These cities were ¹  in the desert: Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah,

Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them and they retreated along the way to the desert.

including the hill country, the lowlands, ¹  the Arabah, the slopes, the wilderness, and the Negev – the land of ²  the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites:

Your territory will extend from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north. It will extend all the way to the great River Euphrates in the east (including all of Syria) ¹  and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea ²  in the west. ³ 

This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt. ¹ 

Now ¹  all the men ²  who left were circumcised, but all the sons ³  born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised.

The land allotted to the tribe of Judah by its clans reached to the border of Edom, to the Wilderness of Zin in the Negev far to the south. ¹ 

The land allotted to Joseph’s descendants extended from the Jordan at Jericho ¹  to the waters of Jericho to the east, through the desert and on up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel. ² 

When the men of Ai turned around, they saw ¹  the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction. ²  In the meantime the men who were retreating to the desert turned against their pursuers.

When Israel had finished killing all the men ¹  of Ai who had chased them toward the desert ²  (they all fell by the sword), ³  all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it.

Their northern border started at the Jordan, went up to the slope of Jericho ¹  on the north, ascended westward to the hill country, and extended to the desert of Beth Aven.

Beyond the Jordan east of Jericho ¹  they selected ²  Bezer in the desert on the plain belonging to the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan belonging to the tribe of Manasseh.

Your fathers ¹  cried out for help to the Lord; he made the area between you and the Egyptians dark, ²  and then drowned them in the sea. ³  You witnessed with your very own eyes ⁴  what I did in Egypt. You lived in the wilderness for a long time. ⁵ 

Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. ¹  For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, ²  a land rich in ³  milk and honey.

So now, look, the Lord has preserved my life, just as he promised, these past forty-five years since the Lord spoke these words to Moses, during which Israel traveled through the wilderness. Now look, I am today eighty-five years old.