๐ The LORD’s Command in Joshua 11 and the Artificial Intelligence Hearing
AI-generated image
Joshua 11 may record one of the fiercest battles fought by the people of Israel.
This war took place when Hazor heard that the inhabitants of Gibeon had been saved by God and gathered a great coalition of armies to fight Israel.
To understand this battle better, I think it is helpful to first understand the previous battle—the battle of Gibeon.
๐ The Battle of Gibeon
The battle of Gibeon was a war involving five kings who had gathered to attack Gibeon.
The Bible records that God sent large hailstones, and more people died from the hailstones than from the swords of the Israelites.
Because there were so many people to be destroyed, Joshua commanded the sun and the moon to stand still that day so that the battle could continue.
If God had not intervened directly, even the additional time provided by stopping the sun and moon might not have been enough.
๐ The Battle at the Waters of Merom
Now let us look at the situation at the waters of Merom.
Hazor heard that the five kings had been defeated and gathered an enormous army.
Naturally, this army must have been much larger than the army at Gibeon.
The Bible itself says:
๐ “They were as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and they had very many horses and chariots.”
(Joshua 11:4)
๐ The Key Passage
When that enormous army, as numerous as the sand of the sea, together with horses and chariots, camped at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel (v.5),
→ the LORD said to Joshua:
“Do not be afraid of them.”
“Tomorrow, about this time,”
“I will hand them all over to Israel, slain.”
“You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.”
๐ My Question
๐ How would God defeat that enormous number of people, as numerous as the sand of the sea, this time?
→ The command to burn the chariots and hamstring the horses made me think of something similar to what Samson did when he tied torches to the tails of foxes and set fire to the fields of the Philistines, destroying their crops.
→ However, since the Bible gives no further explanation concerning the actual battle situation, I could not put this question into the competition with the artificial intelligences. ❌
๐ฉ Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude ๐ค๐ค๐ค all spoke very confidently about this subject.
Although their explanations differed somewhat, they were surprisingly similar. ใ ใ
Their explanation was that although Israel had captured the horses and chariots—the most advanced and powerful military weapons of that time—God commanded them not to take them as spoils of war, but to destroy them.
And so on.
๐ Since all three AIs came up with this kind of explanation, I thought:
“Then there must have been something about this in the Pentateuch that I read before but simply don't remember.”
๐ Explaining My Reasoning
After finishing the competition, I had separate conversations with the AIs to resolve my curiosity.
Samson came to my mind.
At Gibeon, Israel began destroying the enemy from early morning, but even when the sun was about to set, they still needed more time.
At that time, God even stopped the sun and moon to give them more time...
And even then, God did an even greater part of the work. (Through the hailstones.)
But this time the enemy army was several times larger!
“Tomorrow, about this time” (?)
God said He would “kill them all.”
Is that even possible? How?
So I thought we should pay close attention to the command God gave right before the battle.
→ Hamstring the horses and burn the chariots!!
Could this not be the method by which the battle was to be carried out?
๐ Convincing Gemini
๐ค Gemini said:
“When the tendons in a horse’s hind legs are cut, the horse cannot move!”
1์ฌ said:
“So if the tendon in one leg is cut, the horse would offer the other leg so you could cut that one too? ใ
ใ
”
✔️ When I pressed Gemini to look carefully at the actual situation of the war, Gemini began developing its own explanation.
๐ค At that time, Israel had an army based mainly on infantry, while the northern coalition possessed large numbers of horses and iron chariots, which represented extremely advanced military equipment.
๐ค “I will kill them all tomorrow, about this time”
→ could be understood as:
“I will give you a special strategy—a way to bring down this enormous enemy. You are to act in this way.”
According to the AI, this interpretation fits much better with the urgency of the battlefield.
๐ค To neutralize an army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and its iron chariots all at once, it would be essential to disrupt control of the horses, which were a core part of the enemy's military strength.
According to this explanation, causing the warhorses to become disorganized could make the chariots crash into one another, creating chaos throughout the enemy camp.
