He was killed by Joshua.
10. Then Joshua turned back at that time, and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor formerly was the head of all these kingdoms.
11. They struck every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire.
Joshua 11:10-11 NASB
He was killed 120 years after Joshua’s death.
1 Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”
Judges 1:1 NASB
1. Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died.
2. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.
3. The sons of Israel cried to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years.
Judges 4:1-3 NASB
Confusion about Jabin
The Israelites who entered the land Canaan under Joshua had several wars. One great battle was against the allied Canaanite forces under the leadership of Jabin. His alliance was dispersed, his city destroyed. However in the book of Judges we read that – about 150 years later – Jabin, the king of Canaan, attacked the Israelites from Hazor with 900 iron chariots. A seeming Bible Contradiction?
No, this is a typical SAB Contradiction. The critic is pretty ignorant about the facts. No theologian has ever cast doubt on the insight that there were two kings of Hazor named Jabin; it is generally seen as a possibility that they belonged to the same royal dynasty, as their names seem to indicate. They lived more than 120 years after each other.
Overview
Intermixture of the two events isn’t possible, taking into account the diverging features of the different battles.
| First war (Joshua 11) | Second war (Judges 4) | |
|
Military leadership Israel |
Joshua Joshua Jabin Jabin, King of Hazor Merom Allied forces of Canaanite cities – Jabin burnt |
Barak, son of Abinoam Deborah Sisera, commander in chief Jabin, King of Canaan Mount Tabor, river Kishon Army of Jabin 900 iron chariots Sisera – |
First war
Hazor was a city in the north of Israel. Jabin, the King of Hazor, had brought together a great alliance of peoples with their kings from other parts of Canaan. They assembled at the waters of Merom. Suddenly at sunrise Joshua and his army attacked the allied forces. There were so many horses that they had to hamstring them. The victory was so complete that by this battle the power of the Canaanites had been broken at once. The city of Hazor had been burnt as a sign of the victory. Jabin, the king of Hazor, was killed.
Second war
About 150 years later. Apparently the Israelites didn’t take possession of the city of Hazor as when they had burnt it. The Canaanites returned to the city to rebuild it. The power of the other Canaanite cities had been broken and came under control of the Israelites, but Hazor again could grow in military force. Jabin, about 150 years later bore the same name as one of his forefathers, but was of different a state of mind. Instead of taking command of his army himself, he gave the task to his first general Sisera. That gave him the possibility to survive after the defeat and to withdraw in his city Hazor. A woman, Jael, took the life of Sisera. After a longer period of military oppression the Israelites could conquer the town again and destroy it’s king.
Conclusion
It’s obvious that the features of the two wars against Hazor are completely different and as said earlier: no one has ever cast doubt on the insight that there were two kings of Hazor with the name: Jabin.
No Bible Contradiction