Joshua 10:1-13 ▼

1 And it comes to pass, when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem hears that Joshua has captured Ai, and devotes it (as he had done to Jericho and to her king so he has done to Ai and to her king), and that the inhabitants of Gibeon have made peace with Israel, and are in their midst—

2 that they are greatly afraid, because Gibeon [is] a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it [is] greater than Ai, and all its men [are] heroes.

3 And Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sends to Hoham king of Hebron, and to Piram king of Jarmuth, and to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying,

4 “Come up to me, and help me, and we strike Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua, and with the sons of Israel.”

5 And five kings of the Amorite (the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon) are gathered together, and go up, they and all their camps, and encamp against Gibeon, and fight against it.

6 And the men of Gibeon send to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, saying, “Do not let your hand cease from your servants; come up to us [with] haste, and give safety to us, and help us; for all the kings of the Amorite, dwelling in the hill-country, have been assembled against us.”

7 And Joshua goes up from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, even all the mighty men of valor.

8 And YHWH says to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for I have given them into your hand, there does not stand a man of them in your presence.”

9 And Joshua comes to them suddenly (all the night he has gone up from Gilgal),

10 and YHWH crushes them before Israel, and strikes them [with] a great striking at Gibeon, and pursues them the way of the ascent of Beth-Horon, and strikes them to Azekah, and to Makkedah.

11 And it comes to pass, in their fleeing from the face of Israel—they [are] in the descent of Beth-Horon—and YHWH has cast great stones on them out of the heavens, to Azekah, and they die; more are they who have died by the hailstones than they whom the sons of Israel have slain by the sword.

12 Then Joshua speaks to YHWH in the day of YHWH’s giving up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he says before the eyes of Israel, “Sun—stand still in Gibeon; and moon—in the Valley of Ajalon”;

13 and the sun stands still, and the moon has stood—until the nation takes vengeance [on] its enemies; is it not written on the Scroll of the Upright, “and the sun stands in the midst of the heavens, and has not hurried to go in—as a perfect day?”