Joshua—Warrior of God

Title Options:Joshua leads Israel’s army.Joshua defeats [enemy] kings.

The Lord gave to Joshua and to the Israelites victory over the towns called Jericho and Aï.

All the other towns in Canaan Land soon heard [news] about Jericho and Aï.

The people from a town called Gibeon lied to the Israelites, to make them make peace with them. [Because the Israelites did that without asking the Lord, they foolishly promised to protect the inhabitants of Gibeon.]

Adoni-Zedek was king in a big Canaanite town. When Adoni-Zedek heard that the people of Gibeon had made peace with the Israelites, he became afraid.

Adoni-Zedek feared that Gibeon’s soldiers would join with the Israelites and make war against other Canaanite towns.

So Adoni-Zedek sent messengers to four other kings, saying, “Come join with me, and make war against Gibeon!”

The kings in those other four towns agreed with Adoni-Zedek, so they came with their armies and attacked Gibeon.

Then the men in Gibeon sent messengers to Joshua at the Israelite camp. The messengers said, “Five kings are attacking us! Lead your army to come help us!”

Because the Israelites has promised to be at peace with the Gibeonites, Joshua and the Israelite army marched [walked] through the night to Gibeon.

The Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, “Do not be afraid of those enemy kings, for [because] I will give you victory over them!”

When the Israelites came to Gibeon, they attacked the enemy armies without warning them.

The Lord frightened the enemy soldiers, and the Israelite army killed many of their soldiers.

Some of the enemy soldiers fled [ran away], but the Israelite soldiers chased [pursued] after them.

As the enemy soldiers were fleeing, the Lord sent [made] a big hail storm. The hail [chunks of ice] fell from the sky [like hard rain] and killed more enemy soldiers than those whom the Israelites killed with their swords.

That day, because Joshua and his army were running out of daylight to completely defeat their enemies, Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun [and moon] stand still [stop going down].

So the Lord made the sun to stay [stop / shine brightly] in the sky [longer than normal] until Israel had defeated their enemies. The Lord did as Joshua had asked him. (This has never happened any other time!) Certainly the Lord helped [fought for] Israel that day!

An Israelite soldier came and said to Joshua, “The five enemy kings are hiding in a cave!”

So Joshua ordered some soldiers, “Go to that cave and pile big stones in front of it, so that the enemy kings cannot escape. Then leave a few men to guard the cave!”

[Meanwhile,] the Israelite army pursued the enemy soldiers and killed most of them.

Only a few enemy soldiers were able to run to [nearby] towns that had high walls [that were very secure].

So all of the Israelite soldiers came back safe to their camp [tents]. Joshua was there, waiting for them.

Then Joshua said to some soldiers, “Go remove the rocks that are in front of that cave, and bring to me those five enemy kings!”

Joshua made the five kings to lie down on the ground [floor]. He then told Israelite army officers to put their foot on the kings’ neck. He said, “Be strong and courageous, because the Lord will do this to all your enemies.”

Joshua then killed the five kings, and hanged their bodies from trees, until sundown.

At sundown, Joshua ordered, “Throw the dead kings’ bodies into the cave, and pile big stones to block [cover] its entrance!”

In the following days, Joshua and the Israelite army attacked six other cities. They defeated their kings and seized their land, because the Lord was fighting for the Israelites.

The Lord commanded Joshua, “You must completely destroy everyone living [residing] in these cities [because they have refused to worship only me. If you leave them alive, they will cause you all also to abandon Me and to worship false gods!]” Afterwards, the Israelite army returned to its camp.