Bible Strands
Joshua 10:12
On the day that the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joshua addresses Yahweh directly, in the presence of the assembled Israelites, on the day Yahweh delivered the Amorites into their hands. The hailstones have already fallen (v. 11); the sun has not yet stood still (v. 13).
The words — תֵּ֤ת (tet, H5414), "delivered up," is the verb that frames the entire scene: Yahweh's act of handing over the enemy precedes Joshua's speech. The narrative verb for Joshua's address is יְדַבֵּ֤ר (ye.da.Ber, H1696), "he spoke" — plain, unadorned, no interjection or plea.
The thread — Habakkuk 3:11 looks back on this event: "Sun and moon stood still in their places." No other passage in the canon describes the same occurrence.
Why it lands — A general speaks to the sun and moon as if they were soldiers under his command, and the text records the request without commentary or skepticism. The reader must decide whether to treat it as poetry, myth, or claim; the text itself does not resolve that question.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
Cross-references
- Habakkuk 3:11 Sun and moon stood still in their places at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.
- Isaiah 38:8 I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.
- Isaiah 60:20 Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not wane; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your sorrow will cease.
- Joshua 10:13 So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance upon its enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? “So the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.”
- Isaiah 28:21 For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.
- Deuteronomy 4:19 When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
- Job 9:7 He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars.
- Judges 12:12 Then Elon the Zebulunite died, and he was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
- Job 31:26 if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,
- Psalms 19:4 their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.