All language subtitles for Battles BC s01e03 Joshua

These are the ancient Israelites.

Relentless warriors described in the
Bible as soldiers of God.

They are fierce, unwavering,

and ruthless.

Their leader is Joshua, a brilliant
military strategist, poised to bring the

Israelites into the promised land, the
land of Canaan.

To fulfill this mission, Joshua and his
army fight some of the most brutal

battles described in the Bible.

Perhaps none is more well known than the
Battle of Jericho.

An intricate tale of espionage,
psychological warfare,

and the extermination of an entire
population.

But Jericho was only the first in a long
military campaign designed to conquer

the land of Canaan.

A campaign filled with blood and water.

Joshua's military might is first
described in the Bible during the great

campaign out of Egypt in the 14th
century BC.

Soon after the Israelites cross the Sea
of Rean, they are ambushed by a

Canaanite group called the Amalekites.

The Israelite leader at the time is
Moses.

He handpicks his fiercest warrior, the
young Joshua, to be his field commander.

Joshua fights brilliantly and leads the
Israelites to victory.

But both he and Moses realize the
Israelites need to be a more effective

fighting force if they are going to
invade and conquer Canaan and its dozens

fortified city -states.

The Israelites are light infantry
guerrillas.

They can't engage the enemy on the open
plains.

The Canaanites have chariots.

and they could easily cut them down.

So they stay in the desert for 40 years,
creating a strong and more powerful

army.

Joshua is impatient to invade Canaan,
but accepts the wisdom of Moses, who

believes the Israelites should stay in
the desert longer and train a new and

larger fighting force.

After 40 years, the army's number swells
to around 8 ,000.

A force...

whose time has finally come.

The first step is to leave their camp at
Kadesh Barnea.

But walled Canaanite cities block the
route north.

So Moses and Joshua lead some 35 ,000
men, women, and children south, then

into the Jordan Valley.

The Israelites pass peacefully through
the land of the Edomites and the

Moabites. But soon, they encounter an
unfriendly tribe who refuse to let them

pass. The Ammonites.

In this first test of the newly trained
Israelite army, Joshua shows he hasn't

lost his military power and leads his
army to victory.

The Bible says Moses, Joshua, and the
Israelites then attacked several other

tribes in the Jordan Valley on their way
to Canaan.

They marched on and went up the road to
Bashan and King Og of Bashan with all

his people.

came out to engage them in battle. They
defeated him and his sons and all his

people until no remnant was left.

Why the need for this kind of brutality?

And the answer from a military
perspective is quite simply.

The Israelites have no intention of
living in the Jordan Valley.

Their intention is to move their army to
the border of Canaan.

So that the area along the Jordan River
becomes a strategic launching point for

the future attack on Canaan. One cannot
leave significant hostile forces in

one's rear.

The Bible tells us that Moses dies
before ever reaching the promised land.

And God chooses Joshua to command the
Israelites.

So far, it's taken 40 years and
thousands of deaths to get to where

the Israelites are.

But understanding where Joshua has been
gives us a pretty good insight into

what's coming next in his story.

Because as difficult as it has been so
far, the next part of getting to Canaan

is going to be even bloodier.

Joshua, now solely in charge, develops a
strategy to conquer Canaan.

He needs to gain control of the mountain
chain that runs through the center of

the country.

Once on that mountain spine, he not only
controls all the passers across the

country, but he's free from counter
-attack from Canaanite armies, which are

chariot -heavy, whereas Israelite armies
are essentially light infantry.

The Israelite army is perfectly suited
for hit -and -run tactics over rugged

terrain, and they're going to play to
their strength.

Joshua calls together his 8 ,000
soldiers and announces the location of

first attack.

It will be against one of the world's
oldest cities, the fabled city of

Joshua attacked Jericho because this is
the first step in an Israelite war of

extermination.

The Israelites have no intention of
settling in Canaan as long as there are

other people still in Canaan. They
intend to attack cities and drive them

and to replace their populations with
their own.

Jericho is fairly small, has a small
population, almost defenseless.

But Jericho does have its famous walls,
which are actually two walls about 12

feet apart that run parallel to each
other.

