The passage where “The sun stands still” in Joshua 10 fight between Israel and the Gibeonites is richly debated.  Did the sun and moon really stop in the heavens?  Let’s look again at verses 12 through 14:

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.”

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.  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.

The traditional view holds that Joshua is asking the LORD to stop the sun’s movement, and the heavens respond in kind.  This view goes back to Old Testament times, and is acknowledged in the Apocryphal book “Wisdom of Sirach.”  Joshua, so the thinking goes, wants the day to be extended because the enemy is on the run and he wants to finish the job.   

There are, of course, objections to this.  But before you cry “That’s absurd!” remember that if this universe belongs to the LORD, then He can do whatever He wants with it.  As we’ve already seen, even in this chapter, the LORD is master over nature.   Further, stay focused on what the author is looking at: that the LORD would listen to – literally, “obey” – the voice of a man.  To this observer of God and nature, celestial movements are child’s play compared to Divine ones. 

Of course, there were things that the ancients didn’t understand.  In their understanding of the cosmos, the sun, moon, and stars inhabited celestial spheres, not very far above the earth.  To their eyes, these bodies obviously moved around the earth.  We can’t get around the fact that Joshua’s request to make the sun and moon stand still is based on a faulty understanding of the solar system.

But there’s another concern to address, having to do with geography.  Joshua calls for “the sun to stand still over Gibeon and the moon in the Valley Aijalon.”   Gibeon is to the east of Aijalon; if the sun is above Gibeon, and the moon above Aijalon, then this call comes in the morning, not in the evening.  In fact, the only time in the day when the sun and moon would be in this position is right after sunrise.  It seems odd that Joshua would ask for an extension of the battle in the early morning. 

There is a possibility that the entire exchange is figurative.  Most Bibles take their cue from the Hebrew and present 12b and 13a as poetry; the question is where the poetry begins and ends.  Elsewhere in Scripture, the Psalmist tells the rivers to “clap their hands,” and for the mountains to “sing for joy.”  Isaiah writes that “the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (Isa. 55:12). 

The prophet Habakkuk foresees the LORD’s march through the earth, when “the sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped…”  It’s possible that this is what’s in both Joshua’s and the author’s mind here: “Sun and moon, stand back and watch the LORD fight for Israel.” 

If this is true, then in what way did the LORD listen to Joshua?  Perhaps there is a break in verse 12 that doesn’t make it into our translations.  “At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD.”  Break.  Then, “In the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, he said in the sight of Israel…”  The Hebrew text allows this, and can assist the figurative interpretation of what follows.  If this is the case, then it highlights the author’s ending acknowledgement that the LORD listened to Joshua by (simply) fighting for Israel.

Other possibilities, such as an eclipse, or the calling of an omen, don’t hold as much strength as either the traditional view or the figurative one.  Both have their problems, but I need to call you back to the author’s awe: if the LORD will listen to a man, and fight for His people, then natural considerations are secondary. 

Don’t believe it?  It’s all there in the Book of Jashar. 

I’m indebted to Dr. David Howard for his fine assessment of this passage in his New American Commentary on Joshua.