Joshua spake to the Lord, to wit, in way of petition for this miracle; being moved to beg it out of zeal to destroy God's enemies, and directed to it by the motion of God's Spirit; and receiving a gracious answer, and being filled with holy confidence of the success, he speaks the following words before the people, that they might be witnesses of it. In the sight of Israel, i.e. in the presence and audience of Israel; seeing being sometimes put for hearing, as Genesis 42:1, compared with Acts 7:12; although these words may seem rather to be joined with the following, thus, In the sight of Israel stand still, O sun, & c., which sense the Hebrew accents favour. Upon Gibeon, i.e. over and above or against Gibeon, i.e. in that place and posture in which now it stands towards and looks upon Gibeon. Let it not go down lower, and by degrees, out of the sight of Gibeon. It may seem that the sun was declining; and Joshua perceiving that his work was great and long, and his time but short, begs of God the lengthening out of the day, and that the sun and moon might stop their course, and keep the place in which they now were. In the valley, or, upon the valley; as before, upon Gibeon; the preposition being the same there and here. Ajalon; either,
1. That Ajalon which was in the tribe of Zebulun, Judges 12:12 northward from Gibeon. Or rather,
2. That Ajalon which was in the tribe of Dan, Joshua 19:42 Judges 1:35, westward from Gibeon, For,
1. This was nearer Gibeon than the other.
2. This was most agreeable to the course of the sun and moon, which is from east to west.
3. This way the battle went, from Gibeon westward to Ajalon, and so further westward, even to Lachish, Joshua 10:31. And he mentions two places, Gibeon and Ajalon, not as if the sun stood over the one, and the moon over the other, which is absurd and ridiculous to affirm, especially these places being so near the one to the other; but partly to vary the phrase, as is common in poetical passages; partly because he was in his march in the pursuit of his enemies to pass from Gibeon to Ajalon; and he begs that he may have the help and benefit of longer light to pursue them, and to that end that the sun might stand still, and the moon also; not that he needed the moon's light when he had the sun s, but because it was fit, either that both the sun and moon should go, or that both should stand still, to prevent disorder and confusion in the heavenly bodies.