Joshua's long day. 



129 



for sunset fell while the Israelites were there. Joshua's troop 

 rushed the city and destroyed it. and Joshua had the five kings 

 of the Amorites, who had been captured a little earlier, hanged 

 upon a tree in the neighbourhood. At the going down of the 

 sun, Joshua commanded that the corpses should be taken down, 

 from the tree and buried in a cave. 



All these events — the night march of the Israelites from Gilgal, 

 the climb up the mountains, 3400 feet in height, and the march 

 across the Ridge to Gibeon, the battle at Gibeon, the pursuit 

 of the Amorites from Gibeon through the Beth-horons to Azekah 

 and to Makkedah, not far short of 30 miles in length, the storming 

 of Makkedah, the execution and burial of the kings — all took 

 place between one sunset and the next, a period of twenty-four 

 hours. 



Where was Joshua standing, and what was the hour of the 

 day in that great moment when he said in the sight of Israel : 



" Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; 



" And thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon " ? 



The expression attributed in the text to Joshua is a striking 

 one. The sun is associated with Gibeon, the moon with the 

 valley of Aijalon ; two places on the earth are thus severally 

 connected with the two great lights of heaven. What could 

 there have been in the surrounding circumstances to lead Joshua 

 to associate the sun at that particular moment with Gibeon 

 and the moon with the valley of Aijalon ? Why did he so pair 

 them off together ? 



Usually we see the sun and moon as placed above us in the 

 heavens too high for us to connect them in our thought with any 

 fixed object on our earth. But if they are quite low down in the 

 sky — that is to say if either of them has just risen or is just about to 

 set so that they are almost hidden behind some earthly object — 

 such as a hilltop, a grove of trees, or some tower — then we cannot 

 fail to associate them with the terrestrial object to which they 

 appear to be so close. If Joshua, looking toward Gibeon, 

 saw the setting sun about to sink behind its battlements, then 

 it would be natural, all but inevitable, for him to speak of the 

 sun as being " upon Gibeon." Similarly if the moon was 

 sailing just above some dip in the distant horizon w^hich he knew 

 indicated the valley of Aijalon, it would be equally natural for 

 him to think and speak of the moon as being " in the valley of 

 Aijalon." 



K 



