And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;
All the kings which were on this side - i:e., the western side of Jordan.
In the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea. This threefold distinction marks out very clearly a large portion of Canaan. The first designates the hill country, which belonged afterward to the tribes of Judah and Ephraim; the second, all the low country from Carmel to Gaza; and the third, the shores of the Mediterranean from the isthmus of Tyre to the plain of Joppa. This designation, "the great sea," is in several other passages applied to that part of the Mediterranean which washed the coast of Canaan (Numbers 34:6; Joshua 1:4; Joshua 15:12; Ezekiel 47:20). As for the tribes mentioned, see the note at Joshua 3:10.
Heard thereof - that is, of the sacking of Jericho and Ai, as well as the rapid advance of the Israelites into the interior of the country.