Evidence for Joshua's Conquest

After the Exodus, the children of Israel became a nomadic group led by Joshua. Following this, they began their conquest of the promised land. Is there evidence of such a war?

Balaam Inscription
The Deir ‘Alla Inscription (also called the Bala’am Son of Be’or Inscription) was discovered during the Deir ‘Alla excavations under the direction of Henk J. Franken in Jordan in 1967, written in ink on a plastered wall. There were 119 pieces of the plaster recovered and are today displayed in the Amman Museum.

A translation is provided here by McCarter:


 * "The sa]ying[s of Bala]am, [son of Be]or, the man who was a seer of the gods. Lo! Gods came to him in the night [and spoke to] him according to these w[ord]s. Then they said to [Bala]am, son of Beor, thus: Let someone make a [ ] hearafter, so that [what] you have hea[rd may be se]en!” And Balaam rose in the morning [ ] right hand [ ] and could not [eat] and wept aloud..."

Balaam is known from the Bible as a non-Israelite prophet mentioned in Numbers 22–24.

Millard describes it as:


 * “... the oldest example of a book in a West Semitic language written with the alphabet, and the oldest piece of Aramaic literature.”

Hittite Civilisation at Boghazkoy
When archaeologists found no trace of the Hittite civilization (mentioned in Numbers 13:29, Deuteronomy 7:1), the biblical critics made the claim that the Hittite people were imaginary. In 1876, archaeologist Trevor Sayce delivered a lecture to the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London making a startling claim that the Hittites were a vast empire but the capital was yet to be discovered.

In 1906 when the Hittite civilization was discovered by Hugo Winckler, along with the royal archive of 10,000 tablets during his excavations at Boğazköy (Ḫattuša), this brought a new zeal to archaeology and its use for defending the Bible.

Purple-Died Potshards
Purple-died potsherd (from Sarepta in Lebanon) and murex snail shells, both from University Museum exhibit (Case 5, Panel 27, "The Phoenicians"). The violet or blue-purple die from murex snails (found in the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel and Lebanon) was the source of royal purple and the die used for the "blue" cord in fringes prescribed in Numbers 15:37-41.

Fallen Walls and Rahab's Home
The fallen walls of Jericho have been known to archaeologists for more than a century now.

The German excavation of Jericho from 1907-1909, led by Ernst Sellin, found that on the north a short stretch of the lower city wall did not fall as everywhere else. A portion of that mudbrick wall was still standing to a height of over two meters. What is more, there were houses built against the wall! It is quite possible that this is where Rahab’s house was. Since the city wall formed the back wall of the houses, the spies could have easily and readily escaped from the city.

Not to mention, the destruction of these impressive walls took place around 1400 BC, exactly when the Bible says the conquest occurred.

Gateway of the City
The gateway of Jericho was uncovered in 1998 by the University of Rome. Jericho was strongly fortified (See Joshua 2:5, 7, 15; 6:5, 20) and so the remnants of it's defences remain seen to us, albeit in ruins.

Holland states that excavations revealed the “remains of three successive and massive plastered ramparts which surrounded” the city. The fortification walls collapsed at the time the city was destroyed.

According to Dr David E. Graves, this was possibly by earthquake activity, just as described in Joshua 6:20

Grain Jars
The destruction of Jericho, as described in the Book of Joshua would have occurred at harvest time, in the spring (the month of Adar, i.e., February/March), as indicated by the large quantities of grain stored in the city (See Joshua 2:6; 3:15; 5:10). Archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon found several grain filled storage jars that were burned. Kenyon reported over six bushels of grain excavated in one season alone. The siege of Jericho was short, as the grain stored in the city was not consumed (See Joshua 6:1, 15, 20).

Since it would normally take several months or even years to subdue a well-supplied city, as is illustrated from Masada, which took the Romans three years to capture, then the storage jars at Jericho filled with charred grain indicate they did not have time to consume the grain and reveals a short siege as described in the biblical narrative.

Burn Layers
Contrary to what was customary, the grain was not plundered to feed their armies, or taken by the citizens, but in accordance to God’s command Joshua was to burn the grain (Joshua 6:1, 17–18).

Kenyon stated after her excavation of the site in the 1950s:


 * “The destruction was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened by fire, and every room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers, and household utensils; in most rooms the fallen debris was heavily burnt, but the collapse of the walls of the eastern rooms seems to have taken place before they were affected by the fire.”

This discovery is unique in archaeology, given the high value of grain in ancient culture. It would be like taking a bank and burning the money. It is an incredible find that affirms the historicity of the Joshua account.

