Joshua 10:28
“Joshua took Makkedah on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, with its king. He utterly destroyed it and all the souls who were in it. He left no one remaining. He did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.”
What does Joshua 10:28 mean?
This passage describes Joshua's conquest of Makkedah during Israel's campaign to take the promised land. The language is stark and unflinching about the reality of ancient warfare, where conquered cities were often completely destroyed as a show of power and to prevent future resistance. What matters most for us to understand is that Joshua is presented as following through on God's directive to take the land, doing so with the same completeness he showed at Jericho. For ancient readers, this established Joshua as a faithful, decisive military leader who didn't hesitate or leave threats behind. The repetition ("as he had done to the king of Jericho") connects this victory to the famous miracle at Jericho, reinforcing that Joshua's success came through obedience to God's plan. If you're reading this and finding the violence difficult to sit with, you're not alone. Many faithful people wrestle with how to understand these conquest narratives alongside Jesus's teachings about mercy and love. Those are real tensions worth exploring honestly rather than dismissing, and they invite us to think carefully about how God works in history and how our understanding of God's character deepens through the full arc of Scripture.