The walls are believed to be about 30
feet tall, stretching 1 ,400 yards

Some of the people of Jericho live in
the space between the two walls.

Understanding the layout of Jericho is
crucial to the success of overtaking the

city.

He doesn't just stroll right in with his
army. Like any good commander, he

performs a reconnaissance of the
objective.

And here he sends two spies into the
city of Jericho to check out its

and to see what else is going on.

He's taking this army into Canaan for
the first time. The one thing he can't

avoid is a defeat or a colossal screw
-up. He wants to make sure that this

becomes a military success.

The spy sneak inside Jericho and head to
a brothel.

A cunning decision.

Choice of an inn or house of
prostitution is absolutely brilliant.

small city.

Strangers would immediately be
recognized.

The only place they could, if not hide,
but have a good excuse for being there

would be in a house of prostitution.

That's also where tongues wag a lot. And
a lot of loose gossip could be picked

up about troop dispositions, morale,
etc.

They find a prostitute willing to help
them. Her name is Rahab.

Rahab tells the Israelite spies about
the conditions in Jericho.

And what's very clear is that the morale
of the people is shot.

The tales of great slaughter during the
Jordanian campaign have reached their

ears. So they're literally scared to
death that they're going to be attacked.

The Bible states that Rahab lives in
between the parallel walls.

Now, this is important because, as we'll
see, there are some who believe that

the location of Rahab's house is the key
to how the Battle of Jericho went down.

It's now dark, and the Israelite spies
are prepared to leave.

and to return to Joshua with their
intelligence report.

But their cover is blown.

The king of Jericho's intelligence
service picks up the fact that the

spies are in the city and track them to
Rahab's apartment and go to

Rahab and demand that she turn over the
Israelite spies.

According to the Bible, Rahab covers for
the Israelites.

It is true, she said, the men did come
to me, but I didn't know where they were

from. And at dark, when the gate was
about to be closed, the men left, and I

don't know where the men went.

Quick, go after them, for you can
overtake them.

And apparently, they're happy with his
explanation.

One assumes they might have done a
search, but given Rahab's profession,

probably pretty persuasive.

So, where were the spies?

Well, the Bible tells us she actually
hid them on the roof.

Now, under the cover of darkness, the
spies must escape the city and return to

Joshua.

But before they go, they say to Rahab,
because you have helped us, when the

attack comes to the city, we want you
and your family to be spared.

So, in order that we know that this is
your house, take a red cord and tie it

the window.

and no harm will come to you or your
family.

Rahab ties the red cord in the window,
and the spies slide down the rope on the

outside of the wall.

The men report to Joshua with important
intelligence.

Jericho's small population is terrified
and therefore vulnerable.

The information gives Joshua the
confidence that now is the time to

city.

Joshua leads his army across the Jordan
River toward Jericho.

This is a big army. Our estimates are 8
,000 to 9 ,000 men.

One of the largest armies that's ever
been put to the field in Canaan.

Inside the walls, the citizens of
Jericho were terrified.

Here comes the army they've heard about
that has just slaughtered their way

through the Jordan Valley.

Jericho is a small city, only about
eight acres.

roughly the size of eight football
fields.

To estimate the population of ancient
Jericho, based on the rough benchmark

historians use of about 240 inhabitants
per urban acre times about 8 .5 acres,

you arrive at a population of about 2
,500, somewhere in there, about 20%,

can be mustered to defend the city.

The perimeter walls are almost a mile in
circumference.

So you have an army outside of 8 ,000 to
9 ,000 men surrounding a city that can

mount no more than 500 defenders on the
wall.

That's about one every three meters.

The Israelite army could encircle
Jericho, one with a man one

meter apart, six men deep.

But this huge army doesn't attack.

For six days, Joshua marches his men
around Jericho.

The biblical description of the plan
seems, on the face of it, absurd.

According to the Bible, Yahweh says to
Joshua, You shall march around the city

for six days.

According to the Bible, on the seventh
day, the Israelites are supposed to blow

their shofars, or battle horns.

and the walls shall come tumbling down.

