{"id":53733,"date":"2019-04-15T18:25:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=53733"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:03:29","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T12:03:29","slug":"all-the-kings-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/all-the-kings-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"All the King\u2019s Horses\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[861,434],"acf":{"old_id":"53733","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"198","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Destroying the engines of war","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this chapter, the Israelites have to overcome a broad coalition of Canaanite forces arrayed against them at a place called Mei Merom. While some of their places of origin are unidentified (Madon, Shimron, Akhshaf), they are led by the king of Hatzor in the Upper Galilee, today a UNESCO World Heritage site, whose excavation by Yigal Yadin was a milestone in Israeli biblical archaeology. At the time of Joshua, Hatzor was something akin to a regional center (\u201cthe head [<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rosh<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">] of all those other kingdoms,\u201d v. 11) so it is understandable why the king of Hatzor would play a central role in this affair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God told Joshua \u201cnot to fear,\u201d promised him victory over this vast enemy, and instructed him \u201cto hamstring their horses and burn their chariots\u201d (6). Since the battle would already have been won, what point could there be in doing permanent damage to the horses?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our comments on Chapter Six, we addressed the weaning of the Israelites off their dependence on divine intervention and their training to gradually assume responsibility for their own destiny. This act, for all that it appears to be gratuitous cruelty to animals, is another step in that process. Horses served military functions almost exclusively\u2014throughout the Bible, oxen pull the plows, donkeys are the beasts of burden, and long trips are taken on camels\u2014so God ordered them to destroy the enemy\u2019s chariots and hamstring their horses to reinforce the point that the Israelites\u2019 fortunes of war depended not only on their growing military prowess but on their obedience to Him, as well. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the Psalmist put it: \u201cThese may [depend on] chariots and those may [depend on] horses, but we will [put our trust in] calling on the Lord our God\u201d (20:8).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":53734,"id":53734,"title":"chariot-1151742_1920","filename":"chariot-1151742_1920.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/chariot-1151742_1920.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/all-the-kings-horses\/chariot-1151742_1920\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"chariot-1151742_1920","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":53733,"date":"2019-04-15 15:25:36","modified":"2019-04-15 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