Joshua 10 · a question people ask
Did the sun really stand still (10:12-14)?
Here is what the text says. Joshua "spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel", and in the sight of Israel he said, "Sun, stand still on Gibeon! You, moon, stop in the valley of Aijalon!" (10:12) (tap stand still). Then: "The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day" (10:13). And: "There was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel" (10:14). The Bible names the book of Jashar once more, when David "lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son" (2 Samuel 1:17): "behold, it is written in the book of Jashar" (2 Samuel 1:18). It says nothing else about the book. Christians read these verses in two main ways, each resting on the text. Both agree that the LORD heard Joshua, that the victory was the LORD's, and that the text itself says there was no day like it (10:14).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A miracle told as it happened
Those who hold this view read 10:13 as the book's own account of what happened in the sky that day: "The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day." They point to 10:14, which marks the day as unlike any other, "There was no day like that before it or after it", and note that the chapter tells it beside another thing the LORD did from the sky that day: "the LORD hurled down great stones from the sky on them" (10:11).
Joshua 10:11 · Joshua 10:13-14
Words from the book of Jashar
Those who hold this view read Joshua's words and the lines after them as quoted from the book the verse names, "Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar?" (10:13), the same book in which David's lament over Saul and Jonathan was written (2 Samuel 1:17-18). They read the sun and the moon as a song's way of telling that the LORD fought for Israel all that day, as another song says of Sisera's defeat, "From the sky the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against Sisera" (Judges 5:20). On this reading, what made the day unlike any other is what 10:14 says: "that the LORD listened to the voice of a man".
Joshua 10:13-14 · 2 Samuel 1:17-18 · Judges 5:20
The verses
“Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. He said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still on Gibeon! You, moon, stop in the valley of Aijalon!” The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day. There was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.”
“David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son (and he commanded them to teach the children of Judah the song of the bow; behold, it is written in the book of Jashar):”