And everyone knows the old song of
Joshua at the Battle of Jericho, and the

walls came tumbling down.

Joshua commanded the people, Shout, for
the Lord has given you the city. At the

sound of the trumpet, when the people
gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed.

every man charged straight in, and they
took the city.

The walls fall down, and Jericho's
defenses crumble.

Is it a miracle?

Or is there another explanation?

The walls of Jericho come tumbling down.

Joshua and the Israelites have their
first victory in Canaan.

But there's got to be a more pragmatic
military explanation. And I think the

Bible actually reveals it, if you know
where to look.

And the secret is Rahab the prostitute.

Remember how the Israelite spies got out
of Rahab's apartment?

She let them down on a rope that she
had.

They also told her to tie a red cord to
the windowsill. And the reason for that,

ostensibly, was that the Israelite army
would know that this was her apartment

and no harm would come to her.

But once inside the city walls, the
Israelite soldiers obviously won't be

to see a marker visible only from the
outside.

So now you have to ask, what is a red
cord signifying hanging from a window

two or three stories up the wall?

And I think that's the answer to how the
walls came tumbling down.

The red cord may be a signal, but if the
story is looked at from a military

perspective, a completely different
motivation becomes apparent.

What if the Red Corps is not there to
say, hey, don't attack us? What if it's

invitation up?

Who's to say that Rahab doesn't lower
the same rope out the window that the

spies used to climb down?

But now Israelite soldiers are climbing
up it.

The Israelite army creates the perfect
cover for these soldiers by marching

around the city perimeter and loudly
blowing their battle horns.

When the noise was going on, it would
have been a simple task to take 8, 10,

guys at a time and climb up the rope
using the red cord as an indicator of

her apartment was and hide in her
apartment or on the roof.

For six days, 10 men at a time, give or
take, at 60, 50, 60 special ops guys are

now inside the wall.

On the seventh day, the army is still
marching around the city.

Joshua gives the command, and once again
the Israelites blow their horns, one

last time.

What that noise was, was probably a
signal to the special ops guys. And what

they would have done is emerged from
hiding quickly, and attacked the

from the inside, threw open the gate,
and the walls came tumbling down.

Given that there were so many men
outside relative to the number of

they could have easily cleared a section
of the wall.

This would have made it easy for
Israelite soldiers to scale up over the

and the walls, metaphorically speaking,
would have come tumbling down.

With the city firmly in Joshua's hands,
what he does next has actually

horrified people who read the Bible. He
puts the entire city to the sword.

The term in Hebrew is Kol HaNesema.

To go up upon the city and to kill every
breathing thing.

The massacre is up close and personal.

This is a war of extermination.

Joshua is sending a message to the
other.

kings of Canaan. This is your fate if
you do not leave.

They killed every man, every woman,
every child,

every goat, every sheep, every jackass,

literally every living thing.

And then they burned the city.

It's a horrible, horrible fate that he
visited upon the poor people of Jericho.

Joshua is a fine tactician and a fine
strategist.

But one suspects as well that he's also
a God -intoxicated man.

He's prepared to visit this horror on a
completely innocent population in order

to achieve not only military goals, but
perhaps to achieve the promise of

Yahweh, that you shall go upon the land
of Canaan and take those cities that I

have given you for your inheritance.

The price of the inheritance, in human
terms anyway, is very high indeed.

But the bloodshed has only just begun.

Joshua's reason for destroying Jericho
was primarily psychological.

Strategy determines his next target.

The city of Bethel, about 10 miles north
of modern Jerusalem, controls the key

path into the mountains.

From here, Joshua can begin to control
the central mountain spine of Canaan.

Bethel represents one of the few places
on the spine where...

an invading force can grab a foothold.

So they need that pass before Joshua can
put the rest of his strategy in effect

by being able to move onto the spine
itself, move in both directions, and

neutralize all the Canaanite city
-states.

Before Joshua's 8 ,000 -man army moves
ahead, he sends a small reconnaissance

force to Bethel. On their way, they come
across an urban ruin called Ai.

I was a highly fortified town about a
thousand years earlier.

