Now when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them,
Parallel Translations
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Now when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them,
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Now it came to pass, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
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Now it came to pass, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Joshua 10:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High.
- Joshua 6:21 They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
- Joshua 8:2 You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
- Joshua 8:22-29 The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua. When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the people of Ai. For Joshua didn’t draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Israel took for themselves only the livestock and the goods of that city, according to Yahweh’s word which he commanded Joshua. So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day. He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening. At sundown, Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.
- Joshua 9:15-27 Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them. At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them. The children of Israel traveled and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim. The children of Israel didn’t strike them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel. All the congregation murmured against the princes. But all the princes said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel. Now therefore we may not touch them. We will do this to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.” The princes said to them, “Let them live.” So they became wood cutters and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the princes had spoken to them. Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you live among us? Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you will never fail to be slaves, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.” They answered Joshua, and said, “Because your servants were certainly told how Yahweh your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. Now, behold, we are in your hand. Do to us as it seems good and right to you to do.” He did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they didn’t kill them. That day Joshua made them wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for Yahweh’s altar to this day, in the place which he should choose.
- Joshua 11:19-20 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took all in battle. For it was of Yahweh to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Hebrews 7:1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. Now it came to pass, etc He had…
1. Now it came to pass, etc He had formerly briefly glanced at, but now more fully details the conspiracy of the kings, who dwelt both in the mountains and in the plain. For after mentioning that they were struck with fear, and leagued together to make common war, he had broken off abruptly, and proceeded to speak of the Gibeonites. But what he had previously said of the kings in general, he now applies only to one individual; not because Adoni-zedek alone was afraid, but because he stirred up all the others, and was the principal originator and leader in carrying on the war against the Israelites. This is sufficiently expressed by the plural number of the verb; for it is said, When Adoni-zedek had heard — they feared greatly. From this it appears that they were all of the same mind, but that while some of them held back from fear, he who possessed greater authority, and was nearer the danger, invited the four others to arms.
In the beginning of the chapter it is again told, how the five kings formed an alliance to meet the Israelites, and ward off the overthrow with which they were all threatened. But as the Gibeonites had meanwhile surrendered, they first turned their arms against them, both that by inflicting punishment upon them, as the betrayers of their country, they might make them an example to all their neighbors, and that by striking terror into those vanquished enemies, they might also inspire their own soldiers with confidence. They resolve, therefore, to attack the Gibeonites who, by their embassy, had made a disruption and opened a passage to the Israelites. They had, indeed, a fair pretext for war, in resolving to punish the effeminacy of those who had chosen to give their sanction to strangers, about to lay the whole country waste, rather than faithfully defend their neighbors. And the Gibeonites experienced how useless their crafty counsel must have been, had they not been saved in pity by the Israelites. Meanwhile the Lord allowed them to be involved in danger, in order that, being twice freed, they might more willingly and meekly submit to the yoke.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jos 10:1 Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek…
Jos 10:1 Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
Ver. 1. When Adonizedec king of Jerusalem.] A glorious name, fitter for Messiah the Prince, - for it signifieth the same in effect with Melchizedek, "which is by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of peace," - than {Heb 7:2} for such a tyrant. {Jdg 1:7} But it is nothing new for that kind of men to affect glorious titles, as did Antiochus Soter, Ptolomeus Euergetes, &c. The great Turk styleth himself at this day, Awlem Penawh, that is, the world’s refuge. {a}
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Had heard that Joshua had taken Ai, &c.] And that now their turn was not far off -
“ Iam tun res agitur, paries cure proximus ardet. ”
This they hardly, and not till needs must, take notice of: sin and Satan having cast them into a dead lethargy, out of which they are hardly roused.
And were among them.] Having embraced their religion, and glad to do them service. This caused the devil and his imps to set up their bristles, and to seek their destruction.
{a} Grand Sign. Serag., 148.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain i.e. Were conversant with them, had yielded themselves to…
i.e. Were conversant with them, had yielded themselves to their disposal, submitted themselves to their laws, had mingled interests with them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Joshua and the hosts of Israel had now been…
Joshua and the hosts of Israel had now been a good while in the land of Canaan, and no great matters were effected; they were made masters of Jericho by a miracle, of Ai by stratagem, and of Gibeon by surrender, and that was all; hitherto the progress of their victories had not seemed proportionable to the magnificence of their entry and the glory of their beginnings. Those among them that were impatient of delays, it is probable, complained of Joshua's slowness, and asked why they did not immediately penetrate into the heart of the country, before the enemy could rally their forces to make head against them, why they stood trifling, while they were so confident both of their title and of their success. Thus Joshua's prudence, perhaps, was censured as slothfulness, cowardice, and want of spirit. But, 1. Canaan was not to be conquered in a day. God had said that by little and little he would drive out the Canaanites, Exo 23:30. He that believeth will not make haste, or conclude that the promise will never be performed because it is not performed so soon as he expected. 2. Joshua waited for the Canaanites to be the aggressors; let them first make an onset upon Israel, or the allies of Israel, and then their destruction will be, or at least will appear to be, the more just and more justifiable. Joshua had warrant sufficient to set upon them, yet he stays till they strike the first stroke, that he might provide for honest things in the sight, not only of God, but of men; and they would be the more inexcusable in their resistance, now that they had seen what favour the Gibeonites found with Israel. 3. It was for the advantage of Israel to sit still awhile, that the forces of these little kings might unite in one body, and so might the more easily be cut off at one blow. This God had in his eye when he put it into their hearts to combine against Israel; though they designed thereby to strengthen one another, that which he intended was to gather them as sheaves into the floor, to fall together under the flail, Mic 4:12. Thus oftentimes that seeming paradox proves wholesome counsel, Stay awhile, and we shall have done the sooner.
After Israel had waited awhile for an occasion to make war upon the Canaanites, a fair one offers itself. 1. Five kings combine against the Gibeonites. Adoni-zedec king of Jerusalem was the first mover and ring-leader of this confederacy. He had a good name (it signifies lord of righteousness), being a descendant perhaps from Melchizedek, king of righteousness; but, notwithstanding the goodness of his name and family, it seems he was a bad man, and an implacable enemy to the posterity of that Abraham to whom his predecessor, Melchizedek, was such a faithful friend. He called upon his neighbours to join against Israel either because he was the most honourable prince, and had the precedency among these kings (perhaps they had some dependence upon him, at least they paid a deference to him, as the most public, powerful, and active man they had among them), or because he was first or most apprehensive of the danger his country was in, not only by the conquest of Jericho and Ai, but the surrender of Gibeon, which, it seems, was the chief thing that alarmed him, it being one of the most considerable frontier towns they had. Against Gibeon therefore all the force he would raise must be leveled. Come, says he, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon. This he resolves to do, either, (1.) In policy, that he might retake the city, because it was a strong city, and of great consequence to this country in whose hands it was; or, (2.) In passion, that he might chastise the citizens for making peace with Joshua, pretending that they had perfidiously betrayed their country and strengthened the common enemy, whereas they had really done the greatest kindness imaginable to their country, by setting them a good example, if they would have followed it. Thus Satan and his instruments make war upon those that make peace with God. Marvel not if the world hate you, and treat those as deserters who are converts to Christ. 2. The Gibeonites send notice to Joshua of the distress and danger they are in, Jos 10:6. Now they expect benefit from the league they had made with Israel, because, though it was obtained by deceit, it was afterwards confirmed when the truth came out. They think Joshua obliged to help them, (1.) In conscience, because they were his servants; not in compliment, as they had said in their first address (Jos 9:8), We are thy servants, but in reality made servants to the congregation; and it is the duty of masters to take care of the poorest and meanest of their servants, and not to see them wronged when it is in the power of their hand to right them. Those that pay allegiance may reasonably expect protection. Thus David pleads with God (Psa 119:94), I am thine, save me; and so may we, if indeed we be his. (2.) In honour, because the ground of their enemies' quarrel with them was the respect they had shown to Israel, and the confidence they had in a covenant with them. Joshua cannot refuse to help them when it is for their affection to him, and to the name of his God, that they are attacked. David thinks it a good plea with God (Psa 69:7), For thy sake I have borne reproach. When our spiritual enemies set themselves in array against us, and threaten to swallow us up, let us, by faith and prayer, apply to Christ, our Joshua, for strength and succour, as Paul did, and we shall receive the same answer of peace, My grace is sufficient for thee, Co2 12:8, Co2 12:9.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of…
Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem,.... So called, perhaps by anticipation, Jerusalem, since it seems to have had this name given it by the Israelites, when they had got possession of it: and Jerusalem signifies "the possession of Salem" (w), and in memory of this its ancient name, the Jews say (x), they do not put "jod" in Jerusalem between "lamed" and "mem"; though some make the signification of it, "they shall see peace" (y); and others, nearer to its old name, and with respect to it, "fear Salem", O ye enemies. Now the king of this place
had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; which, being nearer to him than Jericho, the more alarmed him:
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as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; burnt the one, and slew the other; and this terrified him, lest he and his city should undergo the same fate:
and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them; which as it weakened the interest of the kings of Canaan, might set an example to other places to do the like. Abarbinel suggests, that the Gibeonites making peace with Israel secretly, without the knowledge of their king, as he supposes, made Adonizedek fearful, lest his subjects should do the like; the Jewish chronologers say (z), that these three acts respecting Jericho, Ai, and Gibeon, were all finished within three months.
(w) Reland, p. 833. (x) Gloss. in T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 16. 1. (y) Vid. Stockium, p. 480. (z) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p. 31.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain In this chapter we have an account of the…
In this chapter we have an account of the confederacy against Gibeon, and the request of the Gibeonites to Joshua, ver. 1-6. Of Joshua's marching and defeating the confederate kings, ver. 7-11. Of the sun's standing still, ver. 12-14. Of the execution of the kings, ver. 15-27. Of the taking their cities, and conquering all that country, ver. 28-42. Of the return of the army to Gilgal, ver. 43.
Among them - That is, were conversant with them, had submitted to their laws, and mingled interests with them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, hearing of the capture of…
CHAPTER X
Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, hearing of the capture of Ai,
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and that the Gibeonites had made peace with Israel, calls to
his assistance four other kings to fight against Gibeon, 1-4.
They join forces, and encamp against Gibeon, 5.
The Gibeonites send to Joshua for succour, 6,
who immediately marches to their relief, receives encouragement
from God, and falls suddenly on the confederate forces, 7-9,
and defeats them; they fly, and multitudes of them are slain by
a miraculous shower of hail-stones, 10, 11.
Joshua, finding that the day began to fail, prayed that the sun
and moon might stand still, that they might have time to pursue
and utterly destroy these confederate forces, 12.
The sun and moon stand still, and make that day as long as two,
13, 14.
Joshua and the people return to their camp at Gilgal, 15.
The five kings having taken shelter in a cave at Makkedah,
Joshua commanded the people to roll great stones against the
mouth of the cave, and set a watch to keep it, while Israel
were pursuing their enemies, 16-19.
The Israelites return to Makkedah, bring forth the five kings,
then slay and hang them on five trees, 20-27.
The Israelites take and destroy Makkedah, 28,
and Libnah, 29, 30,
and Lachish, 31, 32,
and defeat Horam king of Gezer, 33,
and take Eglon, 34, 35,
and Hebron, 36, 37,
and Debir, 38, 39,
and all the country of the hills, south, vale, and springs, and
the whole country from Kadesh-Barnea to Gibeon, 40-42.
They return to Gilgal, 43.
NOTES ON CHAP. X
Verse 1. Adoni-zedec] This name signifies the Lord of justice or righteousness; and it has been conjectured that the Canaanitish kings assumed this name in imitation of that of the ancient patriarchal king of this city, Melchizedek, whose name signifies king of righteousness, or my righteous king: a supposition that is not improbable, when the celebrity of Melchizedek is considered.
Jerusalem] ירושלם Yerushalam. This word has been variously explained; if it be compounded of שלם shalam, peace, perfection, &c., and ראה raah, he saw, it may signify the vision of peace-or, he shall see peace or perfection.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jos 10:1. Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem — Who seems…
Jos 10:1. Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem — Who seems to have been the most powerful prince in Canaan, and carried in his name, which signifies The Lord of righteousness, an honourable title, such as had been anciently given to the kings of this place, who had been famous for doing justice. So Melchizedek undoubtedly was, of whom we have such honourable mention, Gen 14:18. King of Jerusalem — It is thought by many, that this city retained the name of Salem, which they suppose it had in Abraham’s time, till the Israelites came into the land of Canaan, and took possession of it, when they called it Jerusalem, from ירשׁ, Jarash, and שׁלום, Shalum, to possess peace: or from Jerus, the same as Jebus, with the change of one letter only, and Shalem, the place having belonged to the Jebusites. How the inhabitants of Gibeon — were among them — Among the Israelites, that is, were conversant with them, had submitted to their laws, and mingled interests with them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Adoni-zedec - i. e “Lord of righteousness” (compare Melchizedek,…
Adoni-zedec - i. e “Lord of righteousness” (compare Melchizedek, “King of righteousness”); probably an official title of the Jebusite kings.
Jerusalem - i. e. “foundation of peace,” compare Gen 14:18. The city belonged to the inheritance of Benjamin Jos 18:28, but was on the very edge of the territory of Judah Jos 15:8. Hence, it was the strong and war-like tribe of Judah which eventually captured the lower part of the city, most likely in the days of Joshua’s later conquests Jdg 1:8, and after the warlike strength of the Jebusites had been weakened by the defeat in the open field, recorded in this chapter. The upper town, more especially the fortified hill of Zion, remained in the hands of the Jebusites, who accordingly kept a footing in the place, along with the men of Judah and Benjamin, even after the conquest Jos 15:63; Jdg 1:21; and would seem, indeed, to have so far, and no doubt gradually, regained possession of the whole, that Jerusalem was spoken of in the days of the Judges as a Jebusite city. David finally stormed “the stronghold of Zion,” and called it “the City of David” 2Sa 5:6-9. It was, probably, only after this conquest and the adoption by David of the city as the religious and political metropolis of the whole nation, that the name Jerusalem came into use 2Sa 5:5 in substitution for Jehus.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 3. The great Victory at Gibeon over the five…
3. The great Victory at Gibeon over the five allied Canaanite Kings
Jos_10:1-27
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a. Investment of Gibeon by the five allied Kings
Jos_10:1-5
1Now [And] it came to pass, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem had [omit: had] heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed [devoted] it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so had he done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them; 2that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities [prop. one of the cities of the kingdom], and because it was greater than Ai, and all the 3men thereof were mighty. Wherefore [And] Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying, 4Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with 5the children of Israel. Therefore, [And] the [omit: 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 [camps], and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.
b. Slaughter at Gibeon
Jos_10:6-15
6And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand [hands] from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together 7against us. So [And] Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour [strong heroes]. 8And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered [given] them into thine 9hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. Joshua therefore [And Joshua] came upon them suddenly, [:] and went [he went up] from Gilgal all night. 10And the Lord [Jehovah] discomfited [Bunsen: brought into confusion; Knobel: scattered; Fay, De Wette, Zunz: confused] them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter [De Wette: effected a great overthrow among them; Fay, literally: smote them with a great stroke] at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to [the way of the ascent of] Beth-horon,1 and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. 11And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to [on the descent from] Beth-horon, that the Lord [Jehovah] cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with [the] hail-stones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
12Then spake Joshua to the Lord [Jehovah] in the day when the Lord [Jehovah] delivered up the Amorites before the children [sons] of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:
Sun, stand thou [omit: thou] still on Gibeon,
And thou [omit: thou], Moon, in the valley of Ajalon!
13And the sun stood still,
And the moon stayed,
Until the people [nation] had avenged themselves upon their enemies.
Is not this written in the book of Jasher [Fay: the upright (Rechtschaffenen) Luther: pious; De Wette: just [Redlichen]? So [And] the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. 14And there was no day like that before it or [and] after it, that the Lord [Jehovah] hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord [Jehovah] fought for Israel. 15And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
c. Flight and Destruction of the five Kings
Jos_10:16-27
16But [And] these five kings fled and hid themselves in a [the] cave at Makkedah. 17And it was told Joshua, saying: The five kings are found hid in a [the] cave at Makkedah. 18And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for [omit: for] to keep them: 19And stay ye not, but [omit: but] pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities; for the Lord [Jehovah] your God hath delivered [given] them into your hand.
20And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying [smiting] them with a very great slaughter [stroke], till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered [Fay: but those that remained 21of them escaped and came] into [the] fenced [fortified] cities. [,] And [that2] all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace: none moved 22[Fay, properly: pointed] his tongue against any of the children of Israel. Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave. 23And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and [omit: and] the king of Eglon. 24And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains [קְצִינִים, leaders] of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet upon the necks of them. 25And Joshua said to them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong, and of good courage [firm, Jos_1:6], for thus shall the Lord [Jehovah] do to all your enemies against whom ye fight. 26And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. 27And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave’s mouth, which remain [omit: which remain] until this very day.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The abandonment by Gibeon of the common cause leads Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, beyond doubt the most powerful of the Canaanite kings in Southern Palestine, to call upon the kings of Hebron, Lachish, Jarmuth, and Eglon, to chastise the apostate city. With this demand the princes named yielded compliance (Jos_10:1-5). But Joshua, being summoned by the Gibeonites to their assistance, hastens to aid his threatened allies, defeats the Canaanite kings in the famous battle at Gibeon, ever memorable on account of the much disputed standing still of the sun (Jos_10:6-15), and pursues and slays the confederates (Jos_10:16-27).
a. Investment of Gibeon by the five allied Kings (Jos_10:1-5),
Jos_10:1. אֲדֹנִי־צֶדֶק = Lord of righteousness. Better known than this Adoni-zedek is מַלכִּי־צֶדֶל = King of righteousness (Gen_14:18; Psa_110:4; Heb_5:6-10; Heb_6:20; Heb_7:1; Heb_7:10 and often), who was likewise king of Salem (Jerusalem). יְרוּשָׁלַםִ also יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (the latter form here and there in Chronicles, e.g.,1Ch_3:5, also on the coins of the Maccabæan age, while others have also the defective form, Gesen.), abbreviated, שָׁלֵם (Gen_14:18; Psa_76:3), from which it is evident that the proper pointing is יְרוּשָׁלֵם, as further, the Aram. יְרוּשְּׁלֵם, Ezr_4:20; Ezr_4:24; Ezr_5:1, and יְרוּשְׁלֶםEzr_5:14; Ezr_6:9, go to show. The Keri perpetuum —ִַ, which is a dual form, is explained (Fürst) as having arisen with reference to the double city (upper and lower), or, without respect to that, from the fact that the later Hebrews understood –ֵם to be an old dual form (still appearing in שְׁתֵּים ,שְׁנֵים and the nom. prop שׁוּנֵם ,עָנֵים, and had substituted for it the customary –ַיִם
The etymology is doubtful. Gesenius maintains the interpretation, supported by the translation of Saadjas: dwelling of peace. On this view, יְרוּ would be from יָרָה = dwelling or foundation, and שָׁלוֹם = שׁלֵם, which is favored by the Greek mode of writing Σόλυμα (Josephus, Ant. i. 10, 12; Paus. 8, 16, 3) and the Latin, Solyma (Mart. 10, 65, 5). Ewald holds the first part of the word to be an abbreviation of יְרוּשׁ = possession, and explains, possession of Shalem.” Hitzig (on Is. p. 1, ff.) goes back to ירוּשָׁה = possession, district, “district or possession of Salem.” More recently he holds, on Psa_76:3, that ירושׁלם should properly have been written יְרוּאשָׁלֵם which he translates (History of the People of Israel, i. 140) by: “Fear ye God undividedly.” Here it is to be further observed that according to Hitzig’s views שָׁלֵם, in the southern Arabic = a stone, was, with the Amorite יְבוּם, the old Canaanite name of the city [Jebusalem], which David changed into Jerusalem, while Hitzig adds that the city was earlier called Salem (?).
