A consequence that could hardly have been foreseen, resulted from the league which had been formed with the Gibeonites. It seems that Gibeon belonged to a confederacy of southern states, in which the small kingdom of Jerusalem took the lead. We assume that these states were independent of each other, but that one of the number was regarded as entitled to take the initiatory part in all matters of common interest to them all. These states regarded with nigh displeasure the defection of the Gibeonites from the common cause. To them it wore the aspect of treachery to the patriotic cause of the defence of the country against the invasion, and they could not but see that the transaction was calculated to damp the spirits of the people. It was, therefore, concluded by the confederates, on the call of Adonizedek king of Jerusalem, to bring them to severe punishment for the step they had taken. This was no less than to march against Gibeon with their whole united force—a display of strength needed, not only by the relative power of the Gibeonites, but by the probability of their being aided by the Israelites. In fact, no sooner did the Gibeonites see the united host encamped before their walls than they sent to demand the help of Joshua. This was readily granted. Notwithstanding the fraudulent manner in which the compact had been obtained, the Israelites shrunk not from the duties which it imposed. Besides, their sacred oath had been pledged before the Lord; and to slight the obligation which it imposed would have been a dishonor to that name in the eyes of the heathen. Joshua, therefore, with a large body of picked men, departed from the camp at Gilgal to raise the siege. This was, in a military point of view, the most important action in which the Israelites had yet been engaged. It was to be a conflict in the open field between the army of Israel and the greatest force which the powers of southern Canaan could bring into the field. The result could not but have the most important effects upon the Canaanites on the one hand, and upon the Israelites on the other. Joshua was well aware of the serious responsibilities which rested upon this transaction; and it may be that he regarded them not without some anxiety. To relieve him, the gracious promise of victory was given to him before he set out, and thenceforth he suffered not his mind to rest upon the apparent insufficiency of his comparatively untrained force to contend with the disciplined troops and glorious chivalry of Canaan, but reposed in the faith that what God had promised He was able to perform. Yet he did not, therefore, neglect any human means of securing the results which he desired, but took all the measures which might become a general who supposed that all depended upon his skill and the valor of his troops. He made a forced march all night from the camp at Gilgal to Gibeon, and seems to have fallen at once upon the allied force by which the city was invested. Inspired with terror at so fierce and sudden an assault, their strength was broken, and they fled. The interest of this great day lay not in the battle, but in the pursuit. It was in every way most essential that the victory should be effectual, which would be by no means the case if the fugitives were allowed the opportunity of rallying their scattered forces, or of making their way back to the strongholds from which they had issued. And the Lord helped the Israelites. There came down a tremendous fall of hailstones—of such hail as is known only in the East, whereby great numbers of the fugitives were stricken down—more than had fallen by the sword at Gibeon. Bearing in mind the havoc which had been committed by the hailstones in Egypt, and recollecting the, to our notions, immense size of the stones of hail in the East, we may well understand this effect. This was, doubtless, an extraordinary storm, and the hailstones of size unusual, even in that country; or, perhaps, wholly of the largest size of hailstones that are known in Syria. But let us hear what is said of ordinary hailstones. “Hail falls most commonly in the latter part of spring in very heavy storms; and the hailstones are often of most enormous size. I have seen some that measured two inches in diameter; but sometimes irregularly shaped pieces are found among them weighing above twenty drams.” Note: Russell, Natural History of Aleppo. Sometimes there are falls of such hail as work ravages fully equal to that of the Egyptian plague, and by no means inadequate to the result described in the case before us. There was such a storm at Constantinople in 1831. Many of the hailstones, or rather masses of ice, weighed from half a pound to above a pound, and in their fall appeared as large as the swell of a large water decanter. Under this tremendous fall, the roofs of houses were beaten in—trees were stripped of their leaves and branches—many persons who could not soon enough find shelter were killed—animals were slain, and limbs were broken. In fact, none who know the tremendous power which the hailstones of the East sometimes exhibit, will question, as some have questioned, the possibility that any hail should produce the effect described. That a fall of hail thus severe and extraordinary, though not unexampled, occurred at this precise time, could only have been, as it is said to have been, of the Lord’s doing, which is also shown in its partial character, for the fugitives were alone visited by it, while the pursuers, who could not have been at any great distance behind, suffered nothing.
Still the pursuit continued, and as the day began to decline, the fugitives hoped that the approaching shades of night would give them safety, and enable them to reach their strong towns undisturbed, if not to collect their scattered forces in the field. Joshua, on his part, regarded the decline of the sun towards the horizon with concern, fearing that the approach of night, by compelling him to abandon the pursuit, would leave his victory incomplete, and the power of the enemy less entirely broken up than he desired. Aware of the immense importance of the results which this victory, if completed, must produce, he longed for a few hours more of day. Then the thought was suggested to him—“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” and strong in the faith which that consideration inspired, he cried aloud, “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” And the Lord heard him, for “the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.” But the sun does not revolve around the earth—but the earth around the sun. No doubt. Yet we, whose greatest philosophers in their popular discourses, no less than the common people, speak of the sun’s rising and setting, can have no ground for cavil at the mode in which Joshua expressed his wish that the day might be prolonged. That was all he meant; and his object could only apparently be attained in the way he indicated, and which therefore he did indicate. There is no reason to suppose that Joshua had any better knowledge of the system of the universe than was generally possessed at that time. But if he had been a very Newton, he would have been mad to have expressed himself in any other language than this. If he had expressed himself with philosophical precision, his language would have perplexed the understandings of men far more for three thousand years, than they have done in the three hundred years since the truth of the world’s system has been known.
But, admitting the propriety of the expression, it will be asked how this miraculous fact was brought to pass? To this we answer plainly, we do not know. It is not necessary to know. The day was prolonged, for all the essential purposes which Joshua had in view, when his strong faith impelled him to utter these great words. But after what manner this was effected must be open to conjecture, until the time to come discloses the knowledge that are hidden in its womb.
It has been supposed by some that the motion of the earth upon its axis was for the time arrested. This, no doubt, would effect the result intended. But it would—without an additional and equally stupendous exertion of Almighty power—have produced other and very tremendous effects upon the whole earth. The natural consequence of such a sudden check to the earth’s motion would have been, by means of the atmosphere, to crush at once all animal and vegetable existence—to level with the ground the loftiest and most massive structures, and, in fact, to swoop the whole surface of the globe as with the besom of destruction. God might have prevented this. But while there is a mode of producing the effect which Joshua desired, which does not naturally involve such consequences, it may be best, in the present state of our knowledge, to suppose that it was so effected. It answers all the conditions of the question—while it remains a most stupendous exhibition of the power of the Almighty in that day when “he hearkened to the voice of a man,” to suppose that the light of the then setting sun was supernaturally prolonged, through the operation of the same laws of refraction and reflection, by which the sun’s disc is ordinarily seen above the horizon some time after he has really sunk below it. He who created the heavenly luminaries, and established the laws which transmit their light—could at this time so have altered the medium through which the sun’s rays passed, as to render it visible above the horizon long after it would, under ordinary circumstances, have disappeared. This, to the apprehension of the Israelites, would have had all the visible effects of staying the career of the sun; and to ours, that of arresting the earth’s revolution on its axis; and this is all that the sacred text requires—all that Joshua required—all that we need require.
