bavli, Yevamot 78b–79a.
Deuteronomy 24:16.
Numbers 13:28–33.
Joshua 11:21–22.
Joshua 11:23.

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