Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal,
Some of the critics think that Joshua should have waited long afterward for this elaborate ceremony, until all of Canaan had been subdued. However, it was Joshua who was correct in his accurate decision that this great ceremony belongs early in the Conquest, just as soon as it was safe to carry it out.  In view of this great ceremony coming exactly here, we must conclude that the two initial victories at Jericho and Ai were not all of the victories Israel had won, but especially important ones.  There were 31 kingdoms subdued by Joshua in Canaan, and yet this book contains no account whatever of some of them, including Bethel, which, as we have seen, probably occurred almost simultaneously with the destruction of Ai. "Joshua does not profess to give an exhaustive account of the conquest of Canaan."[27]