The wilderness — This word here and elsewhere in scripture notes not a land wholly desert and uninhabited, but one thin of inhabitants, as 1 Kings 2:34, 1 Kings 9:18; Matthew 3:1, Matthew 3:3. The Gargashites either were now incorporated with some other of these nations, or as the tradition of the Jews is, upon the approach of Israel under Joshua, they all withdrew and went unto Africk, leaving their land to be possessed by the Israelites, with whom they saw, it was fruitless to contend.
Related Commentaries of Joshua 12:8
Joshua 12:8
8 In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: