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Hoham

King living before Israel's Monarchy

Hoham, the Amorite king of Hebron, was one of the five kings who formed an alliance against Joshua and the Israelites, but was ultimately defeated.

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Hoham was the Amorite king of Hebron during the time of Joshua's conquest of Canaan, as mentioned in Jos.10.3. When the Gibeonites made a peace treaty with Israel, Hoham formed an alliance with four other Amorite kings—Adoni-Zedek of Jerusalem, Piram of Jarmuth, Japhia of Lachish, and Debir of Eglon—to attack Gibeon (Jos.10.1-5).

In response to the Gibeonites' request for help, Joshua and the Israelite army marched through the night and launched a surprise attack on the Amorite forces. With the help of God, who sent large hailstones and caused the sun to stand still, the Israelites defeated the Amorite kings and their armies (Jos.10.6-11).

The five Amorite kings, including Hoham, fled and hid in a cave at Makkedah. Joshua ordered the cave to be sealed until the battle was finished. After the victory, the kings were brought out of the cave, and Joshua instructed his commanders to put their feet on the kings' necks, symbolizing their complete defeat. The kings were then executed and hanged on trees until evening (Jos.10.16-27).

Hoham's story illustrates the power and faithfulness of God in fulfilling His promise to give the Israelites the land of Canaan. It also demonstrates the consequences of opposing God's people and the ultimate victory of those who trust in Him.

Bible dictionary

Hoham Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

Jehovah impels, the king of Hebron who joined the league against Gibeon. He and his allies were defeated (Josh. 10:3, 5, 16-27).

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Hoham Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

(whom Jehovah impels), king of Hebron at the time of the conquest of Canaan. (Joshua 10:3) (B.C. 1450.)

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Hoham Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

woe to them

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Hoham Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

HO'HAM (whom Jehovah incites), king of Hebron, Josh 10:3.

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Hoham Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

HO'HAM (whom Jehovah incites), king of Hebron, Josh 10:3.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Hoham appears

1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H1944

Joshua1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.