Ancient Conquest Accounts

In his book Ancient Conquest Accounts, K. Lawson Younger compares the ancient warfare writings of Assyrians, Hittites and Egyptians with the account in Joshua chapters 9–12. Although there are differences, Younger finds that the Hebrew record is "by and large typical of any Near Eastern account." He does not comment on the names, places and numbers in the Hebrew text. (1)

He does say "That since there are similarities, there is no reason to discount the Hebrew account as being unhistorical, than any other record from the ancient world. It is simply that use of a common transmission code underlying all the ancient texts should be taken into account." He concludes by stating further work needs to be done. (2) K. A. Kitchen also notes the similarities of conquest accounts in the book of Joshua with the military records of Pharaoh Tutmosis III and Mesha king of Moab. (3)

"Balaam, son of Beor was a non-Israelite prophet who appears mainly in Numbers 22–24 in the region of Mesopotamia or Aram. He had a widespread reputation for effective blessings and curses. The Israelites camped on the plain of Moab and were about to enter the Promised Land in order to conquer it. Balak king of Moab summoned Balaam, son of Beor in order to bribe him to curse Israel so that he might defeat them. As Balaam journeyed to see king Balak, the Lord blocked his path with 'The Angel of the Lord' and a drawn sword. The donkey could see the angel and refused to go any further. Balaam beat the donkey until the Lord opened its mouth. 'What have I done to you that you beat me these three times?' Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes so that he could see the angel."

"The angel allowed him to proceed but stated he must only speak God's words. When he arrived at King Balak's camp he gave three oracles that blessed Israel instead of cursing them. He then gave a fourth oracle that is linked to the Messiah: 'A star will come forth out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab...' (Numbers 24:17). Balaam said he could only say what God put in his mouth, however he did give counsel to the king that would cause Israel to sin and was later killed by the Israelites. 2 Peter 2:15–16 portrays him as one who 'loved the wages of sin.' In the Numbers narrative he submits to God under divine compulsion and delivers genuine prophecies. Elsewhere he is depicted as greedy and is responsible for leading Israel into apostasy."

The Deir 'Alla Inscription, also known as the Balaam Inscription, was discovered in 1967 in Jordan. The inscription describes "Balaam son of Beor as a seer of the gods. The gods come to him at night and announce an unprecedented catastrophe. Balaam rises, fasts, weeps and summons the people to report the vision. There are descriptions of the underworld, gods and apocalyptic imagery. The inscription is in Aramaic and Canaanite and dates to the 9th and 8th century B.C. The inscription demonstrates that Balaam was revered outside Israel as a historical or semi-historical divinatory figure rather than pure invention." (Grok A.I.)

The book of Genesis makes it clear that there was an earlier wave of Philistines before the Sea Peoples. According to David Rohl, "Both Genesis 26:1 and 26:8 specifically state that the ruler of Gerar during the time of Isaac was a Philistine king. He had a Semitic name Abimelech, showing that they had assimilated into the Amorite population of Canaan." (1) Both John Bimson and Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen also argue for an earlier wave of Philistines. (2)

Genesis 21:34 states: "Abraham stayed for a long while in Philistine territory." When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt at the end of the Middle Kingdom, "God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines... Lest the people change their minds when they see war and they return to Egypt" (Exodus 13:17). Also, God never ordered Joshua to destroy the Philistines. Judges 3:1–4: "Now these are the nations which the LORD left (in the land) to test Israel... These nations are the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon... And they were for testing Israel, to find out if they would keep and obey the commandments of the LORD."

Most scholars agree that the book of Joshua has little historical value. (1) They think the story of Jericho represents propaganda from the kingdom of Judah written at a late date, possibly in the time of the Exile. (2) In the 1930s John Garstang excavated Jericho for several seasons and announced that he found a collapsed double wall and a residential area destroyed by fire, which he dated to 1400 B.C. — the accepted date for the Exodus by most scholars.

