Joshua 10:14

14 so long a day was not before and afterward (there was never so long a day, before or afterward); for the Lord obeyed to the voice of a man, and he fought for Israel.

Joshua 10:14 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 10:14

And there was no day like that, before it, or after it
Which must be understood as referring not to natural days, or such as are according to the natural course of things, as those in the northern and southern poles, which are much longer, but to miraculous and extraordinary ones: never was there such a day as this, occasioned by the sun standing still; and as for Hezekiah's day, which is objected, when the sun went ten degrees backward on the dial of Ahaz, it is not certain whether those degrees were hours, or half hours, or quarters of an hour; and if they were hours, as the going backwards was at once, in a moment, it could only make an addition of ten hours in the return of them, and so it must make but a day of twenty two hours: besides, the writer of this book only speaks of days that had been in his time, and not of what might be hereafter; add to which, that this respects not so much the length of the day, as the manner in which it became so long; and especially it regards the following circumstance, being at the entreaty of a man, and that delivered in a very authoritative manner:

that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man;
expressed in prayer, and which prayer was a prayer of faith:

for the Lord fought for Israel:
by casting hailstones upon their enemies, and preserving them from them by the stopping the course of the sun, until they had taken full vengeance on them. The day on which this miracle was wrought, is conjectured to be Wednesday the eleventh of April, in the year before Christ 1454 F14.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 Bedford's Chronology, p. 492.

Joshua 10:14 In-Context

12 Then Joshua spake to the Lord, in the day in which he betook Amorites in the sight of the sons of Israel; and Joshua said before the people, Sun, be thou not moved against Gibeon, and the moon, against the valley of Ajalon. (And Joshua spoke to the Lord, on the day in which he delivered the Amorites into the hands of the Israelites; and Joshua said before the people, Sun, stand thou still over Gibeon, and Moon, stand thou still over the Ajalon Valley.)
13 And the sun and the moon stood, unto the time the folk of God had venged themselves of their enemies. Whether this is not written in the book of just men? And so the sun stood in the midst of heaven, and it hasted not to go down in the space of a day; (And so the sun and the moon stood still, until the time that the people of God had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? And so the sun stood still in the midst of the heavens, and it hastened not to go down in the space of a day;)
14 so long a day was not before and afterward (there was never so long a day, before or afterward); for the Lord obeyed to the voice of a man, and he fought for Israel.
15 And Joshua turned again, with all Israel, into the tents of Gilgal. (And then Joshua, and all Israel, returned to their tents in Gilgal.)
16 For the five kings fled, and hid themselves in the den of the city of Makkedah. (But those five kings had escaped, and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.