Joshua 24:8

"And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that dwelt beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and ye possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab arose and fought against Israel: and he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you; but I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. And ye went over the Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Gergashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. And I gave you a land whereon thou hadst not labored, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell therein; of vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not do ye eat."

Holmes stated that, "`Fought against Israel' (Joshua 24:9) should be omitted, because Balak did not join battle with Israel."[23] Such an opinion overlooks the near identity between Moab and Midian at that time in history. Numbers 31:8 reveals that five kings of Midian were slain, as well as Balaam, the implication that Balaam also "fought against Israel," despite there being no verse that states that he declared war on Israel. Balak as an ally of Midian also "fought against Israel," as revealed here; and he suffered the same fate as the other enemies of Israel. Besides all that, Balak's hiring of Balaam to curse Israel was an act of war by any standard whatever. Therefore, the statement here that "he warred against Israel" stands. It is the truth! Even the declarations in Deuteronomy 2:9 and Judges 11:25 to the effect that no battle took place cannot deny the state of war that existed between Balak and Israel. Critics try to make some big deal out of this but without any success. There are no contradictions here. As Plummer put it, "There is not the slightest shadow of difference between the view of Balaam (and his sponsor Balak) presented to us in this short paragraph and that in which he appears to us in the more expanded narrative of Moses."[24]

"Joshua 24:11-13, above, are a summary of Joshua 1-12; it was God who gave you the victory, not your sword, or your bow."[25]

"The hornet ..." (Joshua 24:12). "There is no unanimity among scholars as to what this means ... Some think it does not refer to insects, but to irrational fear and panic."[26] In our view, such views are not contradictory; there were doubtless examples of both: (1) actual hornets who drove the soldiers half-mad, and (2) inordinate and fearful panic which immobilized and destroyed them. As Woudstra said, "Great fear experienced by the nations of Canaan is not absent from the book (Joshua 2:9; 5:1)."[27] Whichever is meant, or even if both are meant, "The intention is plainly to emphasize that Jehovah's agency was the effective factor in Israel's victories, and not Israel's sword or bow."[28]