Bible Strands
Joshua 12:8
the hill country, the foothills, the Arabah, the slopes, the wilderness, and the Negev—the lands of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites):
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator catalogs the conquered territories west of the Jordan between listing the defeated regional kings. This verse functions as a geographical and ethnic inventory following Joshua’s military campaigns.
The words — `בָּ/הָ֣ר (Har)` denotes the hill country [H2022], while `וּ/בַ/נֶּ֑גֶב (Negev)` specifies the southern arid zone [H5045]. These terms anchor the list in concrete topographical zones rather than abstract claims.
The thread — Parallel geographical surveys appear in Joshua 11:16, 9:1, and 10:40, each adjusting the terrain terms to match the specific campaign being summarized.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge the precise boundaries and the six named nations that occupied the land. It frames the inheritance not as a vague promise but as a documented transfer of control.
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
In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:
Cross-references
- Joshua 11:16 So Joshua took this entire region: the hill country, all the Negev, all the land of Goshen, the western foothills, the Arabah, and the mountains of Israel and their foothills,
- Joshua 9:1 Now when news of this reached all the kings west of the Jordan—those in the hill country, the foothills, and all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon (the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites)—
- Joshua 10:40 So Joshua conquered the whole region—the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes, together with all their kings—leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.
- Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
- Exodus 3:8 I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
- Exodus 23:23 For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.
- Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
- Deuteronomy 9:1 Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.
- Exodus 23:28 I will send the hornet before you to drive the Hivites and Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.