Fürst decides for the old etymology, appealing also to Saadjas on Isa_44:28; Isa_51:17; Isa_60:1; Isa_62:1; Isa_62:6, taking שָׁלֵם, however, = שָׁלוֹם, as an epithet of the most high God, as in אֲבִישָׁלוֹם. Thus ירושׁלב would be equal to יְרוּאֵל, 2Ch_20:16, meaning “foundation (or place, dwelling) of El,” and that as the Peaceful. It is striking that Fürst interprets שָׁלֵם, Gen_14:18; Psa_76:3, where it stands alone, without יְרוּ by “hilly place, summit,” from a supposed stem שׁלם, to be high. But it would be more obvious to explain it, in accordance with the meaning given to שׁלם in ירושׁלם, as “place of the Peaceful,” that is, of God.
“The later Arabic name of Jerusalem, el-Kuds or Beit el-Mukaddas, is only a circumlocution like עִיר הקּדֶֹשׁ in the Hebrew (Neh_11:18).” Fürst. On the topography of Jerusalem and its neighborhood, comp. Dr. E. G. Schultz, Jerusalem; W. Krafft, The Topography of Jerusalem; Tobler, Memoranda of Jerusalem, and, Topography of Jerusalem and its Vicinity, as also Menke’s Bible Atlas, map v., where on very carefully drawn side-maps the views of Tobler, Kiepert, Ferguson, Robinson, Krafft, and Sepp, concerning the plan of the city, are delineated.3
Jos_10:2. It is emphatically mentioned concerning Gibeon that it was a great city, “like one of the cities of the kingdom,” that is, perhaps, like a city in which a king dwelt, like a “royal city.”
Jos_10:3. Hebron, chaps, Jos_10:36; Jos_15:54, Jarmuth, Jos_15:35, Lachish and Eglon, Jos_15:39, lie in southern Canaan.
Jos_10:4. The enterprise is not directly against Joshua, but against Gibeon, because Gibeon has made peace with Joshua and the children of Israel.
Jos_10:5. The four kings hear the summons, and encamp around Gibeon. The names of the kings are not given here a second time, but the names of the cities over which they ruled, and in the same order as in Jos_10:3. The former names, however, are significant throughout, for Hoham is probably “whom Jehovah drives,” Piram “the wild ass” (similar designations among the aborigines of N A.), Japhia “splendid,” Debir “the writer,” on which the Lexicons may be consulted.
b. Battle of Gibeon, Jos_10:6-15.
Jos_10:6. The Gibeonites send to Joshua at Gilgal and implore help, and indeed, as the form of their expression indicates, immediate help. Observe the climax; slacken not thy hands (2Sa_24:16)—come up to us quickly—and save us—and help us. A very similar tone is adopted by the persecuted Christian congregation, Act_4:24-30, especially Jos_10:27-29.
Kings of the Amorites—a common designation of the five princes.
Jos_10:7. Joshua responds to the appeal and hastens marching all night long to reach them (Jos_10:9), and that with a select portion of the army—גבּוֹרֵי הֶהיִל, Jos_1:14. The וְ is to be taken as explicative, as Gen_3:16; comp. also Jos_14:6.
Jos_10:8. An encouraging address from Jehovah.
Jos_10:9. A more particular statement of what has been told (Jos_10:7).—Suddenly comes he upon them because he has marched the whole night. In the morning he stands before them, when they believe him to be yet at his head-quarters on the Jordan. These rapid marches illustrate the true energy and efficiency of great military commanders. This is perceived also in modern and even the most recent history.4
Jos_10:10. “Jehovah scattered (וַיְהֻמֵּם) the enemy before Israel. The latter smote them in a great defeat at Gibeon and pursued them northwestward on the way to the ascent (מעֲלֵה ב׳) of Beth-horon. So likewise he followed them in a southwesterly direction and smote them even unto Azekah and Makkedah.” So Knobel. According to his view, therefore, the whole pursuit occurred simultaneously, towards the northwest and the southwest. But that is not the sense of Jos_10:10-11. Rather all Israel pursued the enemy in a northwesterly direction towards the pass of Beth-horon, and from thence through the pass down into the plain, where probably Azekah and Makkedah lay. By what means Jehovah discomfited the enemy, or “scattered” them, as Knobel translates, is not told; for the hail comes later. So Jehovah once discomfited the Egyptians, also, Exo_14:24; and Exo_23:27 the promise is given that God will always do so with the foes of Israel. In 1Sa_7:10 we are told of a tempest which Jehovah brought up when, at Samuel’s prayer, he caused it to thunder against the Philistines, and then it is said: וַיְהֻמֵּם—the same word which is used here. Probably also the storm came on during the battle. It thundered and lightened. Jehovah fought for his people out of the clouds. The enemy trembled and lost heart. They fled. During their flight the storm broke upon them in full fury; hailstones fell on them and of such size that more died from these than were slain by the sword (Jos_10:11). By a very similar mischance the Austrians were overtaken in 1859 at the battle of Solferino.—We have translated מַעֲלֶה in Jos_10:10 “ascent” and in Jos_10:11, “descent.”5 It means both alike, as in 1Ma_3:16; 1Ma_3:24, both stand together in reference to this place: ἀνάβασις καὶ κατάβασις Βαιθωρῶν. If “pass” were not so modern it would best express the meaning of this word. This Pass of Beth-horon is still very rocky and rough (Robinson, iii. 59–63), and leads from the mountain down into the western plain, whither Joshua pursued the enemy even to the places lying there, Azekah (Jos_15:35) and Makkedah (Jos_15:41).
Jos_10:11. That by the great stones, not stones literally as rained down (Grotius, Calmet, Ilgen), but hail-stones are to be understood, appears from the second half of the verse, “A hail-storm is meant, in relation to which אֶבֶן בָּרָד occurs also Isa_30:30; comp. Eze_13:11; Eze_13:13. Jehovah in contending with his enemies employs the hail also (Job_38:23; Isa_32:19) as he did e.g. in Egypt, Exo_9:19; Exo_9:25” (Knobel).
The verses which now follow, 12–15, deserve a particularly careful examination, and that (1) in reference to the criticism of the text; (2) as regards their contents. As to the former it is obvious that the whole passage, Jos_10:12-15, might be removed from the context entirely, without in the least mutilating the narrative; rather, Jos_10:16 connects itself with Jos_10:11 as its proper continuation. It is further manifest that Jos_10:13 itself refers to another writing as its source, and that the same author cannot possibly have written Jos_10:15 and Jos_10:43. For, according to Jos_10:15 Joshua had returned immediately after the battle at Gibeon into the camp at Gilgal, while in Jos_10:43 this return takes place only after the completed conquest of southern Canaan.
We have therefore to consider here an inserted passage. Knobel calls it “a fragment from the first document of the Jehovist.” This first document of the Jehovist is, as may have been already perceived from the Introd. (§ 2), according to Knobel’s view, the סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר here cited—the “Law-book” as he calls it,—composed in the Northern kingdom. From this first document the whole episode here is taken, as he supposes, except the words, “is it not written in the Sepher Jaschar?” which he explains as an addition of the Jehovist, “who in a thing so unheard of and incredible thought himself bound to quote his authority expressly.” As we have not been able to assent to this view, but are rather obliged, with the whole body of critics, to regard this סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר, mentioned only here and 2Sa_1:18, as a poetical book, we cannot by any means refer the whole passage to the “Book of the Upright,” but only a part as is afterwards shown. In this assumption that the whole passage, with the exception of the formula of quotations, is taken from the “Book of the Upright,” there agree with Knobel: Hengsten berg in the Evang. Kirchen-Zeitung, 1832, No. 88, ibid. 1868, No. 48; Hävernick, Einl. ii. 1, p. 50, Keil, Comm. p. 255 ff. [Bibl. Comm. ii. 1, 76 ff.]. The latter remarks, at the end of his exposition: “The only plausible consideration which can be brought against this view, and which has been adduced with great emphasis by two anonymous writers in the Evang. Kirchen-Zeitung, 1833, No. 17, p. 135 f., and No. 25 f. p. 197 f. and 211 f., consists in this, that the formula of citation, ‘Is not this written in the Book of the Upright?’ stands in the middle of the passage quoted, while elsewhere this and similar formulas stand either at the beginning of the quotation, as Deu_21:14-23, or at the end of it, as generally in the books of Kings and Chronicles. But from both cases it does not follow that this is a rule without exceptions.” Keil labors to prove this, quite fruitlessly, in our opinion; Hengstenberg also, in his second essay, seeks to obviate the striking fact that the citation occurs in the midst of the passage, by assuming that the author has communicated, out of the Book of the Upright, two lyrical fragments, which he separates from each other by the intervening phrase of quotation (ubi sup. p. 580). But, granting that Jos_10:13 b–15, together with the very prosaic conclusion, “and Joshua returned and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal,” must be a lyrical fragment, would it not then have been more natural for the writer to repeat the formula somewhat in this manner: Is not this also written in the Book of the Upright?—Bleek has left the question unsettled, saying, “How far the quotation here extends, and where the historian resumes, is not quite clear” (Introd. to the O. T. p. 349). Kamphausen on the contrary (Stud. und Kritiken, 1863, p. 866), assumes that the author of Jos_10:12-15 was a historian who names expressly the source from which he draws, and plainly distinguishes, the lines which he extracts therefrom from his own prosaic narrative. To the same result must we also come, and for the following reasons: (1.) The fact that the formula of citation here occurs in the midst of the passage, constitutes for us an insuperable objection to referring the whole to the Book of the Upright, since everywhere else, such formula comes in either at the beginning or end of the words cited. (2.) The exclamation which is put in the mouth of Joshua, breathes in every aspect the spirit of Hebrew poetry. It is sublime in its import, rythmical, and strictly observing the parallelism in its form, in its choice of words also poetical (notice וַיִּדֹּם ,דּוֹם6); while afterwards the discretion of the historian manifestly comes into play, since he mentions only the sun; lets it stand in the midst of heaven, then continues with the observation that it hasted not to go down almost a whole day; in Jos_10:14 expounds verbally the poetical language, and concludes, finally, with a wholly prosaic notice.
Verses 13 b–15, accordingly, do not belong to the Book of the Upright.7 But how with verse 12 a? It is possible that these words may have formed the historical introduction in that Book of Heroes, to Joshua’s exclamation, as Exo_15:1, “Then sang Moses,” etc., but it is also possible that they belong to the same author as Jos_10:13 b–15, from whom other sections likewise wrought into the body of the history may have been derived. On this see the Introduction.
Having dealt with the criticism of the text, we proceed (2) to a consideration of the meaning of the passage, which especially needs to be exegetically settled. Jos_10:12, אָז, pointedly “at that time,” as Gen_12:6, Jos_14:11, in contrast with עתָּה; LXX. τότε, Vulg. tunc. This אָז is more closely defined by בְּיוֹם תֵּת וגו׳, “in the day when Jehovah delivered up,” etc. The battle at Gibeon is intended. The promise, Deu_1:7-8, is to be remembered. On this day, Joshua spake to Jehovah, .… and he said in the sight of Israel. We should have expected rather, “in the ears of Israel.” The same kind of expression is used in Num_20:8, in a passage which probably has the same author as ours, and in Deu_31:7. Quite correctly לעיני פ׳ is used, Gen_23:11; Gen_23:18; Exo_4:30. Here it is to be taken = coram, as the Vulgate translates, correctly as to the sense. Then follows what Joshua said. שֶׁמֶשׁ, as also יָרֵחַ, is without the article, according to the usage of poetry, as Job_16:18, אֶרֶץ (O earth), while in prose the article in this case is more common to distinguish the noun in some manner (Ewald, Lehrg. § 327). דּוֹם, Imp. Kal from דָּמם, prop., to be dumb with astonishment, then to be silent, then to rest, to be quiet, to keep still, as one who is silent does. So Psa_4:5; 1Sa_14:9; Job_31:34; Lam_2:18; Job_30:27. Knobel remarks also that הֶחֱרִישׁ, Gen_34:5; Exo_14:14, is used in the same way of rest, inactivity. “Sun, stand still on Gibeon,” is accordingly, = keep thyself quiet and inactive, stand still. Keil indeed will not grant this, but translates דָּמַם here and 1Sa_14:9, by “wait.” But both here and there עָמַד stands immediately parallel to דָּמַם, and עמד means unquestionably to stand, stand still, remain standing, for which 1Sa_20:38 may be superfluously compared. Besides, how can the sun wait, without standing still. It is better, therefore, to translate poetically, with force and boldness, “stand still,” than tamely “Sun, wait at Gibeon and moon in the Valley of Ajalon.” So also the LXX., Στήτω ὁ ἥλιος κατὰ Γαβεών, κὰι ἡ σηλήνη κατὰ φάραγγα Αιλών; and the Vulgate: “Sol contra Gabaon ne movearis et luna contra vallem Ajalon!” Quite erroneous is the attempt of Dr. Barzilai in the brochure, Un Errore di Trente Secoli (Trieste, 1868), to translate the שֶׁמֶשׁ דּוֹם by “Sun, be silent, cease to shine!” by which an eclipse of the sun would be made out of his standing still. Zöckler, in a treatise (Beweis des Glaubens, iv. p. 250), remarks on this: “The untenableness of this explanation appears not only from the fact that דָּמם, ‘to be silent’ (as well as its synonym ההרישׁ, in Gen_34:5; Exo_14:14), according to 1Sa_14:9, may very well signify in general, the holding in, or ceasing from any activity, and particularly resting from any movement, the holding still or standing of a moving body (comp. also Psa_4:5; Job_31:34; Lam_2:18), while its application to the self-concealment of a luminous body, can be supported by no example,—but furthermore also from the connection with what follows. This, as definitely as is possible, presents the actual standing still of the sun, as the result of the mighty injunction of Joshua, the believing warrior.”
The Valley of Ajalon lies to the west of Gibeon. Knobel says on this, at Jos_19:42 : “Ajalon, in whose vale Joshua bade the moon stand still (Jos_10:12), allotted to the Levites (Jos_21:24; 1Ch_6:54), often mentioned in the wars with the Philistines (1Sa_14:31; 1Ch_8:13), fortified by Rehoboam (2Ch_11:10), taken from Ahaz by the Philistines (2Ch_28:18), lying, according to the Onom., s. v. “Ajalon,” two miles east of Nicopolis; at the present day, a village Jalu, Jalo, in a fertile region on the north side of a mountain ridge, from which one overlooks the beautiful and wide basin Merdj Ibn Omeir stretching away to the north. Rob. iii. 63, 64; Later Bibl Res. 145, Tobler, Dritte Wanderung, p. 188 f.” To this position of Ajalon, westward from Gibeon, where Joshua joined battle with the Amorites, the place of the moon suits well. It stood in the west, near its setting, over Ajalon, and was still visible although the sun was shining. Let the two heavenly bodies stand where they stood and there would continue to be day; and if there continued to be day there would still be a possibility of completely destroying the foe. And that was precisely Joshua’s wish, that they might stand where they stood in order that he might annihilate the enemy. Hengstenberg (ubi sup. p. 558) will not allow this, but explains that the “simultaneous appearance of the sun and moon” was “something entirely unusual, which ought not to be so readily taken for natural.” This joint apparition, however, is not very unusual; on the contrary it may be witnessed in a clear sky at any time, during the moon’s first quarter, in the afternoon, and during the last quarter, in the forenoon: and indeed, from what is kindly communicated to me by the astronomer Mädler, it may be seen, in the much clearer southern heavens, early in the afternoon, during the moon’s first quarter, and until late in the forenoon during her third.
Knobel, for his part, supposes that “the separate mention of the sun and moon on Gibeon and Ajalon has, in the poetical parallelism, as e.g. in Hos_5:8; Amo_1:5; Mic_3:12; Zec_9:10; Zec_9:17, no significance.” That, however, is questionable, in view of the fact that the assignment of the two heavenly bodies to their respective positions suits so perfectly to the place of Joshua, and the more so because it is to us very doubtful whether the names in Hos_5:8, Amo_1:5, Zec_9:10, are connected merely for the sake of the parallelism, which we admit only as to Mic_3:12. But if the sun and moon simultaneously stood still in the heavens, and so that the sun rested over Gibeon east of the field of battle, and the moon over Ajalon in the west, the battle must have been going on in the morning, and Joshua have uttered his invocation at this time, perhaps toward midday. So it is understood also by Keil, Knobel, and Zöckler, who writes (ubi sup.): “The mention of the moon with the sun in Jos_10:13 is to be explained simply from the circumstance that it also was yet visible in the sky, and that the prayer, directed toward a prolongation of the day, could only be fully expressed, positively as well as negatively, if it at the same time called for the delay of the night, or, which is the same thing, a standing still of the planet which governed the night (Gen_1:16).”
Gibeon and Ajalon are named as stations of the sun and moon, because Joshua when he engaged in the battle was probably west of Gibeon, in a place from which he saw the sun shining in the east over that city, and the moon in the far west over Ajalon.
As the probable hour of the conflict we may infer, partly from this situation and partly from the sun standing still “in the midst of the heaven” (Jos_10:13), that it was in the middle part of the day, and probably still in the forenoon, hardly the late afternoon as Corn. a Lapide, Clericus, J. D. Mich. et al. have supposed. Hitzig also decides in favor of the forenoon: “As Saul upon the king of Ammon, Joshua fell on the Amorites early in the morning. When, soon after, the battle took a favorable turn, the sun had already risen and stood over Gibeon behind the combatants, while in the far west, the moon had not yet gone down” (ubi sup. p. 102). Most recently of all A. Hengstenberg in Bochum has also published a contribution (Beweis des Glaubens, vol. v. pp. 287, 288) toward the explanation of our passage, in which he agrees with Zöckler in regard to the question at what time of day the battle was fought and Joshua uttered his call to the sun. Ewald, on the contrary (Gesch. d. v. Israel, 2, p. 325, 326), thinks of the afternoon. In regard, further, to the relation between the hail-storm mentioned Jos_10:11 and Joshua’s exclamation, we must remember that the author of the “Book of the Upright,” knew nothing of this hail-storm,8 but the writer who gave the Book of Joshua its present form, inserted not only the supposed citation (Jos_10:12-13 a.) but the whole passage (Jos_10:12-15) into the midst of the history of the pursuit, so that he appears certainly to have conceived of the hailstorm as a preceding event.
Jos_10:13. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the nation had avenged themselves on their enemies. Joshua’s wish is fulfilled. The heavenly bodies pause in their course and stand still. When once we remember that the poet says this, the same poet who has previously put in Joshua’s mouth this grand, poetical exclamation, reminding us of Agamemnon’s wish (Il. 2, 413 ff.), we have found the key to Jos_10:13, the most striking parallel to which is Jdg_6:20. When it is there said that the stars out of their courses (ממסלוֹתם) fought against Sisera, no one, so far as we know, has ever supposed that this poetical trope was to be literally understood. Rather it is there, as here, the heavenly powers, nay Jehovah himself (Jos_10:14) who fights for Israel. It is not “an unheard of, astronomico-mechanical miracle” with which we here have to do, but “the most glorious typical occurrence, which illustrates how all nature, heaven and earth, is in league with the people of God, and helps them to victory in their battles of the kingdom” (Lange, Com. on Gen. pp. 86, 87).
The standing still of the sun and moon is no more to be understood literally than that fighting of the stars down out of their courses, or the melting down of the mountains (Isa_34:3 : Amo_9:13; Mic_1:3), the rending of the heavens (Psa_18:10), or the skipping of Lebanon (Psa_29:6), the clapping of hands by the trees in the field (Isa_55:12), the leaping of the mountains and hills (Psa_114:46), the bowing of the heavens (Psa_18:10). It is the language of poetry which we have here to interpret, and poetry, too, of the most figurative, vehement kind, which honors and celebrates Joshua’s confidence in God in the midst of the strife; that “unique assurance of victory on the part of Joshua” (Lange, ubi sup.) which the Lord would not suffer to be put to shame. In this the most positive interpreters (Keil, Kurtz, both Hengstenbergs), however they may differ as to the particulars, and to textual criticism, are perfectly at one, against a literal apprehension of the passage. Nor can Hab_3:11, be adduced in favor of a literal interpretation of the passage. For if it is said, Hab_3:11, “Sun, moon, זְבֻלָה עָמַד,” this is not to be translated as Hengstenberg (ubi sup.) and Keil, on the one side, and Hitzig (Kl. Propheten), on the other have shown, “The sun, and moon remain in their habitation,” but rather: “The sun, the moon enter into a habitation,” i.e as we should say: “into the shade,” namely, “behind the stratum of clouds” or, “they are darkened.” “The friendly lights grow pale, while on the other hand, there shines for the enemies of God and his people, another, an ungenial light, which brings destruction, the lightning, God’s spears and arrows” (Hengstenberg). This passage has therefore nothing at all to do with the one before us. And when Jesus Sirach in his enumeration of the exploits of Joshua, asks (Josh 46:4), Οὐχὶ ἐν χειρὶ αὐτοῦ ἀνεπόδισεν ὁ ἥλιος καὶ μία ἡμέρα ἐγενήθη πρὸς δύο; he makes out of the standing still of the sun, a going back, something like Isa_38:8, and speaks at the same time of lengthening one day into two. He is not therefore correct in his representation of the occurrence. The same is true of Josephus (Ant. v. 1, 17), when he speaks only of an increase, i.e. lengthening in general of the day.
Is not this written in the Book of the Upright?i.e. “Lo, this stands written in that book and may there be read expressly. On הֲלֹא for הִנֵּח comp. Num_22:37; Deu_11:30. So very often in citations; 1Ki_11:41; 1Ki_14:29; 1Ki_15:7; 1Ki_15:23; 1Ki_15:31; 1Ki_16:3; 1Ki_16:20; 1Ki_16:27 and often” (Knobel).
And the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.בְּחֲצִי here used of place, in Jdg_16:3 of time; in the middle, a more precise designation of the sun’s standing, which is omitted in the poetical part of this episode.
And hastened not to go down. The verb אוּץ is used once besides in our book (Jos_17:15), and in the sense “to be narrow,” and again in Exo_5:13, where the Egyptian task-masters are spoken of, in the sense of “to oppress.” It is not employed in poetry alone, as Zöckler (ubi sup.) maintains, in order to support his view that these verses also, at least to the close of Jos_10:14, breathe “a poetically exalted” strain. Or should Exo_5:13 also be regarded as a poetical passage? A certain elevation is, indeed, not to be denied to the narrative here, but that we find also in places, like Joshua 8, which yet is unquestionably prose.
About a whole day.תָּמִים, elsewhere commonly of moral integrity, is used in the original sense, “complete,” “entire,” in Lev_3:9; Lev_25:30, in the latter passage of time, namely, of the year שָׁנָה הְמימָה, as here of the day יוֹם תָּמִים Plainly, the author of this verse understands the poetical citation from the Book of the Upright, literally, which does not hinder us from going back to the original sense, as we have done above. That he, like all the Scripture writers, thought of an “anti-Copernican” system, as Zöckler expresses it, or as we might more correctly say, that he spoke of what was immediately perceptible, is evident without discussion. We think with Zöckler (p. 250) “it is lost labor to put upon the expressions of holy Scripture concerning the magnitudes and movements of the heavenly bodies, a heliocentric sense, by allegorical artifices, since the childishly simple view of the universe, which perceives in the earth the fixed centre, must necessarily have possessed the Biblical writers also as children of their time.”
Jos_10:14. And there was no day like that before it and after it (לִפָנָיו ,ואַחרָיו) that Jehovah hearkened (לִשְׁמֹעַ) unto the voice of a man; for Jehovah fought for Israel. The war was not merely a war of men, Jehovah himself rather was its leader, as was promised the Israelites, Exo_14:14, by Moses. Comp. Deu_1:29-30; Deu_3:22; Deu_20:1; Deu_20:3-4; Deu_31:6. Hence Jehovah is called precisely אִישׁ מִלְחָמָה, “man of war” (Luther: der rechte Kriegsmann), Exo_15:3. He has heard the call of Joshua and held the sun still in his course (of the moon nothing more is said), and so, according to the view of the author of13 b–15, has performed an objective astronomical miracle, of which the poet from whom the quotation is made, had no thought, and of which we, following him (the poet) have no thought.9
Jos_10:15 b. Hengstenberg would refer this prosaic statement still entirely to the poetry (which Zöckler does not do), and quotes in support of this (Exo_15:19) the close of Moses’ song of triumph, which is also found Exo_14:22. It is not found, however, in precisely the same words (in the latter passage בא, in the former the more graphic הלךְ), nor with the same arrangement of the words, which in Exo_15:19 has the rythmical cadence. We cannot, therefore, allow force to this example, but believe, rather, that to this, certainly if to any of the vers. (13 b–15) the “words of Maurer apply: Quœ ante formulam citandi leguntur, sunt poesis; quœ post pura puta prosa.”
Keil’s View of Jos_10:12-15, added by the Translator.
[As representing a somewhat different theological position, the following comments of Keil on this passage, may, as well as from their character in other respects, be profitably cited here.
“This wonderful victory was celebrated by Israel in a war-song which was preserved in the Book of the Pious. Out of this book the author of the Book of Joshua inserted here the passage which commemorated the wonderful work of Jehovah toward Israel and toward his enemies, the Amorites, for the glorification of his own name. For, that we have in Jos_10:12-15 a poetical extract from the סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר is universally acknowledged. This insertion and the reference to this writing is analogous to the quotation from the Book of the Wars of the Lord (Num_21:14), and the lyrical strophes woven into the historical narrative. The object is not to confirm the historical report by reference to an older authority, but only to render more vivid to future generations, the striking impression which those wonders of the Lord had made upon the congregation.”
Keil’s account of the Book of the Pious is the same as that of Fay and most others. He distinctly assumes, however, what doubtless should be understood by all, that this progressively accumulated anthology of pious hymns in praise of the covenant God was interspersed with explanatory historical notices. Thus there is no difficulty in supposing Jos_10:15 also to have been copied from this poetical book. Keil then proceeds: “The citation from it proves itself at once to have been taken from a song, by the poetical form of the language and by the parallelism of the members. The quotation begins, however, not with וַיֹּאמֶר, Jos_10:12 b, but with בַּיוֹמ תֵּת, Jos_10:12 a, and to it belong also Jos_10:13-14, so that the reference to the source of the quotation is inserted in the middle of it. Such formulas are generally met with, indeed, elsewhere either at the beginning of the passage adduced, as Num_21:14; Num_21:27; 2Sa_1:18, or at the close of it, as generally in the books of Kings and Chronicles. But it does not follow that such position was a rule without exceptions, especially since the reference to sources in the books of Kings has a quite different sense, the citations being not documentary proofs of the occurrences before reported, but references to writings in which more complete accounts might be found concerning fragmentarily communicated facts. In Jos_10:13 also the poetical form of the discourse leaves no doubt that Jos_10:13-14 still contain words of the ancient poet, not a prosaic comment of the historian on the poetic expressions which he had quoted. Only Jos_10:15 presents a pure historical statement which is repeated (Jos_10:43) at the end of the narrative of this victory and war. And this literal repetition of Jos_10:15 in Jos_10:43, and still more the fact that the statement that Joshua returned with all the people into the camp to Gilgal anticipates the historical order of events, and that in a very striking manner, renders it highly probable, if not altogether certain, that Jos_10:15 also is taken from the Book of the Pious.”.…
Keil’s conception of the circumstances and progress of the battle, and of the position of the parties in reference to the standing still of the sun and moon, agrees in every important point with that of Fay.
“How then shall we make real to ourselves this wonderful occurrence? An actual standing still of the sun at some place in the heavens, about the zenith, is not clearly expressed. If one were disposed to insist on the וַיַּעֲמוֹד, “the sun stood (held his position) in the midst of the heavens,” which is added as if in explanation of וַיִּדּוֹם in such a way that it must express a miraculous obstruction of the course of the sun, this would hardly be consistent with the phrase לֹא אָץ לָבוֹא, “it hastened not to go down,” for this strictly taken, means only, as several of the Rabbins long ago remarked, a more tardy progress of the sun. Plainly intimated in Jos_10:12-13 is so much only, that at Joshua’s word the sun remained standing almost a day longer in the heavens. To this is added (Jos_10:14), “That there was no such day before and afterward, that Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man; for Jehovah fought for Israel.” This expression, again, should not be too hardly pressed, as the analogous utterances, “there was none like him,” etc. 2Ki_18:5; 2Ki_23:25, show. They convey only the thought, a day like this which God so marvelously lengthened has not been before nor since. So much therefore lies unambiguously in the words, that the singer of the ancient song, and after him also the author of our Book of Joshua, who inserted these words into his narrative, was convinced10 of a wonderful prolongation of that day. Here, however, it is carefully to be observed that it is not said, that God did at Joshua’s request increase the length of that day by about a whole day, or cause the sun to stand still for nearly a whole day, but only that God hearkened to the voice of Joshua, i.e. did not let the sun go down until Israel had avenged themselves upon their enemies. The difference is not unimportant. For a marvelous prolongation of that day took place not only if, through the exertion of God’s Almighty power, the course of the sun or his going down was delayed for many hours, or the day lengthened from say twelve to eighteen or twenty hours, but also on the supposition that the day appeared to Joshua and to Israel wonderfully lengthened, the work accomplished on that day being so great that it would without supernatural help have required two days.
To decide between these two views is not easy, nay, if we go to the bottom of the matter, is impossible. [And no more necessary, it might be added, viewing the account as poetry, than to try to discover the exact proportion between David’s glorious hyperboles in Psalms 18 and the actual events of the deliverance which he there celebrates.—Tr.] When we cannot measure the length of the day by the clock, we may, especially in the crowd of business or work, with extraordinary facility be deceived in regard to its length. But the Israelites had neither sun-dials nor any clocks, and amid the tumult of the conflict hardly would Joshua, or any other one engaged in the strife, have repeatedly noticed the shadow of the sun, and inquired after its changes in reference to a tree, for example, or other such object, so as to perceive from its possibly remaining stationary and unaltered, for some hours, that the sun had actually stood still. Under these circumstances it was quite impossible for the Israelites to decide whether that day was really, or only in their conception, longer than other days.
Besides this we must take into account the poetical character of our passage. When David praises the wondrous deliverance which he had experienced at the hand of the Lord, in the words: “In my distress I called upon the Lord .… and he heard my voice out of his heaven, .… and he bowed the heaven and came down, …… he stretched his hand out of the height, took me and drew me out of many waters” (Psa_18:7-17), who imagines that these words are to be understood literally, of an actual descent of God out of heaven and stretching out of. his hand to draw David out of the water? Or who will take the words of Deborah: “Out of heaven was the battle waged, the stars out of their courses fought against Sisera,” in a literal sense? The truth of such expressions lies in the subjective field of the religious intuition, not in the rigorous interpretation of the words. In a similar way may the verses before us be understood without prejudice thereby to their real import, if that day had been merely subjectively prolonged to the religious apprehension of Israel.
But if the words had expressed even an objectively real and miraculous extension of that day, we should still have had no valid ground for doubting the truth of this statement of facts. All objections which have been raised against the fact or the possibility of such a miracle, appear, on a closer examination of the matter, nugatory. Thus, that the annals of the other peoples of the earth give no report at all of a miracle which must have extended over the whole earth, loses all importance when we perceive that no annals at all of other nations of that period are extant, and that it is extremely doubtful whether the miracle would have extended far beyond the bounds of Palestine [!] 11 Again, the appeal to the unchangeableness of the movement of the heavenly bodies fixed by eternally unalterable laws, is not suited to show the impossibility of such a miracle. The eternal laws of nature are nothing more than modes of manifestation, or phenomena, of God’s creative power, the proper nature of which no mortal has yet found out. May not then the Almighty Creator and Preserver of nature and all her powers, be able also so to direct and control the powers of nature according to his own will that they should contribute to the realization of his ends in salvation? Finally, the objection also that the sudden arrest of the revolution of the earth upon its axis, must have demolished all the work of human hands upon its surface, and hurled from its orbit the earth itself and her attendant the moon, proves nothing, since it is forgotten in all this, that the almighty hand of God which not only created the stars but also lent to them and to all worlds the power to run their course with regularity, so long as this world stands, that that hand which bears, upholds, controls all things in heaven and on earth, is not too short, to guard against such ruinous consequences.
To this may still be added that even the most rigorous apprehension of the words does not compel us, with the fathers and older theologians, to suppose a miraculous obstruction of the sun in his course, but only an optical pause of the sun, i.e. a miraculous arrest of the revolution of the earth on its axis, which would have appeared to the observer as a standing still of the sun. Knobel is entirely wrong when he pronounces this view of the fact contrary to the text. For the Scriptures speak of things of the visible world according to their appearance, as we also still speak of the rising and setting of the sun, although we have no doubt of the revolution of the earth about the sun. Such an optical stand-still of the sun, however, or rather merely a longer standing and visibility of the sun in the horizon, might be effected through God’s omnipotence in an astronomical phenomenon unknown to us and wholly incomprehensible by natural philosophy, without interfering with the general laws of the rotation of the heavenly bodies. Only we must not, surely, reduce this exertion of the divine power to a mere unusual refraction of the light, or a storm of lightning lasting through the whole night, as has been variously attempted.” Bibl. Com. ii. 1, p. 76–81.]
Having thus treated of this difficult passage in reference to the criticism of the text, and also to the purport of it, it remains for us still to glance at the history of its interpretation.
Although Jesus Sirach and Josephus had, even in their day, betrayed a disposition in the passages above cited, to change the phraseology of our verse, in the sense of a not entirely literal conception of it, still the overwhelming majority of ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters understand here an objective, astronomical miracle, an actual standing still of the sun. So Justin Martyr in Dial. cum Tryph.; Ephraem Syr.; Tertullian, De Jejunio, i. 10; Jerome c. Jovin. i. 11; Chrysost. Hom. 27 in Epist. ad Hebr.; Augustine, De Civit. Dei, xvi. 8 ; Theodoret, the Rabbins, Serarius, Masius, C. a Lapide, Calvin, Osiander, et mult. al. Exceptions are (the Ev. Kirchen-Zeitung, ubi sup. p. 555), Maimonides and Rabbi Levi ben Gersom, who advocate the non-literal view. “The wish of Joshua,” explains the latter, “aims only at this, that that one day and night might be long enough for the overthrow of the so numerous forces of the enemy. It was the same as if he had said: Grant, Almighty Father, that before sun and moon go down, thy people may take vengeance on this multitude of thy foes. The miracle of that day was, that at the prayer of a man God effected so great a defeat in so short a time.” How tenaciously the Roman curia, on the contrary, in their Jesuitically inspired proceedings against Galileo (1633), held fast to the opposite view, is well known.
As however the Copernican system nevertheless found adherents, and indeed, even among orthodox Protestant theologians out of opposition to Rome, these thought to help themselves by the assumption of an optical pause of the sun (statio optica), that is, they assumed that the earth was hindered by God in its revolution on its axis, by which a lengthening of the day was produced. So Lilienthal, Gute Sache, v. p. 167 ff.; Mosheim apud Calmet, p. 45 ff.; Bastholm, Jüdische Geschichte, ii. p. 31 ff.; Zimmermann, Scriptura Copernizans, i. 1, p. 228. In recent times this view is maintained by Baumgarten (Herzog’s Realencyk. vii. 40) According to this writer, Joshua, in the full confidence of being the dispenser of divine vengeance against the corrupt Canaanites, called, as nigh threatened to overtake them, to the heavenly luminaries, and the day was by nearly its full length, “prolonged through the apparent pause of the heavenly bodies which govern day and night, but through the actual pause of the globe in its diurnal revolution.” Such an exorbitant miracle came to pass because “the destination of Israel was something infinitely transcending, in its dignity and significance, the entire natural order of things.” This relation between Israel and the “system of the universe” Joshua apprehended in a “moment of daring faith,” “assumed the immediate realization of the same,” and Jehovah “sealed this venture of faith by his work and word;” and it is for us “simply to believe, that this was done.”
The editor of the Encyklopädie has made on this representation the very apposite remark, “That, however, theologians of a strictly positive tendency are of a different view in this respect is well known.”
Grotius and Clericus are to be regarded as precursors of the rationalizing interpretation. They imagined extraordinary refractions of the light of the sun already set; for, as Grotius supposes, it was not impossible for God solis cursum morari, aut etiam post solis occasum ejus speciem in nube supra horizontem extanti per repercussum ostendere. Spinoza, also (Tract. Theol. Polit. ii. pp. 22 and 6, p. 78 ed. Hamb. 1670), adopted substantially this opinion. J. D. Michaelis and Schultz resort to the supposition of lightning that lasted through the whole night; Hess combined lightning with the light of the sun and moon, so that there was no night, so to speak, between this and the following day (F. F. Hess, Geschichte Josua, i. p. 140 f.). Others otherwise; but truly laughable is the attempt of Ritter (in Henke’s Magazin, vi. 1), to make the expression “sun” and “moon” represent the signals or standards which Joshua had ordered to remain there where they chanced to stand in Gibeon and Ajalon. This insipidity reminds one, as Zöckler has rightly observed, of the famous Tavern for the Whale, and similar absurdities of a spiritless, jejune exegesis.12
In recent times the more advanced study of textual criticism has led to the poetical understanding of the passage—in our view the only correct one, which is favored not only in general by Maurer, Ewald (Gesch. ii. p. 326), Hitzig and von Lengerke, but also as has been shown above by theologians of quite positive principles, the two Hengstenbergs, Keil, Kurtz, and others. Not less decidedly have Lange and Zöckler adopted this view. How far we differ from one and another of these, specially in regard to the criticism of the text, will appear from the foregoing explanation. But that men like Knak, Frantz, and Straube have again brought prominently forward as a “matter of faith,” the assumption of an actual standing still of the sun, which, under the universal prevalence of the Ptolemaic astronomy was a quite natural view, although by no means required by the text in Jos_10:12-13; that they believe themselves called to defend this against the “pseudodoxy of the natural sciences,” we regard as indicating a lamentable confusion of ideas, resting on a total want of scientific sense, and under the injurious influence of which the true “matter of faith” is likely to suffer much.
As a curiosity we may refer in conclusion to the notion of Jean d’ Espagne, a French theologian, mentioned by Starke, who makes out that this miracle took place in the year 2555 from the creation of the world. But that is the year 7×365. “Now a year has 365 days, and the number seven has in God’s Word much mystery. Thus the number of the year 2555 makes 365 week-years, [Wochenjahre, years each of which contains a week of years]. So also year-weeks [Yahrwochen, weeks whose days are years] are to be understood (Dan_9:24). Thus the sun after completing 365 year-weeks in his course here kept miraculously a day of rest. This time of 365 days when it has passed 365 times gives us a year of years” etc.
c. Flight and Destruction of the Five Kings. (Jos_10:16-27). Jos_10:16 ff. contain the continuation of Jos_10:1-11. The hail-storm had inflicted terrible injury on the Amorites. Many died from the hail, more than were slain by the sword of the Israelites. But the five kings sought to secure their own persons, and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah. When Joshua heard of this, he caused a stone to be rolled before the mouth of the cave and set a guard over it, but he himself drives forward to effect a complete discomfiture of the enemy, and in this succeeds. Not until this is done does he have the five kings brought forward, and, after a ceremony expressive of their total subjection, hung on trees, and their corpses thrown into the cave.
Jos_10:16. Hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah. Many such caves were found in the lime and chalk rocks of Palestine. In David’s history the cave of Adullam is often mentioned (1Sa_22:1 ff.; 2Sa_23:13; 1Ch_11:15). In the history of the crusades also (W. Tyrius, De Bello Sacro, 15, 6; 18, 19; 11, et sœp.), caves are mentioned. Jdg_20:47, the cave at Rimmon is spoken of, which could contain 600 men in its spacious recess. These caves are large and dry, and branch out also into chambers (Robinson ii. 175, 352 ff., 395–398. Von Schubert, iii. 30). They were thus admirably fitted for places of refuge, in times of danger, as in the case before us. [See Dict. of the Bible, art. Caves].
Jos_10:17. נֶחְבִּאִים for נֶחְבָּאִים from a sing. נחְבֶּא after the manner of verbs לה׳. Gesen. § 75, Rem. 21, (a) (Knobel).
Jos_10:19. Smite the hindmost of them (their rear). זִנַּבְתֶּם from זִנַּב (Kal זָנַב), prop. “to hurt the tail,” figuratively, to disturb the rearguard of the enemy (Deu_25:18). In Greek also οὐρά, οὐραγία is = rear-guard.
Jos_10:20-21. Most of the enemy were left on the field; only a few escaped into the fortified towns, where they were concealed only for a short time, as we learn from Jos_10:27-43. Those that remained הַשְּׁרִידִים, elsewhere פָּלִיט Jos_8:22; Gen_14:13; Jer_44:28; Eze_6:8. The apodosis begins not with והשׂרידים, but with וַיָּשֻׁבוּ Jos_10:21, as Maurer correctly shows. How Keil could imagine that it begins not until Jos_10:23, it is difficult to perceive. For the rest cf. Jos_3:15-16, where the construction is altogether the same, and Jos_2:5 where it is similar.—בּשָׁלוֹם, LXX. ὑγιεῖς, Vulg.: Sani et integro numero, in good condition.
None pointed against the children of Israel, against one of them his tongue. The whole proverbial expression we read Exo_11:7 : “against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move (point) his tongue, against man or beast,” where dog is given as the subject. Here the subject is wanting unless we suppose with Maurer that the ל in לְאישׁ is an error in copying, from the preceding ישּׂראל, and to be rejected, which would then leave אישׁ as the subject. We think it more simple to supply the subject in an indefinite, euphemistic sense, and take לאישׁ as a more precise limitation of לבני, which is favored by the specification in Exo_11:7, למֵאִישׁ וִעַד בְּהֵמָה. Wholly false is the LXX. καὶ οὐκ ἔγρυξε τῶν υἱῶν I. (!) οὐδεὶς τῇ γλώσσῃ αὐτο͂υ, while the Vulg. rightly hits the sense: nullusque contra filios Israel mutire ausus est. The meaning is, no one ventured to do any harm to any of the children of Israel, comp. Jdt_11:13.
Jos_10:22-23. At Joshua’s command the cave is now opened, and the kings brought before him.
Jos_10:24. Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings. This demand for a contemptuous humiliation of the conquered leaders of the enemy is addressed by Joshua to the leaders of the men of war, to his field officers, who also respond thereto. The ceremony indicates “entire subjugation,” and was practiced, according to Knobel, by the Greek emperors also. Constant. Porphyrog. De Ceremoniis Aulœ Byzant. 2, 19; Bynæus, De Calceis Hebr. p. 318). We may compare Psa_60:10. הֶהָֽלִבוּא for אֶשֶֽׁר־הָֽלְבוּ, comp. Isa_28:12 on the form of the verb; Ges. § 109; Ewald, § 331 b. on the use of the art. for pron. rel.
Jos_10:25. Here Joshua says the same to his warriors which the Lord had said to him (Jos_1:7; Jos_1:9).
Jos_10:26. Joshua kills the kings, doubtless with the sword, and then hangs up their bodies in contempt on five trees, cf. Deu_21:22; Num_25:4; 2Sa_4:12. The one suspended, was as is known, considered accursed, and might not remain hanging over night, Deu_21:23; Gal_3:13; Joh_19:31. In like manner Joshua had done to the king of Ai, Jos_8:29. “The hanging of a living man is a Persian punishment (Ezr_6:11). Under the Herods this mode of execution occurs among the Jews also, Josephus, Ant. xvi. 11, 6 (unless strangling is here intended), as well as in Egypt during the Roman age, Philo ii. 529. See Winer, ii. 11 s. v. Lebensstrafen.
DOGMATICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The Biblical view of the universe is like that of all antiquity, the geocentric; the earth stands still, the sun moves. So it appears according to natural, unaided observation, and we have only come to a different apprehension as the result of modern scientific researches. This result we cheerfully accept without forfeiture of our faith, for the only dogmatical question is whether God made the world or not (Heb_11:3), but not at all whether the earth revolves about the sun or the sun about the earth. In that question, whether God made the world, and in particular, whether He created it out of nothing, a religious interest is involved, that the origin of the cosmos should not be referred to blind chance but to an intelligent Creator of heaven and earth (Gen_1:1). But how, on the supposition that God has created all things, the universe is constituted, whether so that the earth moves about the sun or the sun about the earth, this question is of no religious moment to us, but is relegated rather to the science of astronomy, which has finally answered it in the sense of Copernicus and Galileo. Comp. on this the instructive article of Dr. F. Pfaff on the Copernican system and its opponents, Beweis d. Glaube, vol. v. pp. 278–287). [Whewell’s History of the Inductive Sciences, book v. Joshua 3, sect. Joshua 4 : The Copernican System opposed on Theological grounds.—Tr.].
2. With this foundation principle clear in mind, it is self-evident that those render poor service to the “cause of faith” who feel themselves obliged to uphold as a matter of faith what has nothing to do with faith, but is a matter of science. Conversely, however, it needs to be said also that the Bible as a book of religion, cannot reasonably be thought less of because it favors the geocentric scheme. So does Homer also, e.g. whom, nevertheless, in his poetic worth no one has ever thought of disparaging on that account, while it has always belonged to the tactics of those who opposed the Bible to assail it first on the side of the natural sciences, that they might next impugn its religious authority.
3. On the very recent strife in the Berlin Church, in the course of which our passage Jos_10:12-15 has been much ventilated, it belongs not to our design to speak.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Joshua’s fidelity to his covenant with the oppressed Gibeonites crowned with a glorious victory: (1) Picture of the oppression of Gibeon by the five Canaanite kings. (2) How Joshua goes up at the call of the Gibeonites and smites the enemy. (3) How he pursues them and holds judgment upon them.—Gibeon’s need, Joshua’s faithfulness, God’s help.—If men come to us for help in time of need God gives the courage to render aid.—True courage comes alone from God.—As God once fought for Israel so He still fights for his own. “Sun, stand still on Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Ajalon!” A believing word of Joshua, God’s contending hero: (1) Spoken under what circumstances? (2) How intended? (3) How answered?—The Lord hears when we call upon Him in faith.—The great day at Gibeon.—It was great, (1) through the mighty strife of the combatants; (2) through the courageous faith of the general; (3) through the victory which God gave.—How the memory of Joshua lived still in song, and through song was glorified.—The cowardice of the Canaanite kings contrasted with the boldness of Joshua.—He that has no good conscience hides himself.—The judgment of Joshua upon the five kings (1) destructive to them; (2) encouraging to Israel.
Starke: Whoever, in spiritual conflicts, will have the true Joshua for a helper, must not trust to his own powers but to the power of Christ, and freely come before him, Php_4:13.—He who would do his neighbor a favor, should not delay it long, but act quickly, for the speediness of a gift doubles its value [bis dat qui cito dat], while a benefit delayed loses its thanks and becomes useless, 2Co_9:7.—On the successful progress of a cause, one ought not to give glory to himself but to God, for He is the workman, we only the tools.—From God’s power no man can either climb too high or creep too low; He knows easily how to find us, Amo_9:2, Psa_139:7.—Pious Christian, God will one day for thee also lay thy enemies at thy feet; therefore, up, contend, conquer! Rev_2:26-27; Rev_3:9; Rev_3:12; Rom_16:20.
Cramer: It is strange to the world that we will not keep with them: therefore those who turn to God must be attacked and suffer persecution. 1Pe_4:4; Mat_10:36; 2Ti_3:12.—God has various artillery with which He contends for his people against their enemies, Jdg_5:20. Let no one faint, therefore, with God’s help.… The tyrants who were so wild, fierce, and unrestrainable, God can presently tame.
Hedinger: The iniquity of the ungodly of itself hastens to its punishment, and there is no rod so good for a wicked man as his own.—It is well to be concerned lest one make God angry, but when one has made Him angry it is useless care to try to escape his judgment. Even if we should run out of the world we should only find his wrath so much the greater.
Lange: If a man has once gained a real victory over his spiritual foes he must boldly follow it up without indolent delay, and faithfully reap the fruits of the success given him.
Gerlach: Holy Scripture speaks, in regard to things of the visible world, and which concern not the affairs of God’s kingdom, according to natural appearances, precisely as we speak of the sun rising and setting, although we have no doubt of the revolution of the earth.
Footnotes:
[1][Jos_10:11.—This sentence is properly parenthetical: As they fled before Israel (they were on the descent from Beth-horon) that Jehovah, etc.—Tr.]
[2][Verses 20 and 21 might well be translated and connected thus: And it came to pass when .… till they were consumed, and those that had escaped of them had fled, and were come into the fortified cities, that all the people returned, etc.—Tr.]
[3][A particularly valuable article on Jerusalem will be found in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. On the topography the additions to the Am. ed. are indispensable. The Recovery of Jerusalem (see Intr. p 37) is now reprinted in N. Y.—Tr.]
[4][If Sadowa and the other events of the Austrian campaign were so commemorated by the author, what would he have said of the progress from Weissenberg to Sedan, and Paris, and——in 1870.—Tr.]
[5][The remark which follows is true and appropriate concerning מַעֲלֶה, which, however, is not repeated in Jos_10:11. מוֹרָד is used there.—Tr.]
[6][Might we not add also גוֹי Jos_10:13, which is unusual for עָם in reference to the Hebrews?—Tr.]
[7] [The unhesitating confidence of our author in this conclusion seems hardly borne out by his reasons. The cautious judgment of Bleek, above quoted, seems more consistent with all the facts. We think the poetic spirit resounds through the whole of Jos_10:13-14, to say nothing of the more satisfactory dogmatic bearing of Hengstenberg’s view, to be noticed hereafter.
Stanley, in his very interesting presentation of the great battle of Gibeon (Jewish Church, 1st series, lect. xi.), gives this whole section poetically arranged, as follows. It will be seen that here again he blends the LXX. and the Hebrew text too much as if they were of like authority:—
“Then spake Joshua unto Jehovah,
In the day ‘that God gave up the Amorite
Into the hand of Israel,’ (LXX.)
When he discomfited them in Gibeon,
And they were discomfited before the face of Israel,’ (LXX.)”
And Joshua said:—
“ ‘Be thou still, O sun, upon Gibeon,
And thou moon upon the Valley of Ajalon.’
And the sun was still,
And the moon stood,
Until ‘the nation’ (or, LXX., until God) had avenged them upon their enemies.
And the sun stood in ‘the very midst’ of the heavens,
And hasted not to go down for a whole day,
And there was no day like that before it or after it,
That Jehovah heard the voice of a man,
For Jehovah fought for Israel.
And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp in Gilgal.”—Tr.]
[8][That is, strictly, gives no indication of such knowledge in this passage.—Tr.]
[9][Without dwelling on the palpable difficulty, not to say impossibility, of reconciling such a judgment with any satisfactory conception of the inspiration of the writer of our book, is not that judgment inconsistent with the natural probabilities concerning the authorship? That is, would not the reviser or compiler of the Book of Joshua know, as well as we, that he was introducing in verses 12, 13, a highly impassioned and hyperbolical passage of poetry? If so how could he, more than we, go on to interpret it as prosaic history? We think this indicates at once that the interpretation is not his, is nobody’s cool interpretation, but only a continuation of the lyrical strain. Not all the grammatical objections of our author to this view combined can stand against this one consideration.—Tr.]
[10][Considering what is afterward truly said of the fervid poetical character of this whole passage, this statement appears quite unwarranted. Unless David and Deborah and Habakkuk were convinced of the actual reality of what they assert in the form of fact, there seems no reason at all for assuming that either the original composer of the song or he who inserted it in the Book of the Upright or he who copied it into the Book of Joshua, believed there had been un actual extension of that day.—Tr.]
[11] [Compare Matt. Henry’s (from this point of view) more national representation:—
“And he (Joshua) believed God’s particular favor to Israel above all people under the sun; else he could not have expected, that, to favor them upon an emergency with a double day, he should (which must follow of course) amuse and terrify so great a part of the terrestrial globe with a double night at the same time; it is true he causeth the sun to shine upon the just and upon the unjust, but this once the unjust shall wait for it beyond the usual time, while, in favor to righteous Israel, it stands still.”—Tr.]
[12][The note of the learned Whiston, translator of Josephus, is curiously accommodating: “Whether this lengthening of the day, by the standing still of the sun and moon, were physical and real, by the miraculous stoppage of the diurnal motion of the earth for about half a revolution, or whether only apparent, by aerial phosphori imitating the sun and moon as stationary so long, while clouds and the night hid the real ones, and this parhelion, or mock sun, affording sufficient light for Joshua’s pursuit and complete victory (which aerial phosphori in other shapes have been unusually common of late years), cannot now be determined; philosophers and astronomers will naturally incline to this latter hypothesis,” etc. Ad. Ant. v. 1, 16.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain FIVE KINGS WAR AGAINST GIBEON, Jos_10:1-5.
FIVE KINGS WAR AGAINST GIBEON, Jos_10:1-5.
1. Adoni-zedek — The name means lord of justice. Compare the kindred word Melchizedek, king of justice. Gen_14:18. All that is known of this Amorite king and his four confederates is recorded in this chapter. Alarmed at the victories of Joshua and the defection of Gibeon, his nearest neighbour on the north, he aroused the kings in the south, and combined them against the seceding state. This drew Joshua to the aid of his ally, and to the discomfiture of his confederated foes, and the execution of Adonizedek and his four royal associates.
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Jerusalem — This is the first time that undisputed mention is made in the Bible of this celebrated city. Probably the Salem in Gen_14:18, is Jerusalem, although Jerome contends that Salem was in the southern part of Galilee, near Scythopolis. Jerusalem is called “Jebus” and the “city of the Jebusites” in Judges and some later books. It became the metropolis of the Hebrews under David at a comparatively late date, after the nation had gone through the period of the Judges and entered on the Monarchy. Bethel, Hebron, and Shechem were ancient holy places when the Jebusite was still possessing Jerusalem.
It is a little south of the centre of Palestine, thirty-two miles from the coast and eighteen from the Jordan, and is two thousand six hundred feet above the level of the sea. It is surrounded on three sides by hills still higher, from which it is separated by precipitous ravines, which rendered it, before the invention of gunpowder, almost impregnable. “It is on the ridge, the broadest and most strongly marked ridge, of the backbone of the complicated hills which extend through the whole country, from the plain of Esdraelon to the desert. Every wanderer, every conqueror, every traveller, who has trod the central route of Palestine from north to south, must have passed through the table-land of Jerusalem. It was the water-shed between the streams, or, rather, the torrent beds, which find their way eastward to the Jordan and westward to the Mediterranean.” — Stanley. See note, Mat_2:1.
And were among them — That is, were having amicable intercourse with the Israelites.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Ch. Jos_10:1-6. Confederacy of the Five Kings against Gibeon
Ch. Jos_10:1-6. Confederacy of the Five Kings against Gibeon
1. Now it came to pass] The surrender of such a place as Gibeon would naturally fill the kings of southern Canaan with alarm. “It was, so to speak, treason within their own camp.” The invaders had obtained a strong position in the very heart of the country, while the possession of the passes from Gibeon would expose the whole south of Canaan to their incursions. The retaking and punishment of Gibeon was the first object of the chieftains of the south.
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Adoni-zedek] i.e. “Lord of righteousness” It is no longer Melchizedek, “My king righteousness.” The alteration of the name marks a change of dynasties.
king of Jerusalem] “the habitation of peace,” or “the possession of peace.”
(i) This world-famous city was (a) sometimes called after its original inhabitants “Jebus” (Jdg_19:10-11; 1Ch_11:4); (b) sometimes “the city of the Jebusites” (Jdg_19:11), or “Jebusi” (Jos_18:16; Jos_18:28; 1Sa_5:8); (c) sometimes “Salem” = “peace” (Gen_14:18; Psa_76:2); (d) once “the city of Judah” (2Ch_25:28); (e) finally “Jerusalem” (Jos_10:1; Jos_12:10; Jdg_1:7, &c.).
(ii) It stands in latitude 31° 46′ 39″ North, and longitude 35° 14′ 42″ East of Greenwich, and Isaiah 32 miles distant from the sea, and 18 from the Jordan; 20 from Hebron, and 36 from Samaria.
(iii) Its situation is in several respects singular. Its elevation is remarkable, but is occasioned not from its being on the summit of one of the numerous hills of Judæa, but on the edge of one of the highest table-lands of the country. From every side, except the south, the ascent to it is perpetual, and it must always have presented the appearance, beyond any important city that has ever existed on the earth, of a “mountain city, enthroned on a mountain fortress.”
(iv) But besides being thus elevated more than 2500 feet above the level of the sea, it was separated by deep and precipitous ravines from the rocky plateau of which it formed a part. These slopes surround it on the southern, south-eastern, and western sides, and out of them the city rose “like the walls of a fortress out of its ditches.” Hence its early strength and subsequent greatness. See Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, p. 172; Ritter’s Geography of Palestine, iii. 1–33, iv. 3; Robinson’s Bibl. Res. 1:258–260.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Adoni-zedec king of Jerusalem.—We may compare this name…
X.
