‘Then spoke Joshua to YHWH, in the day when YHWH delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
“Sun on Gibeon be silent (still),
Moon in the vale of Aijalon
So the sun was silent (still) and the moon stayed,
Until the nation was revenged on its foes.”
Is not this written in the book of Jasher?'
This poem was found in the Book of Jasher (the book of the righteous), mentioned also in 2 Samuel 1:18. The Book of Jasher was clearly a collection of songs, possibly put together over a period of time (compare The Book of the Wars of YHWH - Numbers 21:14). If the reference in Samuel refers to a poem written at that time, it was written at the time of Saul's death. But some argue that 2 Samuel 1:18 should simply read ‘he instructed them to train the Judeans in bowmanship (‘song of' is not in the Hebrew), the training-poem for which is written in the Book of Jasher ' and do not refer it to David's poem at all. As we know that music was regularly used as a part of military training that is possibly the correct translation, and in that case it does not fix a date for the Book of Jasher making its appearance. Alternately this reference to the Book of Jasher here may be an added note by a copyist, the poem itself being contemporary with the event but having found its way into the Book of Jasher.
It is not quite clear from these words what happened or when it happened, and the extreme weather conditions. which must have included thick, dark clouds, must be noted. Does the reference to Gibeon mean that it happened while they were at Gibeon? If so it was while the sun was rising (Joshua 10:9), an idea supported by the fact that the moon was still visible. But why then ask for the sun to stand still at that point? If it was light that was in mind there would be plenty of time still left in the day. It is more probable therefore that he would want it to be ‘silent', that is, not to rise so as to be able to continue the advantage of the night attack. In that case ‘be silent' would mean, ‘let it remain dark'. This would tie in with the visibility of the moon over Aijalon and its continuing visibility, the remarkable weather conditions, and the later hailstorm that destroyed the enemy from a black sky. It should be noted that there is no suggestion in the actual historical account of an excessively long day.
Alternately the reference to Gibeon may simply indicate the direction in which the sun was from looking from Joshua's viewpoint.
For the meaning ‘be silent', which is the primary meaning of the verb, compare Amos 5:13; Leviticus 10:3; Psalms 4:4 (5); Psalms 31:17; Job 31:34. For the meaning ‘be still' compare Jeremiah 8:14; Jeremiah 47:6; 1 Samuel 14:9, but note that these latter could equally be rendered by ‘silence', for they refer to the stillness of silence, to non-activity.
Or was it much later in the day when Joshua wanted more light to continue the battle and the moon had begun again to appear? That is how it is often taken. We must certainly recognise that weather conditions were very strange as is evidenced by the extraordinary hail. They were such as occurred very rarely indeed and must have resulted in freak weather conditions. Did such freak weather conditions result in the sun's light reflecting even when it had gone down so that ‘the day' (period of light) lasted longer, or result in the moon being excessively bright, so giving a continuation of a long day (period of light) which they naturally interpreted in terms of the sun? Certainly something unusual happened that was vividly remembered. But it was not such as to destroy the world's environment. (The question here is not what God could do but what He would and did do).
We are not incidentally to see in it the literal adding of a twenty four hour period. At the most it indicates additional daylight. ‘About a whole day' would be in terms of the period between sunrise and sunset.
Joshua 10:13-14 (13b-14)
‘And the sun stayed in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that YHWH heard the voice of a man. For YHWH fought for Israel.'
This need not mean that they actually saw the sun stop in the heavens (which was unlikely given the known cloud cover and the hailstorm). Thus it could mean that the sun having begun to appear simply disappeared behind the thick, threatening clouds which resulted, among other things, in the hailstorm, and a big advantage for Israel. As far as they were concerned it would then have ‘stopped' in the midst of heaven. The word in Hebrew means to stand still, stop still, thus here possibly meaning that they no longer saw its movement. As far as they were concerned it had stopped moving. It no longer produced any effect. And the day had gone very dark. They were describing what they saw. That would mean that that day there was no sun seen hasting to go down. And it was seen as all due to Joshua's request, God's response to the latter being seen as a unique event in history.
Many, however, follow the traditional interpretation considering that the period of daylight seemingly lasted ‘almost twice as long as usual', although we must allow for the possible overstatement of the writer. He had no means of telling the time. It must not be seen as a strict scientific statement, but as the awed statement of a believer. God had given them additional daylight! One question is how would the Israelites know this, having no measure of time if sun and moon were not behaving normally? They certainly had no way of measuring the time accurately. One method may have been based on such things as the number of times cattle and goats had to be milked and fed linked to a general sense of passing time. But this would not be reliable for cattle and goats can be affected by extreme weather conditions, while we have all known days that have seemed interminable. And we must keep in mind that to them ‘a day' was a period of light, not necessarily a fixed period between sunrise and sunset (which they had no way of measuring). It would not have been a fixed number of hours, because hours had not yet been invented.
In this view then we are looking at what seemed an extra long day, a day in which unusual and remarkable weather conditions applied, which very conditions may have resulted in ‘daylight' being seen as continuing into the night in some way. But given the unusual weather conditions, the appearance of the moon, and the rare nature of the hailstorm, it seems far more probable that the reference is to a dark day not a light one.
All we can really say with certainty is that there were hugely remarkable events affecting both the weather and the heavens, which were seen as the work of YHWH in direct response to Joshua's prayer, an event unique in history up to that time. The important thing was that YHWH fought for Israel. It is interesting that the poem concentrates on the activities of sun and moon while the prose account stresses the remarkable hailstorm. The two were clearly connected.