Yehoshua 12: One King, One King, One King

YINR 929: Tanach Yomi · Jun 3, 2026 · 2m

At the end of the chapter, the Navi lists the 31 kings defeated as part of the conquest of Canaan. The kings are listed in column fashion and each king is listed with the number one after. Why are they listed in this way? Why not count them sequentially? Radak explains that each king was not a ruler of only one city, but was the ruler of one main city and many affiliated cities. The one next to each name is referring to the one kingdom that each ruled over. The cadence of this list matches the list of Esav’s descendants in Genesis 36:17, “These are the chieftains of Esav’s sons: From the sons…