CONQUEST OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY OF THE NATIONS OF CANAAN.
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(1) Adoni-zedec king of Jerusalem.—We may compare this name (Lord of Righteousness) with Melchizedek (King of Righteousness). (See Gen_14:18 and Heb_7:1.) The similarity of the names makes it probable that the Salem of Gen_14:18 is Jerusalem (see Notes). The title Lord or King of Righteousness may have belonged to the king of Jerusalem, not only as a local title, but also in relation to the surrounding tribes, over whom he may have been a suzerain. But we know nothing of the matter beyond what we find in the sacred text.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Adoni-zedec. (cf. Melchizedek in Gen_14:18) The name given to…
THE BATTLE OF BETH-HORON, AND THE SUBJUGATION OF SOUTHERN PALESTINE.
Adoni-zedec. (cf. Melchizedek in Gen_14:18) The name given to the king of Jerusalem was good enough, and no doubt was a survival of earlier and purer times. In the days of Melchizedek the name corresponded to the character. Jerusalem. Hebrew, Jerushalaim, with the usual dual termination. It has been generally supposed to be the same with Salem, or rather Shalem, the city of which Melehizedek was king, and this is supported by the fact that the name of Salem is given to Jerusalem in Psa_76:2. But it is by no means certain that this is the case. The first to dispute the identity of the two places was St. Jerome, who declares that the Salem of Melchizedek was eight miles from Scythopolis, and that the ruins of the palace of Melchizedek could still be seen there (see also Gen_33:18). The term Salem, as indicative of the security and strength of Jerusalem, might not unnaturally be applied to it by the Psalmist; while; on the other hand, the dual form of Jerusalem seems difficult to account for on the theory of the identity of Jerusalem and Salem. This dual form has been a difficulty to critics; and Mr. Grove, in the "Dictionary of the Bible," conjectures that it may have arisen from an attempt to twist the archaic Phoenician form into agreement with the more modern Hebrew idiom, just as the Greeks afterwards twisted the name into Hierosolyma, or the holy Solyma. But a simpler explanation may be found in the fact that Jerusalem, like many other cities, consisted of two parts, the upper and the lower town, (cf. Jud_1:8 with ver. 1, 7 and 21, and 2Sa_5:6-8) while in earlier times the upper or lower town alone existed. Plural names of cities were not uncommon in later ages, as Athenae and Thebae. The name has been variously derived. Some have thought that as it is also called Jebus, (Jos_18:28 Jud_1:19:10) from its being the chief city of the Jebusites, it was originally Jebus-salem, and hence by a corruption Jerusalem. But this derivation has now been abandoned, and opinions differ as to whether it is derived from vWry and signifying "peaceful inheritance" (Ewald, Keil), or from hry and "peaceful settlement" (Gesenius, Lee). Gesenius objects to the former derivation that it would require dagesh in the v. The fathers and mediaeval divines, misled by Origen, translate it "vision of peace." This translation is alluded to in the well-known hymns Urbs beata Sion and O quanta qualia. Origen supposed it to come from har. Another difficult question is when the name was given, for there can be little doubt that the Book of Joshua was written before the time of David. It is possible that the name may have been given by the Jebusites themselves in consequence of their secure possession of it, notwithstanding the subjugation of the surrounding country by the Israelites. And when David had seized upon it and made it his capital, he would not be likely to change so suitable a name. For the Jebusites, evidently by their invariable position last among the nations of Canaan, the most insignificant among them, were enabled to defy the Israelite power long after their more powerful neighbours had succumbed. and David no doubt chose the situation of Jerusalem for his capital not only because, unlike Hebron, it enabled him to dwell among his own people without cutting himself off from intercourse with the other tribes of Israel; but because, as a mountain fastness remote from the plains of Esdraelon and the Orontes, which were the great highways of the Egyptian and Assyrian kings on their military expeditions, it would enable him to consolidate his power, and to secure that empire which became his from the force of his genius and the favour of God. We may remark upon the antecedent probability of the fact that the king of a place situated as Jerusalem is should stand at the head of this league.
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Vers. 1-43. The great victory and its results.
Many of the considerations which this passage suggests have been already anticipated. Thus the celerity of Joshua"s march (ver. 9) suggests the same set of ideas as Jos_4:10. The destruction of the cities teaches the same lessons as the destruction of Jericho; while the miraculous interposition in the battle of Beth-horon is hardly to be distinguished, as a source of spiritual instruction, from the destruction of Jericho. Again, the confederacy of the kings (vers. 1-5) has been already treated under Jos_9:1, Jos_9:2. Yet some few points remain to be noticed.
I DIVINE HELP DOES NOT EXCLUDE HUMAN EXERTION, Joshua went forth to battle relying upon a special promise of God. Yet he went up "suddenly," we are told. Thus, so far from the certainty of success diminishing energy, it should rather increase it. The apostles went forth relying on a Divine promise that God"s truth should permeate the world. But though this promise relieved them. from the restless anxiety which too often oppresses their successors in the work, it did not relieve them from the necessity of exertion. And accordingly we find them untiring in their exertions to spread the gospel, and also to lay firmly the foundations of the Christian Church. The same untiring spirit of exertion should animate us now. Success is assured in the end, and for that very reason we should not slacken, but rather the contrary, in our efforts to propagate truth. The two opposite rotors which retard the success of God"s cause are
(1) a needless anxiety for immediate results, which cause us to take measures which betray a want of faith, and which therefore, relying on the arm of flesh, are predestined to fail; and
(2) a blind fatalism which leaves all to God, forgetting that the forces of His kingdom require to be set in motion by man before they can take effect.
What is wanted is
(1) a sublime carelessness about results, when the means God has directed to be employed have been employed; and
(2) a continual effort to put those means in operation. Untiring in preaching the gospel, in using the means of grace, and in "good works and alms deeds," we are yet to be content with doing what is ordained, and leaving God to prosper, as He pleases, what we have done.
II THE ANSWER TO PRAYER IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN OUR WORK. Had Joshua not done his best, the hailstones would not have fallen. But inasmuch as he was doing his work, God helped him, and more execution was done by God from heaven than by Joshua"s troops on earth. So he who works and prays not will be rewarded with less success than he who works and prays. If we are not as successful as we could wish, we may ask whether we have asked God to work with us. It is a touching story which has been told of Sir D. Brewster"s father, that he was so well known as a man of prayer that when any unexpected and almost marvellous conversion occurred in his parish, it was attributed by his people to his prayers. Perhaps one of the reasons why the Roman Catholic Church still maintains so strong a hold upon the world is because of the fervent belief still retained among her people of the power of prayer. Such prayer is often sadly misdirected, and yet, as a recognition of a power above that hears and answers prayer, it must be more acceptable in God"s sight than the philosophical Protestantism which denies the existence of a Father in heaven, ridicules prayer to God, especially for temporal blessings, on the ground of the invariability of law, and thus practically abolishes the God of the Old Testament and of the New, and makes void the gospel of Jesus Christ. Surely superstition itself is better than this denial of the loving Fatherhood of God. The lesson here concerns spiritual rather than temporal blessings, but it none the less contains a protest against the sceptical spirit which would lead us to think it unnecessary to maintain by prayer an attitude of continual dependence on God.
III HEAVENLY LIGHT SHALL NEVER FAIL HIM WHO IS FIGHTING IN GOD"S CAUSE. Joshua asked for light, that he might destroy God"s enemies. So must the Christian ask for light, that he may distinguish friends from foes truth from falsehood. He has the light of God"s Word, which, coming direct from God, is symbolised by the sun; and the light of man"s preaching of that Word, which, inasmuch as it only reflects the Word itself, is not inaptly typified by the moon. We need not fear that that light will ever fail us; and yet we do well to pray that it may continue to be afforded us. We may, in the strength of faith, pray that the sun may for us stand still upon Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, until God be avenged on His enemies, sin and falsehood and their allies, through our means.
IV WE SHALL "SPEAK OF HIS TESTIMONIES EVEN BEFORE KINGS, AND SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED." Joshua makes a great point of the subjugation of the kings to the people of Israel. He makes his captains set their feet upon their necks to show that none can resist the armies of the Lord.
(1) So our Joshua tells us that we shall stand "before governors and kings for his sake." And so it has been in the history of His Church. "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers took counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed." First, in the case of those who first preached the gospel. It was preached for three centuries in direct defiance of the highest human authority, among Jews and Gentiles alike. Next, the defenders of true against false doctrine, of justice and mercy as against violence and cruelty, had to stand before kings and rebuke them in the name of the Lord. When the great revival of zeal and reverence for God"s Word took place in the fifteenth century, the influence of the mighty was frequently exerted to crush it. And so it will ever be. "Not many mighty, not many noble," are to be found in revivals of faith and zeal. Authority frowns on them, prescription is against them, force is invoked to put them down, yet they thrive. The hand of man is powerless against the truth. The battle is long and fierce, but it is won at last. And the principles but lately despised are triumphant. Their holders put "their feet on the necks of kings," for the rulers who resisted to the utmost are forced to own the power of the truth against which they contended as long as they were able. Thus we learn the lesson of confidence taught by Joshua, "Fear not, neither be dismayed, be strong and of a good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight." Again
(2) we learn the same confidence against tyrant lusts, "which war against the soul." Long and obstinate is the conflict; but if it be waged in faith and prayer, the Lord fights for us out of heaven; light is shed upon our onward path, the light of a right judgment and a Christian prudence, until at last we put our feet upon the necks of those "kings" that would have enslaved us, and then our Joshua slays them, that they trouble us no more.
HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER Ver. 1. Adoni-zedek, a lesson for nations and individuals.
These Jebusltes had two or three ideas at least which are worth remarking. They had a true idea of the essential condition of a nation"s prosperity for the people of Jebus had called their city Salem that is, "peace." And the title of their king was Melchizedek, or Adoni-zedek King or Lord of Righteousness. These names are amongst the earliest contributions to the science of political economy. The one name, "Salem," contains as much valuable suggestion as is found in many books on "the wealth of nations." The second condenses all principles of sovereignty into a single word. No one is a good rafter unless the title Adoni-zedek would suit him. King or Parliament, the Father in his family, the Prime Minister in his Cabinet, all should remember that the ruler of men is really a usurper unless the title, Lord of Righteousness, suit him. Let us look at this name, and observe
I We have here A GRAND TITLE FOR A RULER. Perhaps the people had degenerated since the days of Abraham. Then this ruler was that Melchi-zedek, who was a "Priest of the Most High God." However degenerate, they cling to this title, and as the kings of Egypt were Pharaohs; and those of Gath, Abimelechs; and those of Damascus, Benhadads; so those of Jerusalem were Adoni-zedeks. There is an instinct in all people that desires the throne to be filled with righteousness. Just as in our days, the Khan of Merv has carried the same titles King of Righteousness and King of Peace so in the absence of constitutional checks on regal power, they gave their kings the title which was meant to be at once impulse and restraint. The lesson of this title should be learned by all of us. In a ruler of men there are many qualities requisite. Wisdom to perceive the true necessities of those under his care; strength and energy enough to carry out the dictates of wisdom; courage to face and provide calmly against every, danger. But when the utmost value has been allowed to these supreme qualities, an accurate judgment will still allow a higher value to one other that of EQUITY. In outside relations, equity will enable a king to maintain peace with neighboring peoples better than any diplomacy or strength could do. In ancient days, the king was the judge of all causes, from those of our County Courts to those of the Court of Chancery. What a boon to a people when the judge was an embodiment of justice inaccessible to bribes, ready patiently to unravel the entangled case, never misled by partiality or by antipathy, but to those liked or disliked meting out even-handed justice. This old people saw all these things, anti when a Magna Charts was an impossibility, they tried to compass its ends by giving their king this stimulative and restraining title. Righteousness is still the most essential quality of a statesman. Fairness of mind that holds the balance evenly between all conflicting claims this has been the distinguishing quality of all the English statesmen of this century who have earned the nation"s gratitude. It is the quality needed in our Legislature today. It is the quality needed by every employer of labour. The serving classes want no favour, nor mere amiability in a master. Fairness will ever secure their deepest attachment. A father in a family should be a "Lord of Righteousness." In short, this equity is the supreme want everywhere. People would be more charitable if they were more just. And peace in homes, in churches, in nations would be much less frequently imperilled, if only fairness of mind moderated the claims we make, and permitted us to see whatever element of right lay in the claims made upon us. If we have here a good title, observe secondly
II We have A GREAT TITLE BORNE BY ONE OF A POOR NATURE. Name and nature do not always correspond. And here "The Lord of Righteousness "is found acting unrighteously. Gibeon with its sister cities was probably disliked for its republican institutions by all those neighbouring states that maintained a monarchy. Now to the fault of liberty it adds the sin of wisdom. A maxim, unfortunately not obsolete today, was accepted then that the making of any alliance containing a possibility of danger to us is a sufficient casus belli against the state that makes it. His title had not sufficiently instructed this ruler to make him see the wrong of this position. He is perhaps the more easily led to make war against Gibeon because, guarding as it did one of the great passes into the heart of the kingdom, to seize it seemed the best way of securing the safety of the country from Israelitish attack. And so unrighteously the "King of Righteousness" attacks his neighbours; and, like so many, shows that the grandeur of a title is not always matched by greatness in him who bears it. A long way from us in time, locality, and circumstances, how near us in nature does this characteristic bring him. Sometimes we inherit great names, and forget the lesson of the poet"They who on the deeds of ancestors enlarge, Do but produce the debt, not the discharge.
Sometimes God gives us names, which it is our duty to illustrate and justify. "Children of Light, "Sons of God, "Heirs of God, "Chosen Generation," "Royal Priesthood." Is there never any discrepancy between the titles we bear and the lives we lead? We cannot help having these great names applied to us. They belong to all who have been born again by the birth which is from above. And God gives us them that they may "marshal us the way that we are going." Let us try and act up to our name, and not have the melancholy fate of being condemned by the very title that we bear. Lastly observe
III PROFESSION CANNOT SAVE FROM PERDITION. This man with the grand name perishes miserably dishonoured, hanged, involving in his own ruin that of his people and that of all those confederated with him. The providence and the judgment of God are no respecters of persons. As we sow we reap. The obedience of faith is salvation. The unrighteousness of self will is destruction. Let us see that we have more than the "name to live," lest the greater name only condemn us to the greater destruction. G.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Come up unto me, and help me, that we…
Jos_10:1-5
Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua.
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To arms! To arms!
The greatest poet of Greece has sung in stately numbers the deeds of heroes whom his race adored. We listen to their counsels, we hear their battle shouts, we see their awful blows. Yet after all this plain, unvarnished tale depicts with more fidelity and power the progress and results of a conflict, the most sublime in its accompaniments that this earth has ever seen. In this chapter we have recorded not only one of Joshuas most brilliant victories, but one of the worlds greatest battles: a struggle surpassing in importance and interest Issus or Arbela, Marathon or Cannae, and affecting to an incalculable extent the religious and political, the moral and the material, welfare of mankind. First of all we listen to the summons--Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon, &c. Notice from whom the summons comes. From Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem. This is a strange thing. From this mans name, Lord of Righteousness, and from his heritage, Jerusalem, we would have expected something very different. He is certainly the successor, probably the descendant, of Melchizedek. Here is a man who bears the best of titles, but is, alas! unworthy of it. Nothing could be better than his name; few things are worse than his fame. Learn from this sad lesson that piety is not hereditary. The descendants of the righteous may be a wicked seed. This is a sad thing. A noble ancestry is not a thing to be despised. It is unwise and ungrateful to ignore the records and the glories of the past. This is also a dangerous thing. The opposition of those who have thus fallen is always most dangerous. None are so bitter and remorseless, so vehement and virulent, so venomous and subtle, as renegades. Notice to whom Adoni-zedeks message was sent. It was not sent to all the members of the great national league. That was impossible, because the submission of the Gibeonites had split the confederacy into two unequal parts. Instead of one vast army marching to crush the invader there must now be two: one in the south, the other in the north. That of the south is smaller, therefore more easily set in motion; and it is also placed nearer the centre of attack. Thus we see how God has restrained the wrath of the enemy and deprived him of half his might. Even so all coalition against Him must fall to pieces. Transgressors are always lacking in cohesion. It was to Gibeon that Adoni-zedek summoned his confederates. Thus his enmity was manifested against their defection. Still this summons of Adoni-zedek betokens fear. It is to some extent the blustering of a bully who is at heart a craven. We know this, for we are told that When Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it . . . that they feared greatly. Therefore because they fear they do not come alone. They keep their courage up by company. How many are like them. They do fear when spiritual truths are brought before them, when Gods judgment stares them in the face; yet they try to find comfort in the thought, Well, if I am lost a great many will be badly off. Nay! nay! It is a vain thing to banish fear by such thoughts. Such a fear as that works destruction; because being accompanied, by a rebellious heart and a darkened mind it led to union against God. Hatred against the Gibeonites is a very distinct characteristic of Adoni-zedeks message. Yet, after all, what right had they to be thus angry with their old friends? Had not the Gibeonites a right to have a mind of their own, especially in a matter that concerned their very existence? But the human heart remains the same. When the sinner turns from his rebellion and humbles himself before God, then is the time for the wrath of man to be revealed. This hatred is most unreasonable, for, like these Gibeonites, the penitents in throwing down the weapons of their rebellion set an example which it is the highest wisdom to follow. The cunning and the impiety of these Canaanites are also revealed by this confederation. They will prevent further defection; they will gain one of the most important strongholds in the land; they will make the old league possible. Thus they displayed their craft. And in doing so they proved their impiety. (A. B. Mackay.)
Rage of the world against deserters from its ranks
It is thus in the spiritual life. Upon no outer enemy does the world turn with such rage and resentment as upon those who desert their ranks to join the Lords host. All the legions of hell are marshalled forth against the young believer who has newly signed the terms of treaty with the Joshua of the better covenant. As Bishop Hall says, If a convert come home, the angels welcome him with song, the devils follow him with uproar and fury, his old partners with scorn and obloquy. In spite of all this, let not those who have become allied to the Israel of God quail; but let the sequel here before us reassure them. (G. W. Butler, M. A.)
