📖 Biblical Definition
The Conquest is Israel’s entry into and military possession of the land of Canaan under Joshua — fulfilling the Abrahamic land-promise: "In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18). The conquest occupied roughly seven years and is recorded in the books of Joshua and Judges. It was both a divine judgment on the Canaanite nations for their accumulated wickedness — "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" (Genesis 15:16) — and a covenant gift to Israel. The conquest is selective (not every Canaanite city was destroyed); the spiritual application is the church’s warfare against indwelling sin in the heart-land.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
CON'QUEST, n.
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1. The act of conquering; the act of overcoming or vanquishing opposition by force, physical or moral; victory. 2. The conquest of Canaan — the entry of Israel under Joshua into the promised land.
📖 Key Scripture
Joshua 1:3 — "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you."
Joshua 11:23 — "So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses."
Genesis 15:16 — "In the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."
Joshua 21:45 — "There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken... all came to pass."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern critics call the conquest genocide; Scripture calls it long-warned judgment after 400 years of mercy.
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The conquest of Canaan is one of the most-attacked passages in Scripture by modern moralists, who call it ethnic cleansing and reject any God who would command it. The text refuses the framing. Genesis 15:16 records the Lord telling Abraham that his descendants would not return to Canaan for four hundred years because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. The Lord waited four centuries while a culture practiced child sacrifice, sacred prostitution, and progressive moral collapse. The conquest is divine judgment after 400 years of warning.
The conquest also demonstrates the seriousness with which God takes the land promise. Joshua 21:45: there failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken... all came to pass. Every promise. Every parcel. The God who keeps the land promise to Joshua is the same God who keeps every promise to His saints. He does not start projects He cannot finish.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew yarash (H3423), to possess, dispossess.
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H3423 — yarash — to possess, inherit, dispossess
H3925 — lakhad — to capture, take
Usage
"The conquest is divine judgment after 400 years of warning, not arbitrary genocide."
"Modern moralists reject the God who commanded it; Scripture says He waited four centuries."
"Every promise. Every parcel. The God who kept the land promise keeps every promise."