Joshua 10

Gibeon has been identified with a dirt mound of ruins called Tel el-Jib, about a two-hour walk north of Jerusalem, six miles (10 km).

This is the first time “Jerusalem” shows up in the Bible as a city by this name. All the kings Adoni-zedek contacted ruled Amorite city-kingdoms within a two-day march south or southwest of Jerusalem: Hebron about 20 miles (32km) south, Lachish 30 miles (48 km) southwest, Jarmuth 15 miles (24 km) southwest, Eglon (Tel ‘Eton) 30 miles (48 km) southwest.

The geography between Gibeon and Gigal is important to what happens next in the story. Gibeon (Tel el-Jib) is less than a day’s walk west of Jericho. But it’s on hills overlooking the Jordan River Valley, about 16 miles (25 km) away and one kilometer higher (over half a mile) than Joshua’s camp in the Jericho plains. Gibeon elevation: 2,425 feet, 739 meters. Elevation of Jericho: -846 feet, -258 m.

Beth Horn was roughly five miles (8 km) northwest of Gibeon. Azekah was a day’s march southwest, 20 miles (32 km). Makkedah’s location is uncertain, but one contender for its location puts it 25 miles (40 km) south of Gibeon.

Did the sun stop in the sky? People of faith debate that. Some say the Creator could hit the pause button. Others say that what we’re reading is poetry, not history. Yet the anonymous writer who reports the poetry seems to take it literally. Yet there’s another way to read it if we take the hailstorm as a clue. If storm clouds rolled in, perhaps the last Joshua saw of the rising sun was as it climbed over Gibeon. And the last he saw of the setting moon was over the valley. The sun didn’t stop moving. It stopped shining. The poem, some speculate, might have been Joshua’s prayer during the battle or his praise afterward. Before the battle, his men had finished an all-night march just in time to fight a battle against five armies. He didn’t need the sun beating up his men with desert heat. So, perhaps he prayed for the miracle or for the clouds.

The Book of Jashar is a lost book of stories or poetry, apparently from Israel’s history. That suggests the Book of Jashar was older than the Bible book of Joshua.

Some scholars say Joshua impaled them or hung them on poles instead of trees. It’s a fair guess. That’s because the Hebrew word for the tree or pole is es. It can mean tree, pole, firewood, sticks, woodpile. So, the context of the word is the clue to guessing what it meant.

It was against the law of Moses to leave a body hanging overnight (Deuteronomy 21:23).

Scholars most often identify Kadesh-barnea, also called Kadesh, as the spring-fed oasis at Tel el-Qudeirat, on Egypt’s side of the border with Israel. Another contender is Ain Qadeis, also on Egypt’s side of the border. Bible writers put the location in different deserts: Zin Desert (Numbers 20:1) and Paran Desert (Numbers 13:26). Some theorize there were two Kadesh oases. West Kadesh and East Kadesh. Not many scholars seem to buy into that.

This isn’t the “land of Goshen” in Egypt, where Jacob and his family migrated during a drought (Genesis 45:10; 47:6). Scholars say this is a stretch of grazing fields between the southern tip of the Judean hills and the Negev desert further south.