Joshua 10:14

14 1There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for 2the LORD 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 At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.
14 There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.
15 So Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.
16 These five kings fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Isaiah 38:8; [2 Kings 20:11]
  • 2. ver. 42; Joshua 23:3, 10
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.