But during Joshua's time, it's just a
ruin.

But the ruin plays an important role in
the next phase of Joshua's conquest.

Joshua's recon team reports that Bethel
and I will be easy to defeat.

And they give him the advice not to send
the whole army up to the ruin because

there's not much point to it.

Trusting the information, Joshua sends
only a small force of about 600 men to

Ai. He has no idea that the Bethelite
army lies hidden in the ruin.

At Ai, Joshua makes one of the few rare
mistakes.

The function of a reconnaissance platoon
is to report the situation on the

ground, not to make operational
suggestions.

While the rest of the platoon remains
outside, a small reconnaissance team

enters the ruin.

What probably happened is the place
looks deserted and they stumble into the

ruin and they're ambushed.

Most of the reconnaissance team is
slaughtered. The remaining Israelite

outside the ruin panics and retreats.

The ambush at Ai becomes Joshua's first
defeat.

Joshua's victory at Jericho is blunted
an eye where the Israelites suffer their

first defeat since they invaded Canaan.

A small platoon of Israelite soldiers
are ambushed and then slaughtered by a

Canaanite group called the Bethelites.

Now it's interesting what Joshua does or
what's going through his mind at this

time. He's concerned.

Not so much about the small battlefield
defeat, but he's concerned about the

effect on the psychology of the
Canaanites.

He had destroyed the city of Jericho,
the psychological shockwave, through the

Canaanite city -states, and now his own
forces have been defeated.

The Bible tells us he's concerned that
he had lost that psychological

and so in order to compensate, he
quickly decides to move into the attack.

The next morning, Joshua mobilizes his
entire 8 ,000 -man army and marches them

to Ai.

Joshua's march on Ai takes most of the
day, and they arrive at dusk. The army

maneuvers into a position behind some
hills to the east of the urban ruin.

Between Joshua's army and Ai is a
shallow valley in the shape of a saddle.

Joshua sets up the Israelite camp so
it's out of view of the Bethelites.

After surveying the ruin himself, He
understands how his men were ambushed.

The ruins of Ai make a chaotic
battlefield, 14 acres of rubble enclosed

collapsed wall.

It's a jumble of debris and caved -in
buildings, perfect ambush territory.

If you look at the city of Fallujah
after the Marine Division got through

it, we look like that. So you can see
the tactical advantage is that you can

spread your troops, even a small number
of troops, in that urban environment

where they can take advantage of that
rubble.

And it means your adversary cannot bring
his numbers to bear as he can in the

open field. He's got to funnel them down
little corridors where they're subject

to hand -to -hand combat.

Joshua sets a new plan into motion.

one that shows off his tactical
brilliance.

It will be a deception that will draw
the Bethelites into committing a

blunder.

He immediately sizes up the situation
and understands that the army that is in

Ai is probably most of the army from
Bethel, but not all of it.

And so if he decides to attack that
ruin, he's going to leave his flank or

his rear open up to a possible relief
column moving down the road from Bethel.

Instead of attacking the Bethelites in
the ruin, Joshua positions some of his

troops on the plain in front of the
ruin, challenging the Bethelites to

the open.

But he only lines up about 1 ,000 of his
men.

One can imagine the Bethelite commander
saying, this whole Israelite threat has

been overblown with the siege of
Jericho. This is all they can muster? We

deal with this.

But what the Bethelite commander doesn't
understand...

is that Joshua has left several thousand
soldiers out of sight in the back of

the hills.

He's also concealed another special
operations force of a few thousand on

other side of Bethel.

Convinced that their 2 ,500 -man army
can easily beat the small Israelite

they see in front of them, the
Bethelites move most of their fighters

ruins and onto the plain.

Thus giving up the tactical advantage of
the defense in the ruins where they

would have had the advantage of ambush
and hand -to -hand combat.

The two armies battle on the open plain.

Its blood, hair, and eyeballs up close,
and the battle rages.

The bronze sickle sword is the primary
weapon of both armies.

Its foot -long blade and handles are
cast from a single solid piece of bronze

for extra strength.

Both also carry six foot -long wooden
spears.

Rusting weapons are tipped with
sharpened bronze.

