The First Conquest of Canaan

I’ve written a great deal about whether the Israelites actually committed genocide as they conquered Canaan, and the answer is almost certainly no.

I’ve also written about the gradual conquest of Canaan as narrated in the books of Judges – II Samuel, which culminated in David’s conquest of Jerusalem as opposed the lightening conquest of Joshua. This gradual account is probably closest to the actual truth, though there is little one can ascertain.

In this piece I would like to talk about the first story of conquest, which if anything is even gentler. In this account, Israel is not actually the aggressor. The conquest is actually somewhat accidental.

Surprisingly this story is hidden in plain sight in the biblical text if you just know how to look.

The author of this account was a Northern Israelite, and maybe that is why it is not affected as much by the zealotry apparent in the work of southern authors. The Northerners were a much bigger and more significant nation than those pesky Judeans in the south, and perhaps felt more secure in their identity.

It only takes fifteen or so verses to tell of the entire tale, but more than half the territory of the Northern Kingdom is conquered in those verses.

I speak of Numbers 21.

According to the account beginning, in Numbers 21:21, the Israelites just want to pass through the Amorite lands, but the Amorites respond with aggression, and the Israelites conquer Sihon the Amorite’s vast territories. The same thing happens in 21:33 when Og of the Bashan attacks. Moses defeats them too.

The only time Moses and the Israelites actually initiate an attack is when they conquer the Kingdom of Ya’azer, but one must note, that it talks only about capture, and not of killing.

In the book of I Samuel, a different northern author goes even farther and says that there was peace between the Israelites and the Amorites. So few people know of this verse, mainly because it contrasts with pretty much every other account.

Why isn’t this story more famous, after all it is right there in plain sight. Arguably, more territory is conquered here than in all of Joshua, and it shines a kinder light on Israel than any of the other accounts of the conquest.

The reason this story is relatively unknown is because later Judean authors pushed it aside through editorial techniques. For the Judean monarchists and Priests these regions were simply unimportant, since they weren’t even remotely closed to where they lived, and by the time the first of the southerners were writing, had been conquered by the Assyrians. They give this territory over to 2.5 relatively unimportant tribes, Reuben Gad, and only half of Menasheh, and refer to it as the trans-Jordan, which is ‘almost’ non-Israelite. There is even a story at the end of Joshua penned by Southern authors, which emphasizes the disenfranchisement and alienation of the tribes of the northeast.

And yet history does not agree with these southerners. This northeastern part of the Kingdom of the 10 tribes, was perhaps the most significant region before the Northern Kingdom fell. Four of the five final kings of Israel have connections to that region.

Shalum of Yavesh, which is likely short for Yabesh Gilad was the King that assassinated the final monarch of Jehu’s dynasty. Yabesh Gilad is a famous city in the region of, you got it -Gilad or Gilead.

Shalum in turn is assassinated by Menachem the Gaddite from Tirzah. Tirzah is not in the region, but the tribe of Gad is.

Pekach ben Remalyahu in alliance with the Gileadites kill Menachem’s son, and reigns in his stead.

Then disaster strikes and Gilad together with other Israelite territories are exiled in the first of the great calamities that fall upon the North.

I’ve always thought that it was such a shame that more Northern Israelite literature didn’t make it. Their account of conquest is distinct as is most of the other stories that hale from Northern Israel. I want to know more about this elusive peace with the Amorites in that lonely verse in Samuel.

At a time of so many wars and of accusations of genocide, it is always worthwhile to highlight the lesser-known strands of the Hebrew Bible that did not agree that this was part of our story.

I hope everyone has a peaceful weekend.