the king of Tirzah, one: in all, thirty-one kings.After the quick conquest described in the past chapter, it's easy to overlook the significance of what the Israelites did. They've now taken out 31 kings, which means 31 nations. Given that these were small, fractious nations, it's not as significant as some might think (31 "kings" would be most of the western hemisphere, for example), but still is notable.
This is an army that has been in exile for 40 years, with no support base to be seen, and relatively few battles fought. Now they have taken the territory of over thirty peoples and united it into a single domain, and from all appearances they've lost very few people in the process. This is now a large country for the area, and in a key strategic location. In some ways, they've become a new superpower, especially with God on their side.
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