Jabin Cuneiform
In Joshua 11, we see the conquest of Canaan shift to the city of Hazor. The king of the city, named Jabin, is killed by Joshua in verse 11.

This tablet, found in the remains of the city of Hazor, is inscribed with the name "Ibni" which means "Jabin."

Some have argued that the tablet is too early to be the same Jabin that Joshua killed, as it is dated to around 1700 BC and Joshua's campaign would have taken place around 1400 BC. However, we read in Judges 4:2, during the time of the prophetess Deborah, there was another king of Hazor named Jabin, around 1200 BC. This proves that the name "Jabin" was a dynastic name, passed down to descendants.

Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription
Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription is a limestone slab discovered during the excavations at Tel Miqne that confirms it identification as Ekron one of the five Philistine capital cities described in Joshua 13:3.

Gitin, Dothan and Naveh describe the implications of this important discovery:"'The inscription is unique because it contains the name of a biblical city and five of its rulers, two of whom are mentioned as kings in texts other than the Bible. The only such inscription found in situ in a securely defined, datable archaeological context, it has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the history of Ekron and Philistia.'"

Amarna Tablets
Discovered in 1887 by a Bedouin woman, these clay tablets were from the royal Egyptian archives written by Yapahu the ruler of Gezer, Palestine, to Pharaoh’s Amenophis III and his son Akhenatenin Egypt, to address among other things the problem caused by ‘Apiru (written Habiru in non-Amarna letters). The ‘Apiru were considered disgruntled mercenaries and disturbers of the peace who were traveling throughout the region attacking the established cities

Pritchard describes their characteristics as follows:


 * "Originally the Habiru seem to have constituted a stratum of society rather than an ethnic group. While many of their names are Semitic, other names appear as well. According to George E. Mendenhall, the Habiru should be considered a people living outside the bounds of a given legal community, and not controlled by its laws and mores. The term would thus refer to unsettled, nomadic people who continually haunted the civilized communities around the Arabian Desert."

Some scholars have identified the Habiru as the biblical Hebrews based on the similar etymology. However, the Habiru were found as far north as Anatolia in the Hittite region and it is generally agreed that the terms were not synonymous.

However, given the characteristics of the Hebrews, Pfeiffer states:


 * "It is possible however, that the Hebrews were regarded in the same light as the Habiru in the period before the establishment of the Israelite monarchy. Abraham is called “the Hebrew” (Gen 14:13) in a context in which he is involved in the political struggles of the day. Most of the Biblical uses of the term Hebrew appear in contexts in which Israelites identify themselves to other people, or in which other peoples discuss the Israelites (cf. Gen. 39:14, 17; 40:15; 41:12; 43:32). While all Habiru were not Hebrews, the Israelites were regarded as Habiru by the people among whom they lived"

Tablet EA88

 * "...i[f the k]ing, my lord, does [not give heed] to the words of [his] ser[vant], then Gubla will be joined to him, and all the lands of the king, as far as Egypt, will be joined to the ˓Apiru. Moreover, should my lord not have wor[d] brought to hi[s] serv‹ant› by tablet,"

Tablet EA284

 * "Be informed, O king, my lord, that all the lands of the king, my lord, have been taken away. I am all alone."

Tablet EA287

 * "If this year there are archers, then the lands and the mayors will belong to the king, my lord. But if there are no archers, then the ki[ng] will have neither lands nor mayors. Consider Jerusalem! This neither my father nor m[y] mother gave to me. The [str]ong hand [of the king] gave it to me. Consider the deed! This is the deed of Milkilu and the deed of the sons of Lab˒ayu, who have given the land of the king ‹to› the ˓Apiru."

Tablet EA290

 * "They seized Rubutu. The land of the king deserted to the Ḫapiru. And now, besides this, a town belonging to Jerusalem, Bitninurta by name, a city of the king, has gone over to the side of the men of Qiltu. May the king give heed to ˓Abdi-Ḫeba, your servant, and send archers to restore the land of the king to the king. If there are no archers, the land of the king will desert to the Ḫapiru."

Tablet EA336

 * Only ˓Abdi-Ḫeba and I have been at war with (that) ˓Apiru. Surata, the ruler of Akka, and Endaruta, the ruler of Akšapa, (these) two also have come to my aid: with 50 chariots, and now they are on my side in the war. So may it seem right in the sight of the king, my lord, and may he send Yanḫamu so that we may all wage war and you restore the land of the king, my lord, to its borders."

Academic Sources


Ancient Sources
