Joshua 10:1-14

Contemporary English Version

Joshua Commands the Sun To Stand Still

10 King Adonizedek of Jerusalem^[a] heard that Joshua had captured and destroyed the town of Ai, and then killed its king as he had done at Jericho. He also learned that the Gibeonites had signed a peace treaty with Israel. ²This frightened Adonizedek and his people. They knew that Gibeon was a large town, as big as the towns that had kings, and even bigger than the town of Ai had been. And all of the men of Gibeon were warriors. ³So Adonizedek sent messages to the kings of four other towns: King Hoham of Hebron, King Piram of Jarmuth, King Japhia of Lachish, and King Debir of Eglon. The messages said, ⁴“The Gibeonites have signed a peace treaty with Joshua and the Israelites. Come and help me attack Gibeon!”

⁵When these five Amorite kings called their armies together and attacked Gibeon, ⁶the Gibeonites sent a message to the Israelite camp at Gilgal: “Joshua, please come and rescue us! The Amorite kings from the hill country have joined together and are attacking us. We are your servants, so don't let us down. Please hurry!”

⁷Joshua and his army, including his best warriors, left Gilgal. ⁸“Joshua,” the Lord said, “don't be afraid of the Amorites. They will run away when you attack, and I will help you defeat them.”

⁹Joshua marched all night from Gilgal to Gibeon and made a surprise attack on the Amorite camp. ¹⁰The Lord made the enemy panic, and the Israelites started killing them right and left. They^[b] chased the Amorite troops up the road to Beth-Horon and kept on killing them, until they reached the towns of Azekah and Makkedah.^[c] ¹¹And while these troops were going down through Beth-Horon Pass,^[d] the Lord made huge hailstones fall on them all the way to Azekah. More of the enemy soldiers died from the hail than from the Israelite weapons.

^12-13^(A) The Lord was helping the Israelites defeat the Amorites that day. So about noon, Joshua prayed to the Lord loud enough for the Israelites to hear:

“Our Lord, make the sun stop
    in the sky over Gibeon,
and the moon stand still
    over Aijalon Valley.”^[e]
So the sun and the moon
    stopped and stood still
until Israel defeated its enemies.

This poem can be found in The Book of Jashar.^[f] The sun stood still and didn't go down for about a whole day. ¹⁴Never before and never since has the Lord done anything like that for someone who prayed. The Lord was really fighting for Israel.

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Footnotes

10.1 Jerusalem: Jerusalem was not an Israelite city at this time.
10.10 They: Or “The Lord.”
10.10 Makkedah: A total distance of about 40 kilometers.
10.11 Beth-Horon Pass: A three-kilometer long, steeply-sloping valley between the towns of Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon.
10.12,13 Aijalon Valley: A valley southwest of Beth-Horon Pass.
10.12,13 Book of Jashar: This book may have been a collection of ancient war songs.