Combinations against the Church
What combinations have been formed, what artifices practised against the Church!--one wile to allure, another to frighten, and sometimes to destroy. As against the Lord Himself, so against His people, the great and the mighty of the earth have consulted their ruin, and for a season availed to harass and distress the saints; nor can this be matter of surprise to those who know their own character, and remember what themselves were till converted by the grace of God. The Churchs gain is the worlds grief, as it is the worlds loss. Oh, what oppositions in families, what combinations out of old connections and associates, have been raised against those who, no longer of the world, have been chosen out of it, and through grace enabled to turn their backs upon its vanities and pursuits! No sooner is it known that any have made peace with our spiritual Joshua than the world is up in arms, and war declared, lasting as the irreconcilable enmity of fallen nature. Not one who openly declares himself on the Lords side, and is inwardly devoted to His glory, but, according to the station he occupies, and the influence of those around him, will experience a full measure. (W. Seaton.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Jos_10:1. Adoni-zedek] = “lord of righteousness.” Melchi-zedek was apparently…
THE OVERTHROW OF THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH
CRITICAL NOTES.—
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Jos_10:1. Adoni-zedek] = “lord of righteousness.” Melchi-zedek was apparently king of the same place in the time of Abram. The Jebusite kings may have borne this title, as the rulers of Egypt and Rome did that of Pharaoh and Cæsar. The appellation “Jabin” was, perhaps, similarly given to the Canaanitish kings of Hazor (cf. chap. Jos_11:1, and Jdg_4:2), Jerusalem] = “possession of peace,” or “seat of peace.” This is the first time that the name occurs in the Scriptures. “There is no ground for questioning the identity of Salem (Gen_14:18) and the city which was afterwards called Jeru-shalem. The supposition that the name Jerusalem dates from the time of David is altogether without support from history, and overthrown by the fact that the city of the Jebusites was called the city of David (2Sa_5:9) after David had taken it; whilst the name Jerusalem bears no relation whatever to the circumstances of David’s time. It does not follow that because Jerusalem was also called Jebus before the time of David, so long as it was in possession of the Jebusites (Jos_18:28; Jdg_19:10; 1Ch_11:4), therefore it had no name besides Jebus. All that can be inferred is, that in addition to its proper name Jerusalem, contracted Salem, it was also called Jebus, from its inhabitants; just as Hebron was also called Kirjath-Arba, from the family of Arba (comp. chap. Jos_14:15).” [Keil.]
Jos_10:2. As one of the royal cities] Marg. = “cities of the kingdom.” Although the leading city of only a small republic which was governed by elders, Gibeon probably surpassed in dignity and power many of the cities in which a king dwelt.
Jos_10:3. Hebron] One of the most ancient and important cities of the land. Antiquity referred to in Num_13:22. Nearly twenty miles south of Jerusalem. Celebrated in connection with Abraham, David, and Absalom. The Cave of Machpelah was close by. The city was given to Caleb at the distribution of the land. Jarmuth] About fifteen miles south-west of Jerusalem. There was another city of the same name in the lot which went to the tribe of Issachar (chap. Jos_21:29). Lachish] It was afterwards fortified by Rehoboam (2Ch_11:9). Amaziah was slain here by conspirators from Jerusalem. The city became famous by the siege which it suffered during the reign of Hezekiah, allusions to which are made in the historical and prophetical books of Scripture. The siege of the city by Sennacherib is said to be further commemorated by a remarkable bas-relief found at Nineveh. Lachish is thought to be the modern Um Lâkis, but this is opposed by Robinson. Eglon] Probably identified in Ajlan, about thirty-four miles south-west of Jerusalem, in the low country of Judah.
Jos_10:4. Come up unto me, and help me] It does not seem clear, as several have supposed, that these words are a command, and that Adoni-zedek, as a superior monarch, had some general authority over the rest of the southern kings. It is more natural to suppose that he feared Jerusalem might be the next place attacked by Joshua and the Gibeonites. It was the nearest important city to the now common foes of Canaan, and was thus most in danger. Hence the words are probably to be taken as an entreaty, not as a command: “Come up unto me, and help me.”
Jos_10:7. So Joshua ascended] “He drew near; not, he went up, as De Wette has wrongly translated it.” [Keil.] So the phrases “come up” and “went up,” in Jos_10:4-5, are probably used in the “military sense” given by Rosenmüller—“come up with forces.” From Gilgal] Probably Gilgal “beside the plains of Moreh” (cf. Deu_11:29), to which the camp seems to have been removed previous to the service at Ebal. “If the reading of the Hebrew text (2Ki_2:2; 2Ki_2:4), ‘they went down,’ is right, then the Gilgal spoken of in Jos_2:1 cannot be that near Jericho; and another Gilgal must be sought in the mountains north-west of Bethel; where some such place is indicated by the ancient Canaanite kingdom of the ‘nations of Gilgal, between Dor and Tirzah (Jos_12:23), and where a modern village exists, called Jiljŭleh. But the LXX. read ἦλθον, ‘they came.’ ” [A. P. Stanley.]
Jos_10:10. Jehovah discomfited them] Discomfited them by the Israelites. In the same manner it is said that Jehovah “slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon,” before the storm of hail came. Azekah] Near to Shochoh (1Sa_17:1), and probably on the road to Gaza. It was fortified by Rehoboam (2Ch_11:9), was fought against by the king of Babylon (Jer_34:7), and was still standing when the Jews returned from the captivity (Neh_11:30). Makkedah] Groser supposes that it has been “identified by Lieut. Conder with El Mughar (the cave), between seven and eight miles from Ramleh.”
Jos_10:11. Great stones … hailstones] Intimations of their destructive effects are given in Exo_9:19; Exo_9:25; Job_38:22-23; Eze_13:11-14, etc. Records of several storms in the East are preserved, in which it is stated that the hailstones, or stones of ice, were found to weigh from half to three-quarters of a pound. (But cf. Rev_16:21.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_10:1-11
THE DEFEAT OF THE FIVE KINGS
This chapter is full of movement and energy. It is a rapidly shifting drama, in which we see passing before us scenes of surprising vigour, ending in results of colossal magnitude. It is a kind of heroic song of the wonderful wars of the Lord, in which the poetry is made to depend on the energy of facts, rather than on the rhythm of language. The key-words of this historic canto are “speed,” “force,” “revolution.” Nothing could well be sufficiently sudden to be out of time with its quick movement, nothing mighty enough to be out of character with its overwhelming energy, nothing huge enough to be disproportionate to its gigantic results. The simple and inartistic record of Joshua fairly leaves behind it, as a thing of comparative languor and weakness, the otherwise stately historic fiction of Homer. In response to the swift messengers of the generally brave but then trembling Jebusites, five armies are rapidly concentrated on Gibeon. Ere they arrive before the city, the Gibeonite elders promptly despatch a post by way of Bethel to Joshua at Gilgal, begging him in the most fervent words to come up and save them from their enemies. The selected portion of the troops immediately strike their tents, and marching all night from near Shiloh to Gibeon, a distance of from fifteen to eighteen miles, as the sun rises they burst like a living torrent on the assembled armies of the kings. Then comes the flight down the western pass, and the fearful accompaniment of slaughter by the pursuing Israelites. After a long ascent, Upper Beth-horon is reached, and the instrument is changed, but not the slaughter. The heavens, which had rained down fire on the fathers at Sodom and Gomorrah, now pour forth upon the children destroying hail. “The Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.” Meanwhile the day seems to have waned towards closing. The sun was already “in the bisection of the heavens”—possibly nearing the horizon. Then, taking the record as it stands before us, come Joshua’s sudden appeal to Jehovah, and the marvellous prolongation of the day, till the people have fully “avenged themselves upon their enemies.” Nor does the record of wonders cease, even with this. The chapter which opens with such an exhibition of activity and might, ends with a rapid procession of fresh battles and new victories. Besides Makkedah, which Joshua takes on that same day, ere “the going down of the sun,” five important cities are utterly destroyed by the Israelites; Horam, king of Gezer, and his people, are also slain; and then the historian, no longer descending to details, sums up the account in a few words of general description, intended, no doubt, to indicate the fall of several minor cities and villages: “Joshua smote them from Kadesh barnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen even unto Gibeon.” So imposing, even in these brief and simple chronicles, are the mighty works of the Lord; and so easily victorious are the people whom He leads on from place to place in the train of His triumph!
This opening paragraph of the chapter sets before us four principal topics for consideration:—
I. The earnest request of the Jebusites. Through their king they sent to these four cities of the south, saying, “Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon.” In taking this course, they may have had several motives.
1. They were partly moved by fear (Jos_10:2). The fear of the wicked has several defects. (a) It generally comes too late. Fear of God, attended to in time, is the “beginning of wisdom.” Such fear, when too long neglected, is the dark shadow of approaching ruin. (b) When it does come, it is resisted. The fear of the Lord never comes too late for pardon, when it brings men in penitence to His feet; but it does often come too late to lead them there. (c) This fear of the Lord is resisted because both it and He are misunderstood. To fear, in some instances, is no sign of wanting courage. To fear a shadow is the fear of folly; to fear the rock-bound coast in a storm, and to seek because of that fear to give it as wide a berth as safety requires, is a seaman’s wisdom. It is wise, in a sanitary point of view, to fear to live in a filthy street, to drink polluted water, or to suffer an accumulation of any of the conditions which certainly bring disease. In a social and moral point of view, he is wise who fears to sin. There are multitudes of things which no man and no number of men can resist. To resist the fear of God is to misinterpret a warning voice that speaks kindly; it is to fail to understand God.
2. They were possibly actuated by a desire for revenge. To smite the Gibeonites would, from their point of view, be to smite traitors. But those who go over to the side of God are, in reality, merely returning in true allegiance to their rightful sovereign. Those who put themselves under divine protection take no vain measures for safety. He can keep them, and loves to keep them.
3. They may have been impelled to attack the Gibeonites by policy. It would be dealing with their enemies in detail. Hence the suddenness of the movement. The policy is always bad, however promising it may appear, which opposes God. As Bishop Hall says: “If they had sat still, their destruction had not been so sudden. The malice of the wicked hastens the pace of their own judgment. No rod is so fit for a mischievous man as his own.”
4. Thus do fear, and revenge, and mere policy work together for destruction. All things work together for good to them that love God; all things work in the opposite way to them who do not.
II. The urgent prayer of the Gibeonites (Jos_10:6).
1. The Gibeonites, also, were influenced by fear. Freedom from fear does not come by merely getting on the side for which God fights, but by getting to know God, and by getting into His mind and will. The Gibeonites, as yet, were a long way from this.
2. Their trust, in this emergency, was honourable rather than presumptuous. They had deceived Joshua, but seeing that he had ratified the covenant with them, they did well to conclude that he would afford his protection. The forgiven sins of our past should not hinder our trust in the present. We honour God more by our trust than by our fears lest we should presume. Great fear of our own sufficiency may go with great faith in the Lord, and with confidence in the fidelity of those who are really under His teaching and guidance.
III. The prompt fidelity of the Israelites (Jos_10:7-9). Joshua, and all Israel with him, immediately responded to this appeal of the Gibeonites.
1. The obligation felt by a true man to defend all belonging to him. The Gibeonites were weak, compared with the host gathered against them. They were the mere servants of the Levites, and their position was the humblest in all Israel. The danger of the weak does but inspire a true man. The meanest part of the body calls, no less than the head itself, for the full strength of the defending arm.
2. The responsibility felt by a true man to honour, not merely the letter, but the very spirit of his words. Joshua had only promised to “let them live” (chap. Jos_9:15), and not to risk the lives of his army to save theirs. Thus ran the letter of the league. But to have no occasion against them, and to have recognised them as servants of the tabernacle, was for Joshua to feel bound to defend them. “He knew little difference betwixt killing them with his own sword and the sword of an Amorite: whosoever should give the blow, the murder would be his. Some men kill as much by looking on as others by smiting. We are guilty of all the evil we might have hindered.” [Bishop Hall.]
3. The energy with which a true man is inspired when he feels himself in the way of right. “Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.” “He gives twice, who gives quickly,” says the old Latin proverb. For Joshua not to have aided Gibeon at once, would have been to lose the opportunity altogether. We may well go promptly where righteousness bids us go at all.
4. The comfort given by God to a true man who readily undertakes what is difficult because it is right (Jos_10:8). He who conscientiously and promptly follows the way of truth when it is dangerous, and when he might readily find excuses for being elsewhere, may always hear the “Fear not” of the Lord, if he will only listen.
IV. The gracious co-operation of Jehovah (Jos_10:10-11).
1. The comforting words of the Lord are not merely words. The words of His encouragement are but the forerunner of Himself. They are the earnest of the future possession. The mighty hand of God is ever at the back of the gracious utterances of His lips.
2. The works of the Lord ever exceed those of His people, and sometimes visibly. It was He who discomfited the Canaanites before Israel. They were but the instrument through which He worked, even in the first part of the battle; and ere the battle closed, His hand, without theirs, slew more than all Israel together.
3. The promise of the Lord knows no limit by reason of His people’s insufficiency. Weary with the night’s march and the morning’s conflicts, many of their enemies would have fled to the walled cities, and have made good their escape, but for Divine interposition. But God had said, “I have delivered them into thine hand;” and where the hand of Joshua would have failed to smite these idolaters, “the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died.” Where our hands fail through weakness to overtake the complete measure of the promises, there may we look for help from the outstretched hand of God till all be fulfilled.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos_10:1. NAMES.
This verse contains a curious conjunction of significant names, which, while worthy of passing remark, should not be pressed into fanciful extremes. “What’s in a name?” In some of the names that follow, we cannot but trace the Divine Hand and purpose, as we are so often compelled to do in the early nomenclature of Jewish history.
I. A bad man with a good name. Adoni-zedec, “Lord of Righteousness.” A pious name is no guarantee of a holy heart.
II. A good man with a good name. Joshua, “the salvation of Jehovah,” or, “he shall save.” This is a name which we cannot but feel that Providence directed to be given to the leader of Israel. A good name may well be felt by its possessor to be an incentive to a good life. A little superstition in this direction might be rather useful to some men, and lead them to “accomplish a destiny” which at least might have the merit of doing less harm to other people than that which, for want of some ideal, they finally do accomplish.
III. A great city with its greatness foreshadowed in its name. Jerusalem, “possession of peace,” or, “vision of peace.” Thus the metropolis in the Kingdom of Peace anticipates, from the first, the glory and honour which should come to it. Even the names of its early kings seemed to herald Him under whose reign its glory should be consummated.
Jos_10:2. THE INFLUENCE OF THE GREAT.
I. The example of the wisest and bravest men in a community porvoking fear. When this free state, with its mighty men, gave up resistance as hopeless, who else might think to fight successfully?
II. The numerous instruments which God has for accomplishing His purposes and fulfilling His word. God had repeatedly said, “I will send my fear before thee” (cf. Exo_15:14-16; Exo_23:27; Deu_11:25). The Lord here fulfils this word
(1) by means of some of the Canaanites themselves, and
(2) by those of them esteemed to be most eminent.
Jos_10:6-7. THE DELIVERANCE OF THE GIBEONITES.
Joshua’s rescue of the Gibeonites was:—
I. The deliverance of a people who a little while before were under sentence of death. The sentence against them had in no way differed from that against the rest of the Canaanites. But for their repentance, that sentence would have been as certainly carried out against them as against the rest.
II. The deliverance of men who had sought protection in a mean and unworthy manner.
1. They had sought pardon at the eleventh hour.
2. They had sought it by subterfuge and lying. Yet God forgave their sin even in view of so imperfect a trust and so poor a repentance.
III. The deliverance of men who in the hour of their need appealed to the covenant. On their side, that covenant was all imperfection. Touching their part of it, in it there was no good thing whatever. Yet these Gibeonites did well to believe that God’s people, and through them God Himself, would hold the other side of that covenant to be sacred. The Psalmist said, “I am Thine: save me;” so these Gibeonites dared to plead that they were servants of Israel, and though they became so unworthily, the league was recognised as binding.
“The greatest obligation, to a good mind, is another’s trust, which to disappoint were mercilessly perfidious. If Joshua’s very Israelites had been in danger, he could have done no more. How much less shall our true JOSHUA fail the confidence of our faith! O my Saviour, if we send the messengers of our prayers unto Thee into Thy Gilgal, Thy mercy binds Thee to relieve. Never any soul miscarried that trusted Thee. We may be wanting in our trust; our trust can never want success.”—Bp. Hall.
Jos_10:8. THE LORD’S ENCOURAGEMENT OF HIS SERVANTS.
I. Divine encouragement given when unsolicited. It was needed, but apparently not asked. The right heart, from its very rectitude, is “praying always.”
II. Divine encouragement given in the way of duty. God spoke to His servant when he was respecting an oath the keeping of which had been opposed by the people.
III. Divine encouragement given when in the act of succouring the weak. He who loves our compassion for others, will not withhold His compassion from us. We are but on the errand of His own heart. Pro_24:11-12; Mat_12:20.
IV. Divine encouragement pointing to absolute and complete victory. “There shall not a man of them stand before thee.” We too are told of the “last enemy” as one that shall be destroyed.
V. Divine encouragement the forerunner of omnipotent help (Jos_10:10-11). The Lord loves to establish His words unto His servants, upon which He has “caused them to hope.”
Jos_10:6 to Jos_11:1. Gibeon’s need.
2. Joshua’s faithfulness.
3. God’s help.
“If men come to us for help in time of need, God gives the courage to render aid. True courage comes alone from God.
“If a man has once gained a real victory over his spiritual foes, he must boldly follow it up without indolent delay, and faithfully reap the fruits of the success given him.”—Lange.
THE MIRACULOUS PROLONGATION OF THE DAY.—Jos_10:12-15
Whatever may have been the view adopted by expositors in the exegesis of the text of this remarkable passage, and in the explanation of the phenomena to which it refers, only one thing of a positive character seems as yet to have been fully and satisfactorily proved; and that is, the inexpediency of urging any particular view in the spirit of an over-confident dogmatism. Theories have been advocated, which, perhaps, may very confidently, and yet fairly, be pronounced erroneous; but that is a different matter. It is one thing to know that a given explanation cannot possibly be right, and another thing to know with equal certainty what is the right explanation. With so much obscurity pertaining to the character of the text, and with so much difficulty attaching to any probable explanation of the miracle itself, it is a comparatively easy course to set out with a given theory, treat very lightly all which is urged against it, render as emphatic as possible everything which can be said for it, and then consider the case proved. Such a method, however, is not ultimately helpful in the settlement of any involved question, and is certainly unworthy of the dignity of Biblical truth. Those who have read most closely, and thought most conscientiously, on this alleged miracle at Beth-horon, will probably be least inclined to dogmatise in any attempts which they may make to construct a positive theory of explanation.
It is not within the scope of a work like this to discuss the question of these verses at any considerable length. It is only proposed to examine one or two recent theories of exposition in which attempts have been made to do away, more or less fully, with the miraculous element; and then to endeavour to ascertain whether the older belief in an actual prolongation of the day by miraculous interposition, in some way or other, be not the most feasible view which can be taken of the matter.
The principal exposition on which modern opponents of the miracle have relied, may be described as
The theory of interpolation. Rejecting the unity of authorship in the book of Joshua, some commentators have held that it is a compilation from several other documents. This view, which is by no means a modern one in its leading idea, has been advocated and expanded by, among others, Tuch, Stähelin, Bleek, and notably by Ewald and Knobel. The Dutch theologian, C. H. van Herwerden, thought he found in the style of the book “ten different monumenta, from which it is compiled.” Taking the theory at the stage at which it has more recently been left by Knobel, it may be briefly summarised as follows. The book of Joshua is asserted to have been compiled by a “Jehovist,” from three sets of documents. The principal of these are termed “Elohistic” records, and are supposed to form the “ground-text” for the work. The supplementary documents are said to be two: first, the “Law Book,” which was supposed to contain laws, historical reports, and poems; the remaining documents being named the “War Book,” which is said to be alluded to in Num_21:14, and to have been composed of a great number of warlike narratives. Finally we are told that the “Jehovist,” or the compiler of the book of Joshua, “cannot have lived before the Assyrian period, because he has the ‘Law Book’ and the ‘War Book’ before him. Since, moreover, the ‘Law Book’ especially comes down to Hezekiah, the last years of this king are about the earliest date to which the ‘Jehovist’ can be assigned.”
