These verses sum up the account of the whole conquests of all the northern parts of Canaan. If we compute the different periods, it should seem that it took no less a time than five or six years to subjugate and destroy the Canaanites. A lively representation of the long and toilsome war which the true Israelite hath to encounter, after he hath passed over the Jordan of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, before that he rests from the war. Blessed be our Joshua, there is a rest, and there is a promise of that rest, when the Canaanites shall be no more in the land. Zechariah 14:21. I only detain the Reader with one observation more on this chapter, and which is, just to call his attention to the faithfulness of God in his promises. The Lord had said, he would drive out the nations before his people, and he would give his people their land to inherit. And now we see the, fulfillment of the Lord's promises. Oh! what a blessed thing it is, to have to do with this faithful God! see those scriptures. Genesis 13:14-17; Genesis 13:14-17; Deuteronomy 7:9; Deuteronomy 7:9. But Reader! do not rest in the contemplation of the latter of these promises; carry on your thoughts to the spiritual fulfillment of the whole in Christ Jesus, for it is in Him that all the promises of God are yea and amen. And what a precious thought is it to the holy warrior in Christ Jesus, that victory over all his enemies, is sure in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 12:11.
Joshua 11:16-23
16 So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same;
17 Even from the mountc Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them.
18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle.
20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
21 And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.
22 There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.
23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.