With the destruction of Jericho and Ai the king of Jerusalem, Adoni-Zedek, was alarmed and, even more, when he found out his Canaanite allies, the Gibeonites had sided with the invading Israelites. So, Adoni-Zedek called on the rest of his allies (Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, Eglon) to help fight the Gibeonites. The Hebrew word gibborim, “heroes” or “mighty men,” is used to describe the military ability of the men of Gibeon who had bowed their knee to Joshua (Joshua 10:2). These five kings attacked Gibeon, but since the Gibeonites had recently become vassals of Israel they counted on their new Suzerain covenant with Joshua and sent messengers to Israel asking for help. Joshua and his troops left their camp at Gilgal and marched all night (about 20 miles) to Gibeon where Joshua shocked the five kings fighting against Gibeon since they did not realize they would meet the Joshua and the mighty forces of Israel so soon.

The five Amorite kings faced these three disadvantages: an ambush, a deadly hailstorm and the halting of sun/moon to prevent the advantage of the cover of darkness. The four verbs in Joshua 10:10 that describe the attack on the Amorites are singular indicating the Lord himself was indeed causing the results even though Joshua and his troops where heavily engaged in the all night march, the ambush, the use of weapons and a relentless pursuit. The singular verbs are: confused, struck, pursued and struck. And, the subject of these verbs in the Hebrew is “He,” and not “Israel.”

The Israelites first pursued the Amorites along the Beth Horon road briefly to the northwest out of Gibeon (the main road into Jerusalem today still follows this same Beth Horon route), then quickly to the southwest through Jarmuth and Azekiah. The hailstorm that dropped huge chunks of hail out of the sky began as the Amorites were descending from the Beth Horon road into the Plain of Aijalon to take cover in the hill country to the south.

One of the main points of this account is to record the fact that “the Lord listened to a man” (Joshua 10:14). At some point during the battle Joshua speaks out loud in front of his troops to make a request of the Lord and the Lord responded by stopping the sun and moon over Gibeon and over the Aijalon Valley. (click on image below for a large size)

"Sunday morning in America is the greatest hour of idolatry in the whole week. Why? Because most people who are even worshiping God, are worshiping a God they don't know. They're worshiping a god that looks more like Santa Claus than the God of Scripture. They're worshiping a god that is a figment of their own imagination. They created a god in their own likeness and they worship the
god they've made."
- Paul Washer

“Why does not the Pope, whose riches are at this day more ample than those of the wealthiest of the wealthy, build the one Basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with that of poor believers?”
- Martin Luther,
#86 of the 95 Theses
(Read Martin Luther’s 95 Theses HERE)