Battle of the Waters of Merom

According to the Bible, the Battle of the Waters of Merom was a battle between the Israelites and a coalition of Canaanite city-states. It has been suggested that this battle may never have taken place, and that its narrative might have "preserved some remote echoes of wars conducted in these places in early Iron Age I."

Around 40 years before the battle, the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt, the Exodus, led by Moses. They entered Canaan where an alliance of city-states in northern Canaan sent a force to halt the Israelite invasion. The Israelites counterattacked, catching their forces unaware and routing them with a fearsome head-on assault. The battle is described in Joshua chapter 11.