Joshua 12:14 Meaning and Explanation

Hormah and Arad lay in the Negev, the dry south. Arad's king had once attacked Israel during the wilderness years and taken captives; the very name Hormah recalls an earlier reversal and devotion to destruction in that region.

These southern names reach back to wounds suffered long before, in the desert wanderings. What had once been a place of defeat is now a place of victory recorded. God does not forget old sorrows; in time He answers them. The patient reader sees that the Lord redeems even former losses, weaving them at last into the story of His triumph.