All this being granted, by any who choose to grant it, the theory of Knobel as to these four verses then is, that they are “a fragment from the first document of the Jehovist;’ ” that is, that they were inserted by the compiler of the book of Joshua, as late as the last years of Hezekiah, from the documents termed the “Law Book.” While differing from Knobel in details, this is substantially the view adopted by the leading advocates of the theory of interpolation.
Let us see to what this rationalising amounts, and whether it has sufficient of “sweet reasonableness” to make it rational. First, let it be remembered that each of the three sets of documents are imaginary. The “Elohistic ground text” is nothing else. The “Law Book,” by a very free application of the phrase “Sepher Hayyashar,” here rendered “the book of Jasher,” or of “the upright,” is also imaginatively identified with a hypothetical book containing laws, historical reports, and poems. Thus, in this second case, fancy has “a wheel within a wheel.” The “War Book” also succeeds in getting a kind of Scripture name, though little more can be said in its behalf. This “book of the wars of Jehovah,” we are told, “contained a great number of warlike narratives—more, in fact, than all the others together, … and appears to have originated in the southern country, … as it agrees very nearly in matter and style with the ground-text.… The author, from his interest in religious legislation, was probably a Levite, … and wrote in the time of Jehoshaphat.” Then we find this book, so comfortably imagined and so fully described, just as easily identified with the records mentioned in Num_21:14. What is even more remarkable, certain passages in the book of Joshua, after having been imagined off into the separateness of belonging to a “War Book,” are just as jauntily distinguished from the Elohistic documents, notwithstanding that the said War Book “agrees very nearly in matter and style with the ground-text.” Thus the case comes to this: the ground-text in Joshua agrees very nearly in matter and style with itself; but so far from this being an argument in the direction of unity of authorship, a new set of documents is imagined out of a difference which is acknowledged to be hardly a difference; and then an author called a “Jehovist,” a country for him in which to form his style, and a suitable time in which he can write, are created with equal facility.
With very much respect for the learning and labour which have been expended in support of this theory, and in no way depreciating many valuable collateral results which the researches of those who have upheld it have produced, the theory itself is manifestly too vapid to convince many persons besides its authors. To most people, the statement of it will probably be a sufficient refutation. As has been remarked by Dr. Bliss, the English translator of Fay’s Commentary, in the Lange Series: “The fancifulness and subjectivity of such elaborate and minute specifications, and the tenuity of many of the reasons assigned, provoke laughter rather than argumentative confutation. That one should gravely split a verse into numerous passages, so as to refer the various fragments to their respective authors, and should be obliged to do it to save his theory, is, to most minds, slaughtering the theory at its birth. Our curiosity is naturally raised by such attempts to imagine what the next speculator in Biblical criticism will propose for our wonderment; nay, we inquire what even the same mind, after having dropped for a time and forgotten the particulars of his previous fabrication, would invent, if he were to take up the whole subject anew.”
Taking, then, the unity of the authorship of the book of Joshua as in no measure disproved or even shaken by this giddy theory, the date at which the book was written has an important bearing on the question of the interpolation of this passage from the book Jasher. Is the passage an interpolation made several centuries after the book was written, or is it merely a quotation made by the author himself? Not condescending to notice the sublime claim of Scripture to inspiration, Fay has adopted so much of Knobel’s theory as to enable him to proceed as follows (the italics being his own): “According to the view of the author of 13 b—15, Jehovah has performed an objective astronomical miracle, of which the poet from whom the quotation is made, had no thought, and of which we, following him (the poet), have no thought.” This sentiment has been very recently repeated by the author of the Notes on Joshua in the Speaker’s Commentary, who says, in loco: “We claim liberty to think with the poet who wrote in the book of Jasher the ode, of which a few words have come down to us, who did not dream of a literal standing still of the heavenly bodies, and to side with him rather than with the later writer who quotes him.”
This argument of Fay’s assumes that the author of the book of Joshua did not himself insert the quotation from the book Jasher. It further assumes that the person who inserted these verses in the text did not live sufficiently near to the time of the battle of Beth-horon to enable him to see, even so well as Fay sees in the nineteenth century, that the poetry had no historical basis of truth, but was merely poetry, and that of the most mythical kind, its air of fact to the contrary notwithstanding. In a word, for Fay’s argument to be worth anything whatever, even outside the doctrine of inspiration, the Jehovist who inserted the verses must have lived at least two or three centuries after the battle, when all trustworthy traditions and accounts had so far faded into obscurity, that no one could contradict or correct his revised edition of “the Elohistic records.” Looking at the tenacity with which the Jews preserved the accounts of their history, and at the exceedingly important character of this history, lying as it did at the foundation of both the national existence and the national theology, it is almost incredible to suppose that even the seven centuries which intervened before the death of Hezekiah would have been sufficient to so completely blot out the accounts of such a battle as to allow, by the misinterpretation of an ancient poet’s words, of the foisting into the sacred record of the most gigantic of all Old Testament miracles, when it was a miracle that never happened.
How then stands this other important question, touching the date of the book? Has Fay even a single century in which the battle could be so forgotten as to allow this account of a miracle, which it is said never took place, to have been written down by the author of the book of Joshua? Nothing has been advanced sufficient to prove it even probable that the book of Joshua had more than one author: did that one author of the book of Joshua live so far away from the time of the battle as to render it possible for him, irrespective of inspiration, to make so enormous an error? Till something substantial be advanced against his arguments, Keil must be held to have demonstrated that the book of Joshua was certainly written before the time of David, and probably by some member of the host which crossed the Jordan, the writer having seen at least some of the important events which he narrated (cf. chap. Jos_5:1). It is impossible even to summarise these arguments here; those who are interested in the question should read them in full, and will probably find it no easy matter to answer them. (Cf. Keil’s “Introduction,” pp. 30–47.)
Taking it for granted, then, that the book of Joshua was written certainly as early as the days of Saul, and probably by one of the Israelites who had himself crossed the Jordan with Joshua, this interpolation theory is absolutely untenable. No writer in the time of Joshua, or even of the Judges, would have dared to foist into a history, of which the meanest Jew of the time would be sternly jealous, a story, poetical or otherwise, which gave serious impressions of a victory won mainly by means of an amazing miracle which everybody knew never took place. Thus, apart from what some still feel to be the very important considerations arising from the doctrine of Divine inspiration, this passage cannot reasonably be held to have been inserted by a more recent compiler of the book.
The only remaining view opposing the actual miracle, to which any weight seems to be attached by critics of the present time, is
The theory which regards the passage as merely a poetical quotation made by the author of the book of Joshua. This view has recently found a hearty advocate in Samuel Cox, the editor of the “Expositor,” who holds that the entire passage (Jos_10:12-15) is a poetical quotation, and who pronounces with an apparently untroubled confidence on the whole question: “No; there is no miracle recorded here.” It is asserted by those who regard the entire passage as poetry that we must read it as poetry; and that in this light there is no more necessity for thinking of an actual prolongation of the day; because a poet has written of the sun standing still, than there is of interpreting the tropes literally when the Hebrew poets write of the hills and the mountains as “skipping,” of the waters as “fleeing,” of the trees of the field as “clapping their hands,” or of the stars in their courses “fighting against Sisera.”
The following remarks may be placed against this entire theory:—
1. Even if the whole of the verses were admitted to be a poetical quotation, they must still have a foundation in truth, so real as to require the miracle just as much as prosaic history would require it. Given that the book of Joshua was written by one living near to the time of these events, and there is still an amount of quietly told fact in the record, of which, with ever so liberal a margin for the figurative language of poetry, no account whatever is given. Unless we irreverently impugn the truth of the history, several things will still be left as a residuum in the crucible, which this process of poetical evaporation does not in any way touch; what is more, this residuum of insoluble fact is so important, that it will require as much miracle to account for its presence as would be required if the whole record were prosaic history. Given that the account as it stands was written, say within two or three centuries of the event, and it will still have to be felt that Joshua offered a prayer for something (Jos_10:12; Jos_10:14); that Joshua offered this prayer in the presence of the army; that the words, “he said in the sight of all Israel,” shew that many of the people knew of the prayer at the time when it was offered; that Joshua’s prayer was answered by God as the army might have desired; and that the Israelites had never known a day which had so witnessed to the power of prayer. These are so many facts for which the theory of poetical hyperbole in no way accounts. It does not even begin to depreciate their historical value. Indeed, this poetical theory has altogether overlooked the fact that, to the author of the book of Joshua, the most conspicuous feature of the day was, not the wonderful miracle, but the miracle as a wonderful answer to prayer. Certifying us, unconsciously to himself, of the depth of his pious perception, and thus giving us an incidental guarantee of godliness and truth, the author finds the wonder of the day even more in the graciousness of God than in the power of God. Never before in the history of Israel, not even at the Red Sea, had there been such a day for answering prayer as this day. The important fourteenth verse is in no way affected by the plea about hyperbole.
2. The claim to discount the historical value of the passage on the ground of figurative language is in itself exceedingly weak. As has been noticed above, the passage has been compared to the figures used by other Hebrew poets; and then it has been argued that as figures elsewhere are merely figurative, this is only figurative language,—which is simply a petitio principii. The difficulty, moreover, still remains, that in reading the phrases, “He bowed the heavens and came down,” “the mountains skipped,” “the stars in their courses fought against Sisera,” etc., the reader never thinks of interpreting literally, while here, till he has calculated the difficulty of the miracle, it does not so much as occur to him to explain figuratively. With far too much candour to serve his argument, Mr. Cox says successively, after his somewhat threadbare instances of comparison: “We are in no danger of insisting, or of hearing sceptical men of science insist, that these figures must be taken in a literal sense;” “We do not even pause to ask in what sense we are to understand David’s words” (Psa_18:9; Psa_18:16); “No such miracle (Jdg_5:20) has ever been imagined.” Exactly so. But a miracle has been almost universally imagined in this matter at Beth-horon. The conclusion is unavoidable: the cases are not parallel.
3. It is very unlikely that all four of these verses are quotation. They may be all poetical, although critics are not agreed on this; it would not follow, if all were poetical, that they were necessarily from the book Jasher. The great difficulty in believing that the whole of the verses are from the book Jasher is that the formula of citation stands right in the middle of the supposed quotation. The author of the book of Joshua is thus made to awkwardly break off in the midst of a short extract to tell us from whence the extract was obtained. This is done in no other instance of a similar kind throughout the Scriptures. In 2Sa_1:17-27, containing the only other extract from the book Jasher, the order stands thus: a poetical stanza by David, then the formula of citation, and finally the song itself. May not this be the true order of these four verses in Joshua? If so, it would stand as follows: (a) the rhythmical introduction by the author of the book of Joshua, telling us of the prayer offered; (b) Joshua’s apostrophe to the sun, which might naturally, as an apostrophe, have been spoken in a poetic form, but if not so spoken, might have been so rendered by the author of our book, who cannot be held bound to have given the ipsissima verba of Joshua; (c) the formula of citation; (d) the poetical (or prose) quotation from the book Jasher, including Jos_10:15, which the historian repeats exactly at Jos_10:43. It is generally supposed that the quotation from the book Jasher is that which is given before the formula of citation, and that the historian’s comment follows; but this makes the difficulty of accounting for the fifteenth verse, and its position, almost insuperable. In view of this, the order as given above has been suggested, although this in no way affects the conclusion that the theory which regards all of the four verses as from the book of Jasher cannot be maintained. One thing seems pretty clear: that the very jubilant tone in which scientific sceptics have been bidden to hold their peace about this “enormous and exorbitant miracle,” on the ground that the Bible records no such miracle, is somewhat misplaced, and is altogether unworthy of the excellent writer who has long rendered such valuable service in Scripture exposition. Had he considered the matter with his usual care, he would probably have found reason to suspect that several of the German writers had fallen back on a theory of interpolation so late as the days of Hezekiah, because the theory of entire poetry, inserted by any one living near to the time of Joshua, was altogether too weak to be seriously argued. Probably it is, on the whole, the least satisfastory explanation of the passage which has ever been offered.
It only remains to take into consideration, as briefly as possible,
The theory of an actual prolongation of the day by the miraculous interposition of Jehovah. Did the miracle of an extension of the day actually take place? These verses seem to say so. This is the first impression we all have on reading them. If the daylight were not miraculously prolonged, there is much in the passage which is utterly inexplicable. Keil’s view—that the prayer was for a satisfactory termination of the battle before sunset, and that instead of the day being lengthened the victory was hastened—is not at all in accordance with the natural impressions arising from the narrative. Besides this, it makes the fourteenth verse not only meaningless, but false. If the only answer to prayer was an expediting of the battle, then there had been days of answering prayer obviously greater than this day. Who would hesitate to call greater the day of Abraham’s prayer for Sodom, or that of Moses’ prayer at Pi-hahiroth? The fourteenth verse plainly alludes not only to a marvellous, but also to a manifest answer to prayer. If Joshua prayed after the storm began to smite the Canaanites, and this is the order of the narrative, there was too little of manifest answer to prayer to account for the fourteenth verse.
The reality of the miracle is further thrown into prominence by a feature which seems to have escaped notice. Comparing these four verses with the immediately preceding miracle, recorded in the eleventh verse, we are driven to ask, If the day were not miraculously prolonged, how is it that the incident of Jos_10:12-15 has so taken precedence of the incident of Jos_10:11? There was a miracle also in the hailstorm; it was miraculously timed, and miraculously made to follow and smite down Canaanites, while it did no harm to the immediately pursuing Israelites. If the day were not prolonged, how is it that some lesser miracle, if any, has so utterly absorbed attention from what would then be this greater miracle of the hailstorm? The interest gathers round, not this marvellously guided hail, but about what was so wonderful that the lesser wonder of the hail was lost in some greater wonder. What could that greater theme for praise have been, if it were not this miraculously extended day?
Scripture elsewhere seems to give some testimony to this miraculous extension of the day. Isa_28:21 may or may not refer to the lengthening of the day. The reference may be to David’s victory at Gibeon (2Sa_5:25; 1Ch_14:16); or it may be to this triumph through Joshua. But if the reference were certainly to the victory won by Joshua, the allusion to the rising up of Jehovah in wrath might be accounted for by the storm of hailstones. This passage therefore, while it harmonises well with the greater miracle, proves nothing. Very different is the force of the allusion in Hab_3:11. Notwithstanding Keil’s criticism, that the historical reference is “disproved by the grammatically incorrect and really trivial arguments” advanced in support of it—an opinion since substantially adopted by Fay, Thornley Smith, and others—it is by no means proved that Habakkuk does not celebrate this wonderful work of Jehovah. The words used by Habakkuk are, “Shĕmĕsh y rçãch’ ‘âmãd z’vûlâh.” Keil says of them: “The literal meaning is, ‘Sun and moon have entered into their habitation.’ ” He adds, by way of comment, “and hence the expression denotes not even their actual setting, but a darkening of the sun and moon, resembling their setting.” But Habakkuk says nothing whatever of this “darkening;” that is simply the judgment of Keil. Accepting his translation, but not his comment, the idea of a prolongation of the day is rather established than overthrown. Gesenius renders “z’vûl,” “habitation,” “residence.” The Jews, so far as they defined the matter at all, believed in the old phenomenal view, afterwards systematised by Ptolemy, that the sun travelled round the earth. Quite in accordance with the bold hyperbole of Hebrew poetry, Habakkuk vigorously describes both sun and moon as having entered into temporary residence; i.e., they tabernacled in the heavens; they took up their abode, or habitation, in the firmament. Contrary to their supposed continual motion round the earth, they entered into habitation till the victory was won. Thus Keil’s translation simply emphasises and beautifies the poetry, and gives no room whatever for the notion that Habakkuk alludes to some darkening of the sun resembling an eclipse. Apart from the translation, the nature and order of the passage in Habakkuk strongly tend to the assurance that he alludes to the phenomenon at Beth-horon. The verses from 3 to 10 graphically depict the wonders at Sinai, at the Red Sea, in the wilderness, and at the passage of the Jordan; the Jos_10:11-13, depict in natural order, as a continuance of the record, the overthrow of the Canaanites under Joshua. The very allusion to the sun and moon in such a connection would be strong enough to establish the reference to the battle of Beth-horon, even if the language of Habakkuk were farless clear.
In addition to the passage in Habakkuk, it should not be forgotten that direct reference is made to this miracle, as an historical event, in the Apocrypha. Thus we read in Sir_46:4, of Joshua, “Did not the sun go back by his means? and was not one day as long as two?” Homer, Ovid, and other classical writers of antiquity, unless credit is to be given to them for a larger amount of imagination, not to say wilder fancy, than seems necessary or fair, must be held to have had some acquaintance, in a traditional form, with the event recorded in Joshua. Part of Dr. Kitto’s reference may be quoted. After speaking of a Chinese tradition, he remarks: “Herodotus also says that he learned from the Egyptian priests, that within the period of 341 generations the sun had four times deviated from his common course, setting twice where he usually rises, and rising twice where he usually sets. It is useless to expect minute accuracy in these old traditions; but to what else can they refer than to some derangement in the apparent course of the sun, that is, in the actual motion of the earth? The story of Phaeton, and some other classical fables, seems to have reference to the same event. In the poets, also, there are allusions of a similar character, which would probably never have been imagined but from some general tradition that such a circumstance had at one time occurred. In Homer there are not less than three passages to this purport. In one Agamemnon prays:—
“Almighty Father! glorious above all!
Cloud-girt, who dwell’st in heaven, Thy throne sublime!
Let not the sun go down, and night approach,
Till Priam’s roof fall flat into the flames,” etc.
Again, Jupiter having promised the Trojans that they should prevail until the sun went down, Juno, who was favourable to their adversaries, made the sun go down before its time:—
“Majestic Juno sent the sun,
Unwearied minister of light, although
Reluctant, down into the ocean stream.”
And, finally, Minerva retarded the rising of the sun, in order to prolong that great night in which Ulysses slew the suitors, and discovered himself to Penelope:—
“Minerva checked
Night’s almost finished course, and held, meantime,
The golden dawn close pris’ner in the deep;
Forbidding her to lead her coursers forth,
Lampas and Phaëthon, that furnish light
For all mankind.’ ”
[Illust. Fam. Bib., in loc.]
If references like these do not of themselves suggest a common tradition from which they must have originated, we who are familiar with the history in the book of Joshua can hardly avoid feeling that they are contributive towards establishing as a fact that extension of the day which the history seems to record.
Not nearly sufficient stress has been laid on the object for which the miracle was apparently wrought. Most writers on the subject have hastily concluded that the only object for this phenomenal staying of the sun and moon was to give Joshua time for a completer victory. That was part of the Divine purpose, no doubt; but did that embrace all? Did it make up even half of that which Jehovah had in view? Was not the main purpose of the miracle to dishonour the sun and moon as objects of the idolatrous worship of the Canaanites? (Cf. the closing remarks in the following outline on “The Victory of Faith.”) It is only on some such ground as this that any reason whatever can be found for Joshua’s command concerning the moon. It was certainly not essential that the moon should stay above the horizon for the purpose of giving light. The ordinary light of the sun would be sufficient without that, and would receive no perceptible addition by having the moon for an auxiliary. But if the “sun-god” Baal was to be degraded by being shewn to be subservient to the command of Joshua, it naturally followed that the “moon-goddess” Ashtoreth should be similarly degraded also.
