It's easy to bog down and kinda lose momentum.
And I'm not going to itemize all the geographic descriptions and lists; you can read those for yourself in your own Bible. But there are a few things in this that are worth taking note of.
I've heard the book of Joshua criticized for being inconsistent; for first implying that there was a swift campaign and a swift victory and then describing years of fighting that never really conquered the land. Which one is it? the critics cynically ask.
Well...I'm gonna take a middle approach. I am not entirely sure everything is recorded in strict chronological order. Kinda like Genesis 1 and 2...in which chapter one gives a big picture and the chapter two elaborates on some details. Not two different stories, as some would want to claim, but two different looks at the same story. I think Joshua is also written in the same sort of fashion; related logically, thematically, more than chronologically.
Because 11:16 - 17 lists off the territory conquered, and then verse 18 states
Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time.
Of course, 'long time' is pretty subjective and we really don't know what that means. But we do know that, ultimately, he conquered every major city and its king in the area. Only Gibeon made peace with them...because the Gibeonites feared the God of the Israelites.
Furthermore, there is an interesting thought in 11:20 -
...it was the LORD himself who hardened [the pagan kings'] hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Why did God harden their hearts? For the same reason He hardened Pharoah's heart...they had already decided not to honor or follow the God of Israel. There is the exception of Gibeon, certainly a city of '-ites' just like the rest of them. But the Gibeonites chose to fear God and acted accordingly. They were the only ones. The rest REFUSED to honor the God of Israel...in fact, part of the reason Joshua and Israel were to destroy them was because they were under judgement for failing to honor God from long before. God didn't turn them against him; they already had turned against him. They made the choice; He made the choice absolute.
Everyone has a choice. What they might not have is an opportunity to reverse that choice. That does not make God unjust.
Here's another point worth noting...11:22 states that
No Anakites were left in Israelite territory; only in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod did any survive.
Just park that for future reference. The fact that Anakites remained in Gath was significant later in Israel's history.
Verse 23 is a summation of much of the book of Joshua:
So Joshua took the entire land, just as LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.
Chapter 12 is a list of all the city-states and their kings that the Israelites, under Moses and then Joshua, defeated in settling into the land promised to their fathers. Thirty-one in all on the west side of the Jordan; you can read them, they are all listed. It was enough to occupy the land, but it didn't clear it completely. That job would fall to the individual tribes to clear out the rest of the pagan population in each of their own territories. The military might of the '-ites' was broken; large military campaigns were done.
There's a song by the Newsboys that states 'Everyone Gets a Shot'...the basic premise that, on some level, every person decides for or against God....whether he or she will follow God or follow... something else. We have free choice. But we need to pay heed to those Old Testament folks who made bad choices and then were hardened in that choice. It's a sobering lesson.
Make ALL life choices....carefully.
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