The Israelites also use slings that turn
small rocks into deadly projectiles

that kill like bullets.

Quickly, the battlefield at Ai becomes a
death zone. The Israelites, still

standing on the battlefield, are
overwhelmed and retreat.

Now, at this point, the Bethelites, of
course, break into Iran and begin to

pursue. But the real interesting fact is
that the reserve units... that the

Bethelites had left behind, Enai also
abandoned the ruin and began to join in

the pursuit, figuring to catch up with
the Israelites and make a great

of it all and put this vague Israelite
threat of invasion to rest once and for

all.

As Joshua reaches the top of the hill,
he stops, turns, and flashes his sickle

sword in the sun, sending a signal to 1
,000 Israelites hidden west of the ruin.

As soon as he held out his hand, The
ambush came rushing out of their

Joshua signals the force, and they come
out of their hidden position and burn

the Bethelite camp in eye to the ground.

Now you have the Bethelites on the open
plain, look to their rear, and their

camp is on fire. They now realize that
they're caught from behind as well.

But Joshua is not finished.

He flashes another signal, this time to
the main body of his army, about 5 ,000

soldiers.

They've been waiting behind the ridge.

One can only imagine the terror of
Bethelite soldiers as suddenly...

An enormous host of 4 ,000 to 5 ,000 men
who had been hidden to this time

appears over the edge of the saddle and
now begins with Joshua's forces who turn

around, join up, and begin to attack
downhill.

The Bethelites are caught between two
Israelite forces.

Outnumbered three to one, the Bethelites
are trapped in slaughter.

At the Battle of Ai, the Israelite
military commander Joshua uses superior

battlefield tactics to defeat a
Canaanite group called the Bethelites.

Joshua does it Ai as he bluffs. He
doesn't show his full hand, and he gets

opponent to go all in.

Then he takes him for all he's worth.

We'll see throughout.

Joshua's life. These indications of a
brilliant tactician of an individual and

strategist of an individual who has a
firm grasp of military reality.

The Israelites are experienced warriors
who have numbers and Joshua, a brilliant

commander in their favor.

The result is an absolute slaughter.

The Bethelites are quickly enveloped and
they're just massacred.

Joshua orders the extermination of all
of them. And again, you see what Joshua

is doing.

You know, it's a very cruel story, but
he has a dual purpose here. One, again,

he wants to regain that psychological
edge by striking terror in the remaining

Canaanite kings.

Secondly, he cannot simply allow the
Bethelite forces to remain behind his

of communication.

They all have to die, and they all do.

and that includes the Bethelite king who
is captured alive.

Joshua orders his men to bring the king
to the gates of Bethel, where he is

hanged.

He hung the king on a tree and left him
there until evening.

With the public execution of the
Bethelite king and its army destroyed,

strategic city of Bethel surrendered.

So Joshua now has regained the strategic
initiative and tactical initiative.

He's destroyed Jericho. He's moved his
army successfully to grab the opening to

the mountain spine, which runs
longitudinally in Israel. And he also

psychological edge reestablished again.
Once more, he has struck fear in the

hearts of the Canaanite kings, whose
kingdoms guard that mountainous ridge

is the prime strategic target of
Joshua's military operations.

Joshua's next move is diplomatic.

He convinces Canaanite tribes in the
mountains to join the Israelites as

These are tribes that are armed with
their own military forces, much like the

Israelites are.

And they're outside the influence of the
Canaanite city -states.

This conveys upon him an enormous
military advantage.

First of all, now, he can move along the
spine.

at least to the north, without having to
deal with these tribes. They're now his

allies. Secondly, they make his
logistics easier.

They, too, have supply depots. They,
too, have crops and animals that he can

draw on.

They have no vested interest, of course,
in protecting the Canaanite states, so

they sign on to Joshua's army as
mercenaries.

These are population data. We can
estimate that.

Joshua's army at Jericho.

was about 8 ,000 men.

And while the Bible doesn't tell us how
many additional men were added here,

it's not unlikely that it was at least 3
,000 to 4 ,000.

