And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.
They went out ... as the sand ... upon the seashore in multitude. The chiefs of these several tribes were summoned by Jabin, being all probably tributary to the kingdom of Hazor, or at least all who had not fallen before the victorious arms of Joshua; and their combined forces, according to Josephus, amounted to 300,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 20,000 war-chariots.
With horses and chariots very many. The war-chariots were probably, like those of Egypt and Assyria (Nehemiah 11:13), made of wood (see the note at Exodus 14:6-7: cf. 2 Kings 23:11; Psalms 46:9, with Joshua 17:16; Judges 1:19; Judges 4:3; Judges 4:13), but nailed and tipped with iron, and armed with iron scythes affixed to the poles. (For a description of the war-chariots then in use see Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egyptians,' 1:, p. 335-337; also Layard's 'Nineveh,' 2:, p. 349: cf. Homer's 'Iliad,' 4:, 1. 552; 5:, 807, 945; AEschylus, supplices, 50). These appear for the first time in the Canaanite war, to aid this last determined struggle against the invaders; and 'it was the use of these which seems to have fixed the place of rendezvous by the lake Merom, or Samachon (Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch. 5:, sec. 1; 'Jewish Wars,' b. 3:, ch. 10:, sec. 7), the high lake, now Bahret-el-Huleh, along whose level shores they could have full play for their force.' 'This little triangular lake, about three miles long, on its northern border is contracted to a southern angle pointing toward the lake of Tiberias, from which it is about ten miles distant, and connected with it by the Jordan' (Osborn's 'Palestine, Past and Present,' p. 108).
Josephus makes no mention, of the lake in this connection (as he does, 'Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch. 5:, sec. 1), but says that the Canaanite forces encamped at Beeroth - i:e., wells, near Kedesh Naphtali ('Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch.
i., sec. 18). In reference to this statement of the Jewish historian, Stanley remarks that 'the expression "waters" (Joshua 11:7) is never used elsewhere for a lake;' and looking both to the words of Josephus and of the sacred narrative, he judges it 'safer to consider it as an open question whether the fight actually took place on the shores of the lake, or by a spring or well on the upland plain which overhangs it' ('lectures on the Jewish Church,' p. 258). An army so formidable in numbers, as well as in military equipments, was sure to alarm and dispirit the Israelites; and, according to Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 5:, ch. 1:, sec. 18), they were overwhelmed with so great terror as to be 'superstitiously timorous.' Joshua, therefore, was favoured with a renewal of the divine promise of victory (Joshua 11:6); and, thus encouraged, he, in the full confidence of faith, set out to face the enemy.