It’s Like Time Stood Still

Joshua Chapter 10

Here we come to one of the parts of Bible that apologists will point to as some sort of proof of a miracle. Five kings decide to attack Gibeon because they made peace with Israel. The Gibeonites called upon Joshua to help. They slaughtered the Amorites and God killed even more with hailstones.

¹²On the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD; and he said in the sight of Israel,

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.”

¹³And 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 midheaven, and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

Bibles, Harper . NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha (p. 528). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

OK, let’s break this down: In order for the sun to stop in the sky, the earth must stop rotating. That would be catastrophic to say the least. Also, the length of a day is measured by the transit of the sun across the sky, so if the sun hung in the sky for a day or so, then… it was one day when it set. I have heard apologist Ray Comfort call this “the only time in recorded history that the sun stopped in the sky”. Except, this isn’t recorded history according to many, many, MANY biblical scholars.

This could all be metaphor, but we’ll never know because this poem was written in the Book of Jashar (or Jasher) which is a book that has been lost. There are some who tried to claim that they found the book, but they were discovered to be forgeries.

The five kings escaped, but they hid in a cave and were sealed in until the Israelites destroyed Makkedah. Then the kings were brought out of the cave and great mercy was… oh who am I kidding They were killed and their bodies hung from trees. 

I’m not going to go into any more detail and just say that Joshua and the Israelites did just as God commanded and much blood was spilled. And to think, I was glad to get to this book.