So now you're looking at a military
force with a manpower strength of about

,000 soldiers.

With his strengthened army, Joshua
marches to his next target, Gibeon, a

mountain city that's strategically
located.

Gibeon controls a key east -west pass.

and a major north -south trading route.

Here is where Joshua cashes in his
psychological chips.

The word of the slaughter of Jericho and
at Ai has reached Gibeon. As the Bible

tells us, they were frightened to death.

They suggest to Joshua, there's no need
for a battle here.

We'll become your allies.

Joshua's plan is falling into place. He
signs a pact with Gibeon and adds their

fighting force to the Israelites.

Together, they cut off important
Canaanite trade routes on the central

spine of the country.

This is not a situation that the
Canaanite kings can tolerate for very

so the Jebusite king of Jerusalem,
Adonizek,

sends a message to the five other great
kings of the area to come up and join me

against Gibeon.

And the armies of all five kings begin
to converge on Gibeon,

and they surround it and bring it under
sea.

The five Canaanite kings command a
combined force of nearly 15 ,000 men.

They are a powerful army of heavily
armored infantry and chariots.

Outgunned and surrounded, the Gibeonites
send a message to Joshua about the

siege.

The people of Gibeon thereupon sent this
message to Joshua in the camp of

Gilgal. Do not fail your servants. Come
up quickly and aid us and deliver us,

for all the Amorite kings of the hill
country have gathered against us.

Joshua honors the pact.

It's only been two months since the
Battle of Ai, but the Israelite military

machine is on the move again.

They begin an 18 -mile night march
across some of the most rugged terrain

of Canaan.

Going from Gilgal to Gibeon, you climb 1
,500 feet in altitude.

And you're talking about moving a large
amount of people, upwards of 12 ,000,

through very rocky terrain.

and doing it all with command and
control in order to bring that force

position where it can strike and do so
by achieving tactical surprise.

At some point in the middle of the
night, the Israelites reach the east

Gibeon.

To understand what's going on, you have
to understand the kind of topography in

which Gibeon is located.

Gibeon is actually located in a valley,
but in the center of the valley is the

Reznal. And the city is located on the
Reznal.

The combined Canaanite armies surround
Gibeon in the valley below.

Joshua's army arrives behind the hills
outside of Gibeon at about 3 o 'clock in

the morning.

They're exhausted from the march.
They're hungry. They're thirsty.

But... They can't have fires to cool, to
warm themselves. They can't have fires

to cook. They can't even make a lot of
noise. And the reason is they're in a,

essentially, at the final coordination
line before going into the attack.

Joshua designs a clever new battle plan
that combines the element of surprise

with a precise timing for his attack.

Any noise, any mistake, any braying of a
donkey, certainly any firewood, would

give away their position and completely
squander the advantage of tactical

surprise that Joshua has worked so hard
to bring about.

Many historians believe that Joshua
waits until the break of dawn to launch

attack.

The Bible says that Joshua prayed to the
Lord to make the sun stand still.

Joshua said to the Lord in the presence
of Israel, O sun, stand still over

Gibeon. O moon, over the valley of Ilon.
So the sun stood still and the moon

stopped. There has never been a day like
it before or since. A day when the Lord

listened to a man.

What probably happened in just physical
terms was that we've all seen early

mornings where the sun is coming up and
the moon is still present.

in the sky and that's apparently what
happened it gives us an idea of the time

of day at which this thing was for the
time of day is

crucial because he's using a force of
nature as an ally the sun

joshua leads this army up over the hills

it strikes downhill with the sun at his
back takes the Canaanite armies

who were still in their camp, still
having breakfast, still in their tents,

asleep, and just smashes into them.

The carnage begins.

Sunrise.

Joshua and the Israelite army attack
Canaanite forces near the town of

Here come 12 ,000 screaming Israelites.

down a hill at full speed. You can
imagine a Canaanite soldier awakened by

screams of battle, stumbling out of
their tent with no armor, no weapons,

then looking up, trying to gain their
senses about them, only to be blinded by

the low -lying sun shining right into
their eyes.

Behind the hot spots in their eyes is
nothing but Israelite swords.

