Joshua 12, Summary of Conquered Kings

Most of Canaan has been conquered by the campaigns of Joshua.  Now we have an interlude to our history, a recounting of the occupied territories, the defeated kings, and eventually the assignment of regions of Canaan to the twelve tribes.

Joshua 12: 1-3, Amorites

These are the kings of the land whom the Israelites had defeated and whose territory they took over east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge to Mount Hermon, including all the eastern side of the Arabah: Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon. He ruled from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge--from the middle of the gorge--to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites. This included half of Gilead. 

    

He also ruled over the eastern Arabah from the Sea of Kinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), to Beth Jeshimoth, and then southward below the slopes of Pisgah.

The Amorites, who practiced the religion of Molech, are defeated.

(The Sea of Kinnereth is the modern Sea of Galilee; the Salt Sea is the Dead Sea.)

Joshua 12: 4-6, King of Bashan defeated

And the territory of Og king of Bashan, one of the last of the Rephaites, who reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei. He ruled over Mount Hermon, Salecah, all of Bashan to the border of the people of Geshur and Maacah, and half of Gilead to the border of Sihon king of Heshbon. 

Moses, the servant of the LORD, and the Israelites conquered them. And Moses the servant of the LORD gave their land to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh to be their possession.

The conquest of Og, east of the Jordan, by Israel under the leadership of Moses is described in Numbers 21. 

Joshua 12: 7-24, Thirty-one more kings

These are the kings of the land that Joshua and the Israelites conquered on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir (their lands Joshua gave as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel according to their tribal divisions-- the hill country, the western foothills, the Arabah, the mountain slopes, the desert and the Negev--the lands of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites):
    the king of Jericho one 

    the king of Ai (near Bethel) one
    the king of Jerusalem one 

    the king of Hebron one
    the king of Jarmuth one 

    the king of Lachish one

    the king of Eglon one

    the king of Gezer one
    the king of Debir one 

    the king of Geder one
    the king of Hormah one 

    the king of Arad one
    the king of Libnah one 

    the king of Adullam one
    the king of Makkedah one 

    the king of Bethel one

    the king of Tappuah one 

    the king of Hepher one

    the king of Aphek one 

    the king of Lasharon one
    the king of Madon one 

    the king of Hazor one
    the king of Shimron Meron one 

    the king of Acshaph one
    the king of Taanach one 

    the king of Megiddo one
    the king of Kedesh one 

    the king of Jokneam in Carmel one
    the king of Dor (in Naphoth Dor) one

    the king of Goyim in Gilgal one
    the king of Tirzah one thirty-one kings in all.
 

We have here a long list of thirty-one kings conquered by the Isrealites, under the leadership first of Moses and then Joshua.  This list fits a common practice of the ancient Near East, of describing, in detail the great victory and conquests of a king. We are reminded that under Joshua -- supported by miraculous actions of YHWH -- the earlier promise made to Abram in Genesis 12: 6-8 is now fulfilled! (See also Joshua 11:23.)

At this point, the main history of the book of Joshua ends.  But the author of the book has a goal more important than history.  The author wants to describe the results of this history, that is, the distribution of the land to the twelve tribes. 

In exploring the previous chapter of Joshua, I posted a map and a few external links. Here is another link, with maps, on the conquest of Canaan under Joshua's campaigns.