Bible Strands
Joshua 12:18
the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one;
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator catalogs defeated Canaanite monarchs immediately following the summary of Joshua’s northern and southern campaigns. This inventory functions as a military and territorial ledger for the Israelite leadership.
The words — The verse centers on אֲפֵק ('a.Fek), literally Aphek, and אֶחָד ('e.Chad), meaning one, marking each ruler as a distinct, counted entity. The repeated מֶ֫לֶךְ (Me.lekh), king, structurally isolates each defeated authority as a separate political unit.
The thread — Aphek reappears in Joshua 13:4 as a southern border landmark and in Joshua 19:30 as a city assigned to the tribe of Asher. The Lasharon (Sharon) region similarly anchors later territorial boundaries in these same allocations.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to correlate each listed conquest with subsequent tribal inheritance maps. It establishes a direct, unembellished link between recorded military victories and the administrative division of the land.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one;
Cross-references
- Joshua 13:4 to the south, all the land of the Canaanites, from Mearah of the Sidonians to Aphek, as far as the border of the Amorites;
- Joshua 19:30 Ummah, Aphek, and Rehob. There were twenty-two cities, along with their villages.
- 1 Samuel 4:1 Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now the Israelites went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek.
- Isaiah 33:9 The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.