The Canaanites are unarmed, half asleep,
and temporarily blinded.

Joshua has rendered his enemy
defenseless.

We see again his knowledge of terrain
and tactics. Joshua, you know, he'll

surround all of Gibeon. He could have
put this army anywhere. He put it in a

position so that when the sun rose in
the morning, it would be at his back.

Plus he'd be attacking downhill against
an enemy that had not yet been fed or

even fully awake.

taking advantage of all about terrain,
geography, and even the movement of the

sun, and bringing them all to bear as
advantages on one tactical objective.

It's wholesale slaughter.

Those who aren't killed run.

But there is no escape.

The Israelites hunt them down,
determined to leave no survivor.

What Joshua has in mind is nothing less
than the extermination.

of the armies of some of the most
powerful city -states in all Canaan.

They're not going to live to fight
another day.

They keep chasing and pursuing the
Canaanites who are fleeing in all

until sunset.

Then they rest that evening, get up at
the crack of dawn again, and continue

pursuit.

You're talking about an infantry force
that moved 30 miles in

48 hours, two -thirds of the time, being
engaged in combat.

That's a magnificent military
achievement for any military force, even

one. But to see this done in the days of
the Bible really gives a kind of

sense.

of how militarily sophisticated a
commander like Joshua was. He fought one

the greatest and most studied battles in
the history of the world.

It's a crucial, strategic victory for
the Israelites and a critical turning

point in Joshua's invasion of Canaan.

At this point, Joshua has achieved many
of his strategic objectives.

He's in control of the central mountain
spine.

He has either made agreements with or
destroyed major Canaanite city -states

that spine.

So for the most part, Joshua succeeded.

According to the Bible, Joshua goes on
to defeat dozens of Canaanite kingdoms.

But he fails to capture all of the
promised land.

At the end of the day, Joshua simply
lacks both the size and mix of force

would make it possible to bring about
the complete conquest of Canaan.

and its resettlement by the Israelites.

The result is that even if the Bible
tells the story, Joshua was never able

do this, and he dies a rather bitter
man.

Toward the end of his life, Joshua
retires from combat and fades into

And he was buried alone on a place which
translates from Hebrew, Angry Mountain.

And it is said in the Bible that no one
attended his funeral.

And it's one of an unfitting end for one
of history's great commanders.

More than 300 years later, Joshua's
bloody conquest of the promised land,

particularly the Battle of Jericho,
remained one of the Bible's most popular

tales.

There's a certain mythology about
Jericho. It has all the elements of a

thriller. There's spies.

psychological warfare, there's strategy,
suspense, and of course violence. It

stays with you.

The story of Jericho has been burned
into the human consciousness.

When you think about the wholesale
slaughter of civilian population,

with God's blessing, it raises some deep
questions about what that says about

the Bible.

Joshua's military strategies of
encirclement and psychological warfare

throughout history.

In April 1975, the army of communist
North Vietnam, under the command of the

famous general Nguyen Gap, was closing
in from all sides on the South

capital of Saigon.

Ahead of the armed forces were a wave of
rumors that were sapping the will.

of Saigon's people to fight.

Like Joshua, Giop encircles Saigon with
his troops.

He basically ties a noose around the
city and slowly tightens it.

At the same time, Giop's reputation
precedes him.

The people of Saigon remember his Tet
Offensive seven years earlier with mass

executions of thousands of South
Vietnamese civilians.

Some say that the Viet Cong had
operatives in Saigon in 1975 who helped

the rumor mill.

building up the horrors that would
befall the civilian population, like

getting their nails yanked out and other
torture. Just awful stuff.

Joshua is best known as the man who
brought the Israelites home to the

land of Canaan, a land that continues to
be drenched in blood.

Ancient Canaan comprises what is today
Israel and the occupied territories.

The land disputes are still ongoing.

Blood is still being shed.

3 ,500 years after Joshua first led the
Israelites into what is to be their

biblical home, a legacy of violence
endures in the promised land.

It was God who promised the land to the
Israelites, but it was a man who

ultimately brought his people home.

The cunning and brutal military genius,
Joshua.