Matthew Henry's Complete Bible Commentary

Joshua 12

This chapter is a summary of Israel’s conquests. I. Their conquests under Moses, on the other side Jordan (for we now suppose ourselves in Canaan) eastward, which we had the history of, Numbers 21:24-21:35 And here the abridgment of that history, Joshua 12:1-12:6. II. Their conquests under Joshua, on this side Jordan, westward. 1. The country they reduced, Joshua 12:7, 12:8. 2. The kings they subdued, thirty-one in all, Joshua 12:9-12:24. And this comes in here, not only as a conclusion of the history of the wars of Canaan (that we might at one view see what they had got), but as a preface to the history of the dividing of Canaan, that all that might be put together which they were not to make a distribution of. MHBCC 200.1