Dame Kathleen Kenyon excavated at Jericho for six years from 1952–58. She dated Garstang's double wall to a much earlier date of 1550 B.C. in the Middle Bronze Age. Bryan Wood agreed with Kenyon that the wall had been built in the earlier time but that the city, Jericho IV, had been destroyed about 1400 B.C. Wood based this evidence on his analysis of pottery, scarabs and radiocarbon dating of Jericho IV. (4)

What does the Bible say? Joshua 3:15 states that the Hebrews crossed the Jordan in March–April when the Jordan is in flood "through the time of the (spring) harvest." Joshua 6:20: "So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets, and it came about, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead and took the city." Joshua 6:24: "And they burned the city with fire and all that was in it."

John Garstang, Kathleen Kenyon and Bryan Wood have established that Jericho city IV was burned with fire and that the walls of the city collapsed prior to the fire. The discovery of storage jars filled with grain shows that this destruction probably occurred shortly after the spring harvest, just as the book of Joshua says. (5) An Egyptian Scarab found by Kenyon in the destruction layer of Jericho city IV — a Scarab of an early Hyksos Pharaoh called Sheshi — dates the fall of Jericho to the reign of this king or soon after. (6)

Joshua 7 and 8 recount the first and second battles of Ai. Et-Tell has been accepted as the default site of Ai since W. F. Albright's article on the subject in 1924. (1) Et-Tell, however, fails to meet the biblical criteria. When Robinson explored the area in 1838, the local people pointed to a different site — Khirbet El-Maqatir — as Ai. (3) Between 1995 and 2017 the Associates for Biblical Research excavated at Khirbet El-Maqatir and meticulously uncovered a fortified settlement from the time of Joshua that had been destroyed by fire. Archaeologist Gary Byers says there are three ways we can know that this is the site of Joshua's Ai: "It has the right stuff in the right place at the right time." (4)

The late Dr. David Livingston identified Bethel as modern El-Bireh. Building on his work, archaeologist Dr. Bryant Wood convincingly argued Bethel is indeed modern El-Bireh and Beth-Aven is modern Beitin. Only Khirbet El-Maqatir satisfies all of the above criteria. (5) Geographically, it lies due east of Bethel/El-Bireh and only 1 mile southeast of Beth-Aven/Beitin. North of the site is the highest hill in the region, Jebel Abu Ammar, where Joshua's main force encamped. Between it and Khirbet El-Maqatir is a shallow valley where the king of Ai could see the Israelite decoy force coming to battle. Immediately west of the site is the steep valley of the Wadi Sheban in which Joshua's ambush force hid.

Excavations at Khirbet El-Maqatir revealed ample pottery dating to the Late Bronze Age I, much of which had been refired in a site-wide conflagration — consistent with a site destroyed by fire as described in Joshua 8:28: "So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day." (8) Three Egyptian scarabs were found at the site, including one dating to the 18th Dynasty, likely in the reign of Amenhotep II (ca. 1455–1418 B.C.), discovered in situ in a sealed locus — providing a terminal date for the fortress toward the end of the 15th century B.C.

Archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling concludes: "The two scarabs synchronize with the ceramic analysis and provide firm dates for the operation of the fortress. It now seems clear that the small fortress, likely the Ai of Joshua 7–8, was constructed during the Middle Bronze Age boom and was violently destroyed near the end of Late Bronze Age I." (9) The Bible describes the presence of women at Ai in Joshua 8:25. Archaeological evidence of this came in 2009 when an infant burial jar was discovered at Khirbet El-Maqatir with the child's remains scattered around the jar, dated to around 1500 B.C.

Joshua 24:20–27 — "Then Joshua said: 'If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.'... So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the Law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said to all the people, 'Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which He spoke to us; thus, it shall be for a witness against you, lest you deny your God.'"

The Joshua stone stands in front of a Bronze Age fortress temple excavated by archaeologist Sellin, who found it destroyed by fire. This matches the story in Judges 9:46–47 where King Abimelech set fire to the temple at Migdol Shechem, killing a thousand people inside. (1)