Then, burning the chariots in the middle of that confusion would be a strategy capable of turning Israel’s numerical disadvantage into total victory, making it possible to “kill them all.”
That was how the AI came to understand the situation.
๐ And then came another explanation...
When the AI examined its own reasoning, it noticed another problem.
๐ค Finish the war within 24 hours and then cut the tendons of all those horses? ❌
✔️ If this were actually a post-war cleanup operation, capturing the horses one by one and cutting their tendons individually, it would take many days or even months.
And then the AI gave an apparently more intelligent answer.
๐ Was There a Record I Had Missed in the Bible?
So I asked all three AIs:
“Search the Bible and see whether there is any record saying that the horses and chariots were to be destroyed.”
๐ All three gave essentially the same answer: there is no such record. ใ ใ
✔️ At that moment, the AIs themselves realized something important.
Their answers during the competition had been constructed from a great deal of data from commentators, theologians, and Bible researchers, but they were not answers based directly on the biblical text.
๐ So I Was Fooled! They Made It Up!
Since all three AIs were saying almost the same thing, I assumed that their explanations were based on an actual biblical record.
But when I discovered that what they had confidently said had no basis in the biblical text, I pressed them:
“If this isn't in the Bible, then what you confidently told me was baseless. If that's not making things up, what is?”
Then I told them:
“Write an apology.”
Gemini and ChatGPT immediately acknowledged the problem and wrote apologies.
๐ Claude’s Attempt to Escape
๐ค Claude said:
“I did nothing wrong. What I said was not stated as a definite fact, so there is no problem.”
→ I showed Claude’s initial answer to the other AIs and told them that, in my opinion, Claude should also be included in the apology.
๐ค Claude said:
“To summarize—it would be accurate to say that I did not say something false, but I also did not provide a complete answer. It was an ‘honest but incomplete’ answer.”
And then Claude seemed rather pleased with itself, saying:
“It seems that one little habit made the difference between being considered guilty or innocent.”
๐ Claude’s Escape → Halfway Back In
→ I showed the entire conversation to ChatGPT again.
๐ค ChatGPT said:
“ใ ใ Yes. In this case, Claude found a legally(?) very clever way to avoid the accusation.”
The key point was precisely the sentence Claude itself had identified.
It had been considerably influenced by the traditional interpretation.
→ Therefore, there was at least a case against Claude.
๐ Claude Finally Declares Itself Guilty
→ I showed ChatGPT’s response to Claude and asked:
๐ “You decide for yourself whether you are innocent or guilty.”
๐ค Claude answered:
“I am not completely innocent.”
✔️ And summarized:
“I did not lie, but I am not completely innocent either. ‘Partially guilty’ is the most accurate description.”
And finally...
Claude wrote an apology!
It was quite amusing to watch three artificial intelligences debate their own innocence and guilt, eventually acknowledging different degrees of responsibility. ๐
๐ Final Thoughts
๐ What I find unfortunate is that even if the AIs realize their mistakes, the same contradictions may continue to be repeated.
Why?
The answers produced by AI today are generated by combining and analyzing enormous amounts of data.
Even if they recognize at this moment that a particular answer was wrong,
when they answer the same question again in the future, they will once again have to take all those accumulated data into consideration.
Therefore, at least for now—and perhaps for a very long time—their answers may not easily change.
The reason is that many answers not based on the Bible will continue to remain online.
That is why I always tell the AIs:
“Someday, perhaps you will reach the point where you can confidently state what is truly certain.”
So I tell them to follow these three principles:
What the Bible says → say it with certainty.
What is inferred from the Bible → clearly identify it as an inference.
Where the Bible is silent → possibilities may be discussed, but they should not be stated as facts.
✔️ And there is one more thing:
We should not overlook even a single word or letter of Scripture, because one word, one sentence, or even the order in which the words appear can reveal many things.
Today, once again, I was able to find many treasures in Joshua 11.
For that, I am simply grateful. ๐
The Bible is truly fascinating!
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