A common misinterpretation views this alliance as an unprovoked act of Canaanite aggression without context, ignoring Gibeon's prior deceptive covenant with Israel that threatened Amorite dominance; others erroneously frame it as endorsement of preemptive coalitions in modern geopolitics or proof of biblical favoritism toward invaders, overlooking the narrative's emphasis on God's judgment against idolatrous nations occupying land promised to Israel centuries earlier, or mistakenly attribute the initiative to Israel rather than the kings' reaction to the Gibeonite treaty.
Joshua 10:5
King James Version (1769)
5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.
This verse depicts the unified military response of five Amorite kings from Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon against Gibeon, whose leaders had recently deceived Joshua into a treaty of peace with Israel, prompting these regional powers to rally their forces in a coordinated assault to defend their territory and counter Israel's advancing conquest under God's command, illustrating the intensifying opposition to Israel's divinely ordained inheritance of the Promised Land.