Joshua 11:21

“And at that time came Joshua, etc.] After he had made a conquest of the land, or at the time he made it, as before related: and cut off the Anakims from the mountains; whither, upon the conquest of the land, they had betaken themselves, and lived in dens and caves: these were giants, so called from Anak the father of them; though these are not to be restrained to his posterity, but include all other giants in the land; and the Targum renders the word by “mighty men”; and as some of them dwelt in mountains, others in cities, as follows: from Hebron; where the children of Anak dwelt when the spies were sent into the land between forty and fifty years before this; and though the inhabitants of…”

“At that time - i. e. in course of the “long time” mentioned in Joshua 11:18. The Anakims - See Numbers 13:22. As it was the report of the spies respecting the Anakims which, above all, struck terror into the Israelites in the wilderness, and caused their faithless complaining and revolt, so the sacred writer goes back here in his story to record pointedly the overthrow of this gigantic and formidable race. They had their chief settlements in the mountains around Hebron Joshua 10:3 or Debir. See Joshua 15:15. Anab was a city in the mountain district of Judah, lying some distance south of Hebron. It still bears its ancient name. return to 'Top of Page'”

“At that time - In that war, but in divers years. The mountain - Or, mountains, the singular number for the plural; these barbarous and monstrous persons either chose to live in the dens or caves, which were frequent in the mountains of those parts, or else they were driven thither by the arms and success of the Israelites. From Debir - From the territories belonging to these cities, as we have often seen in this history, cities mentioned for the country subject to them. The mountains of Israel - It doth not follow from hence, that this book was written by some other person long after Joshua's death, even after the division of the Israelites into two kingdoms. of Israel and Judah; but only…”

“11:21-22 the descendants of Anak: See Num 13:28, 33.”

“the Anakims: Jos 14:12-14, Jos 15:13, Jos 15:14; Num 13:22, Num 13:23; Deu 1:28, Deu 2:21, Deu 9:2; Jdg 1:10, Jdg 1:11, Jdg 1:20; Jer 3:23, Jer 9:23; Amo 2:9 Joshua destroyed: Jos 10:42, Jos 24:11, Jos 24:12; Psa 110:5, Psa 110:6, Psa 149:6-9; Rev 6:2, Rev 19:11-21 Joshua 11:22”

“In Jos 11:21, Jos 11:22, the destruction of the Anakites upon the mountains of Judah and Israel is introduced in a supplementary form, which completes the history of the subjugation and extermination of the Canaanites in the south of the land (Josh 10). This supplement is not to be regarded either as a fragment interpolated by a different hand, or as a passage borrowed from another source. On the contrary, the author himself thought it necessary, having special regard to Num 13:28, Num 13:31., to mention expressly that Joshua also rooted out from their settlements the sons of Anak, whom the spies in the time of Moses had described as terrible giants, and drove them into the Philistine cities…”