We therefore conclude that the teaching of the Scripture is that the day was actually prolonged, and that it was prolonged in response to the prayer of Joshua, offered in an outburst of strong and simple trust, in the heat and emergency of the battle.
The question yet remains, In what manner was the miracle performed? With this feature of the case we confess we have little concern. The inquiry may be both natural and interesting, but it is not important. The day may have been extended by means of refraction, as was long since suggested by Grotius. In view of the Divine principle of economising power, this method of performing the miracle seems the most reasonable and probable. But if we grant omnipotence, and if our faith in that be real, and not the mere article of a creed, the process of staying the rotation of the earth, and of preventing all the harmful consequences which would otherwise naturally ensue, would be as easy to God as anything else. Omnipotence, if it be that at all, can know no effort. Finally, for those who are interested by this part of the question, May not the direction of the earth’s axis have been shifted? The battle probably took place in the summer, when, even in the middle of the natural night, Gibeon, as situated at nearly 32° north latitude, would not be depressed very far below the horizon. If the north pole were gradually shifted towards the sun, and made to move slightly in a circle of elevation and depression, a very small displacement would keep Gibeon above the horizon all night, and in the morning, at the time for ordinary sunrise at Gibeon, the earth would have assumed its usual position of 23½° inclination in the ecliptic. This, of course, would have the effect of dropping one night at Gibeon altogether, and of allowing the ordinary rotation of the earth to go on as usual, the only difference being the gradual shifting and return of the inclination of the earth’s axis. As to any influence which this movement might have upon the waters of the earth, that part of the question is answered by omnipotence. The suggestion is simply made in view of the feeling which must impress all careful students of Scripture, that God’s way in the working of miracles is to economise force rather than to display it; and that the entire cessation of the earth’s revolution would shew an interposition of Divine power which seems, to even believing men, so gigantic as to contradict in some measure that reservation of force usually shewn in the miraculous working of God, as set before us in other parts of the Scriptures.
It should not be forgotten that, not simply in this miracle, but in all miracles, the questions of how they are wrought, and which of any two requires most power, are utterly beyond our capacity to answer. How was life brought back into the body of dead Lazarus? How was the bread multiplied in the hands of the disciples? How was the water changed into wine? What laws had, for the time, to be suspended; what new forces set in motion? Which of these miracles was most miraculous? Even if the revolution of the earth on its axis actually ceased in response to Joshua’s prayer, which miracle was the greater, the “standing still of the sun and moon,” or the feeding of the five thousand by Christ? Which of us knows? If we are not prepared to let go our faith in the miracles altogether, we shall do well to guard against the naturally strong temptation which too readily besets most of us, to explain them away, or tone them down, as we become oppressed by what seems to us their unusual magnitude. Unfortunately this, too, is one of the temptations that are continuous; and when, driven on by sceptical laughter, we have ever so conscientiously explained away the miracles which are “enormous and exorbitant,” and have secured as the heritage left to our faith the “lesser miracles,” which we deem becoming to the Scriptures; then others will probably be tempted to take up the case where we have left it, and proceed to demonstrate that the giving of sight to the man born blind, of elasticity to the ligaments of her who was bowed with an infirmity for eighteen years, or the withering up of the barren fig tree, were even greater miracles than this phenomenal staying of the sun and moon. None of us should dare to believe, as the teaching of Scripture, what Scripture does not say; most of us have need to guard our expositions of Divine truth from the unconscious yet none the less injurious influence of our too easily weakened faith.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Jos 10:40-42
Jos 10:40-42
I. The Book of Joshua is part of the history of the Christian Church. However strange it may seem, the work of Joshua in the Old Testament did lead to the work of the second Joshua in the New; He who declared that God is love was the Descendant of him who slew the five kings of the Amorites; the one was the forerunner of the other, and each in his own day was acting, as he fully believed, under the influence and inspiration of the same God.
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II. The burden of the whole book, the lesson which it would teach an Israelite, the lesson which it ought to teach us, is this: that God was the real Disposer of events, and that the Israelites triumphed because God had determined that they should triumph.
III. As for the heathen people whom the Israelites destroyed, is it not well that we should know that God is offended when His world is polluted by abominable crime and wickedness? We know that these people did pollute the earth, and the Israelites were appointed to sweep them from it. It was a great act of Divine vengeance. The Israelites could not mistake it for anything else: they saw sin punished, and they were told as plainly as possible that as the heathen sinners had suffered, so should they also suffer if they forsook God’s law. The Book of Joshua teaches us that God does indeed govern the world; that He takes the land from one and gives it to another; that He causes the wickedness and folly of man to work out His great designs.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 5th series, p. 93.
Reference: Jos 10:42.—Parker, vol. v., p. 278.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Conquest of Southern Canaan
The Conquest of Southern Canaan
This chapter narrates the successful campaign against the five confederate chiefs of the S., who are roused by the fall of Jericho and Ai and the alliance with Gibeon, and combine under the leadership of Adonizedek of Jerusalem to retaliate upon the Gibeonites. Bringing succour, as in duty bound, to his new allies, Joshua encounters the confederate forces in Beth-horon. By divine aid he inflicts on them a signal defeat, captures and slays all five kings, and follows up his success by a prompt reduction of six Amorite strongholds in swift succession. A concluding paragraph (Jos_10:40-43) describes the work of conquest so far, as summary and complete.
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1. Adonizedek] The name recalls that of his famous predecessor Melchizedek, the contemporary of Abraham: see on Gen_14:18.
2. Because Gibeon was a great city] commanding the chief pass to the western plains and but a few miles from Jerusalem: see on Jos_10:10.
3, 4. Of the confederate cities three were subsequently reduced by Joshua: see on Jos_10:29-38.
5. Amorites] a general name for the mountain tribes.
6-14. Battle of Gibeon (or Beth-horon): Joshua, summoned by the Gibeonites to their aid, def eates the Amorites.
10. The pass of Beth-horon leading to the valley of Aijalon is of great strategic importance, being the main outlet from Gibeon and Jerusalem towards the coast. 'Throughout history,' says G. A. Smith, 'we see hosts swarming up this avenue or swept down it in flight.' Azekah.. Makkedah] between Philistia and the hill-country of Judah.
11. Great stones from heaven] a hailstorm, in which the hand of God is discerned.
12-14. Then spake Joshua] This celebrated passage (as will be seen in RV) consists of (1) a prose introduction, Jos_10:12; (2) a poetical fragment quoted from the book of Jasher, Jos_10:12, Jos_10:13; and (3) a prose comment on that quotation, 13b; 14.
The four lines from the book of Jasher run, literally, as follows:—Sun, be thou dumb upon Gibeon; And thou, moon, in valley of Aijalon!
And the sun became dumb, and the moon stood, Till the people were avenged on their foes.
Taken by themselves these four lines might refer to an eclipse, or to a prolongation of the darkness of the hailstorm (see Jos_10:11). The sun is spoken of as 'dumb' when not shining, as in Dante's 'Inferno,'
1. 60, the sunless shade is 'dove il sol tace' (where the sun is speechless). At first sight the comment in Jos_10:13; Joshua 14 seems decisive against this interpretation. But Edersheim regards these vv. as themselves (substantially) quoted from the book of Jasher; in which case they would be poetical and figurative, and other writers boldly take them as a later gloss, written at a time when the figurative language of the poem was misunderstood. In favour of this view is the fact that there are no certain references to this event as miraculous in the other books of the OT.; and it is not till Joshua 180 b.c. (Sir_46:4) that we find the first clear mention of the miracle as making 'the sun go back'; an interpretation which was followed by the author of the 'Psalms of Solomon' (Jos_18:14) Joshua 50 b.c., and by Josephus, and has been the 'traditional' one till lately. This interpretation of the incident, which makes it involve a literal 'staying of the sun,' i.e. in modern language, an arresting of the earth's rotatory motion, has not unnaturally tried the faith of many who, while accepting the doctrine of God's omnipotence, feel that such a kind of interpretation contradicts what God Himself has taught them about the orderly working of His universe. Whether we regard the divine answer to Joshua's prayer as given in the form of a prolongation of the daylight, in spite of the hailstorm (see Edersheim), or (perhaps better) as prolongation of the storm darkness, we must not forget that the record is poetry and not prose, and the inspired language of the passage ancient and oriental, not modern, western, and scientific.
13. The Book of Jasher] Yashar='Upright' or 'Pious.' The book was presumably a collection of national heroic songs. Elsewhere it is quoted by name only in 2Sa_1:18 (David's elegy over Saul and Jonathan). Possibly we may ascribe to the same source other poems, like the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), which has itself a later prose commentary attached to it (Judges 4).
24. Put their feet upon the necks] The monuments of Assyria and Egypt afford graphic parallels.
26. Slew them and hanged them] The hanging was an additional insult wreaked on the corpse: cp. Deu_21:22, Deu_21:23.
29. Libnah] in the lowlands of Judah: also Lachish (Jos_10:31), Gezer (Jos_10:33) and Eglon (Jos_10:34).
36. Hebron] (El Khalil, 'the friend' of God) Abraham's city in the mountain of Judah, and one of the six Levitical cities of refuge (20 T).
38. Debir] also called Kirjath-Sepher, and falling, like Hebron, to Caleb. It lay in the hill-country of Judah, or in the Negeb (Jos_15:15-19), perhaps on the border.
40-43. On these divisions of the country see on Joshua 15. A summary like this must not be pressed too literally, but read in the light of other narratives like Judges 1. The meaning is that Joshua's work was thorough, as far as it went; that it was carried out in a spirit of absolute loyalty to the divine commands (cp. Deu_20:16-17); and that all its success (Jos_10:42) was due to the divine leadership and assistance.
40. The campaign in southern Palestine included the hills of Judah, the south, i.e. the Negeb, the vale (RV 'the lowland'), i.e. the Shephelah, and the springs (RV 'the slopes') between the hill-country and the Shephelah.
41. Goshen] in the mountain of Judah (Jos_15:51).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 10. The Victorious Conquest
10. The Victorious Conquest
CHAPTER 10
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1. Adoni-zedec and his confederacy (Jos 10:1-6)
2. The war (Jos 10:7-11)
3. The miracle (Jos 10:12-15)
4. The victory won (Jos 10:16-21)
5. The five kings slain (Jos 10:22-27)
6. Further conquests (Jos 10:28-43)
The name Jerusalem is mentioned here for the first time in the Bible. (Salem in Gen 14:18, is generally taken to be Jerusalem. See Psa 76:2. The ancient tablets give the name as Ur-Salim. But the name “Jerusalem” is found the first time in Jos 10:1.) It is in connection with war, and the next time we find Jerusalem on fire (Jdg 1:8). This may be taken as a prophecy of the history of that city. Yet something better is in store for Jerusalem. Adoni-zedec is here the King of Jerusalem. His name means “lord of righteousness.” He represents the counterfeit king in opposition to Him who is Jerusalem’s true King, the true Melchizedec, King of righteousness and King of peace. He is a type of Anti-christ. On account of Gibeon having gone over to Israel, Adoni-zedec forms an alliance, which he heads as leader. His confederates are given by name. We give the meaning of their names in parenthesis, which will be helpful in a deeper study of these types. Horam (the noise of a multitude), King of Hebron; Piram (the wild ass), King of Jarmuth; Japhia (causing brightness); King of Lachish; Debir (an oracle), King of Eglon. This satanic alliance was aimed at Gibeon and at Israel as well. And Gibeon appealed to Joshua for help.
Notice that they sent to Gilgal, the first camp of Israel. Joshua and the people were at Gilgal and from Gilgal they ascended. At Gilgal they saw the memorials of God’s power, and encouraged by a direct message from Jehovah they went forth to war. Blessed are we, if in our spiritual warfare we go forth from Gilgal (the place of self-judgment and of power).
The great miracle of the standing still of the sun and the moon occurred then. The way this miracle has been held up to ridicule is known to everybody. Infidels of all generations have sneered at it. Critics have followed, as they always do, close in their footsteps. But even good men have found difficulties here and tried to explain it with their human wisdom. One explanation given is that the Hebrew word _dum, to stand, means rather that the sun was to cease to give its light. Upon this the statement is made, that Joshua’s command was that the sun and moon should cease giving their light, and not that they should cease continuing their apparent motion. Herder in his “Hebraische Poesie” says:
“It is astonishing that this fine passage has been so long misunderstood. Joshua attacked the Amorites in the early morning, and the battle continued till night; that is, for a long day, which seemed to protract itself into night, to complete the victory. The sun and moon were witnesses of Joshua’s great deeds, and held their course in the midst of heaven till the triumph was perfect. Who does not recognize this as poetry, even if it had not been quoted from the Book of Poems on Heroes. In the usual language of the Hebrews such expressions were neither bold nor unusual.”
These are the attempts of man, by which he tries to explain the supernatural by the natural. The occurrence is a miracle. It says the sun stood still. But how is that when science tells us the sun does not move? We give the answer from Kurtz in his Sacred History, because it is the most concise statement we have ever seen:
“A voucher from the Old Testament for the promise in Mar 11:23-24, ‘Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, etc..’ is furnished by Joshua’s bold word of faith with its fulfilment. It was his prayer that the light of day might be prolonged, and the darkness of night be retarded, until he had secured the object for which he pursued the enemy: he obtained the answer which he sought by the miraculous power of his faith. No investigation respecting the natural means which produced this supernatural effect can furnish valuable results. The command of faith is pronounced in the sense which Joshua assigns to the words; the divine answer is given in the sense in which God understands them. No arguments that are either favorable or unfavorable to any particular system of astronomy are furnished by the occurrence.”
The miracle must have stricken with terror the fighting nations, for they worshipped the sun and the moon.
Signs in heaven are frequently mentioned in the Word.
Read and study carefully the following passages: 2Ki 20:11; Isa 38:8; Amo 8:9; Isa 13:10; Isa 60:20; Eze 32:7; Joe 2:10; Joe 2:31; Joe 3:15; Mat 24:29; Rev 6:12; Rev 8:12; Rev 9:2; Rev 16:8. When the age ends with the battle of Armageddon and the Lord Jesus Christ appears the second time in great power and glory, these signs as predicted in some of these passages will be fulfilled. The sun and moon will be darkened. What terror will take hold upon the great masses of Christendom, who reject the miracle and Christ! Read Rev 6:12-17.
What is the book of Jasher, mentioned in verse 13?
The Book of Jasher (or, of the Upright, that is, Israel) was a collection of sacred war-songs, and may have, possibly, formed a continuation, in a certain sense, of the “Book of the Wars of the Lord” (Num 21:14; 2Sa 1:18). The collection was probably commenced in the wilderness, and, at different periods, received additions.
The fact that it is no longer in existence proves its non-inspiration.
Great are the victories described in this chapter. See verse 41 as to the territory which was covered. From Kadesh-barnea unto Gaza, all the country of Goshen unto Gibeon. And why? Because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel (verse 42). If God is for us, who can be against us! “And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp of Gilgal.” How wonderful it is to return after our victories to Gilgal, the place of self-judgment and confessed weakness. How often our victories and blessings are more dangerous than our failures and defeats!
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Defeat of the Five Kings on a Day…
The Defeat of the Five Kings on a Day of Miraculous Length
v. 1. Now, it came to pass, when Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, had heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, (as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king, a judgment of extermination having been carried out upon them,) and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, in alliance with them, the entire Central Canaan thus being in the hands of the invaders,
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v. 2. that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, the capitals occupied by the sheiks, or kings, of the various tribes and nations, and because it was greater than Ai and all the men thereof were mighty.
v. 3. Wherefore Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, sent unto Hoham, king of Hebron, the ancient city in Southern Canaan, and unto Piram, king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia, king of Lachish, and unto Debir, king of Eglon, these cities being in the lowlands toward the southwest, bordering on Philistia, saying,
v. 4. Come up unto me and help me that we may smite Gibeon; for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel. The campaign was not directed against Israel, but against Gibeon, for the action of the Gibeonites was construed as a betrayal of the Canaanites’ cause, as a going over to the enemy.
v. 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, formed an alliance, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it. Thus these kings hardened their hearts against the obvious proofs of God’s power and plunged headlong into their destruction.
v. 6. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua, to the camp, to Gilgal, for they were now in alliance with Israel, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants, do not withdraw it in this emergency; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us, the appeal being in the form of a climax; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. Since the Amorites of the mountains, the Jebusites, were the strongest among the allies, the entire army of the enemy is described accordingly.
v. 7. So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, in a forced night march, he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor, a picked portion of the army.
v. 8. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. Cf Jos 2:24; Joshua 6"2; 8:1-18.
v. 9. Joshua, therefore, came unto them suddenly, in a surprise attack, the rapid march being a proof of his great military genius, and went up from Gilgal all night.
v. 10. And the Lord discomfited them, the Amorites, before Israel, made them confused and helpless at this sudden attack, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, the pass in the mountains which led to the plains beyond, and smote them to Azekah and unto Makkedah, far down in the lowlands of Philistia, the battle thus rapidly changing to flight and pursuit over a distance of some thirty miles.
v. 11. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, where the foothills converge into the plains of Philistia, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, in a terrible hailstorm, and they died; they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. The Israelites were to see and understand that it was not their own strength, but the divine assistance of Jehovah, which gave them the victory.
v. 12. Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, in a mighty prayer of faith, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, wait, delay some time; and thou, Moon, in the Valley of Ajalon. This must, therefore, have happened while the moon was in its first quarter. The command was a heroic prayer to the Lord and Creator of the world to interfere in the order of nature and not to permit the setting of the main lights controlling the division of time until Israel would have completed her vengeance upon her enemies.
v. 13. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, they were held back, they did not continue their course, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies, completely destroyed them. Is not this written in the Book of Jasher (of the righteous), a book of poems praising the great deeds of Jehovah? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down, made no progress toward the west, about a whole day.
v. 14. and there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel. Thus the living, almighty God wrought a great miracle, for the religious destiny of all the world was here at stake. All the efforts of Bible-scholars and critics to explain away this fact avail them nothing; the text is too clear and too powerful.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 This word is used here to mark a break…
Now
This word is used here to mark a break in the main story line. Here the writer tells about a new person in the story, Adoni-Zedek.
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Adoni-Zedek
This is the name of a man who is an important king. (See: How to Translate Names)
translationWords
king
Jerusalem
Joshua
Ai
Jericho
Gibeon
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 7:1–12:24 This second major section of the book includes…
7:1–12:24 This second major section of the book includes a record of Joshua’s southern and northern campaigns against two coalitions of Canaanite kings. Joshua’s victories enabled Israel to settle the hill country from Galilee in the north to the Negev in the south.
10:1-43 Gibeon and its neighboring cities occupied a plateau north of Jerusalem (see study note on 7:2). With Gibeon now allied to Israel, control of the plateau and of the central hill country in the vicinity of Gibeon belonged to Israel. Throughout history, whoever has controlled the plateau has, in general, also controlled the hill country. The Canaanite kings had to conquer Gibeon or their cause was lost.
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10:1 Adoni-zedek means “master of righteousness” or “my master is righteous.” An earlier king of Jerusalem named Melchizedek (“king of righteousness” or “my king is righteous”) had been “a priest of God Most High” and a friend of Abraham (Gen 14:18-20). However, Adoni-zedek was not a friend to Joshua or a believer in the Lord.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.