The Halting of the Sun

Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies.  He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters.  So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish and Debir king of Eglon.  “Come up and help me attack Gibeon,” he said, “because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.”

Then the five kings of the Amorites—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon—joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it.

The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men.  The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise.  The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.  As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.

On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.  There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.

-The Book of Joshua, Chapter X: 1-15

This myth has, perhaps, been once of the most dishonestly upheld myths in the world.  I don't believe it's been treated this way on purpose, mind you, but well-meaning people often don't think things through.

The rumor has been circulating for over nearly a century that NASA has found the "missing day" of Joshua 10.  Unlike the Admonition of Ipuwer, which suggests an event similar to, if not actually, the Exodus, there is no such proof that earth is missing a day. 

There can't be proof.

Let's think about this for a moment from a different angle.  Say you went to the grocer and purchased ten apples.  By the time you arrived home, there were only nine.  The first question you ask yourself? 

"Where's the missing apple?"

How do you know there's an apple missing?  Because you know you should have ten, but you actually have nine.  You need two pieces of information to know if something is missing:  what you should have, and what you actually have.  These are required pieces of information.  Without either, you can't find out if something is missing.

The same rules apply for the Missing Day.  We need to know:

1) How many days there should be

2) How many days there have actually been

We know neither of these.  NASA has not been able to determine how many days there have been in the existence of the earth.  The Bible doesn't even tell us how many days there should have been by this point.  Nor do we know how many there have actually been by this point.  So out of the two pieces of information required to discover that a day is missing, we have neither.

Now, there are possible references to an event similar to this in other literature, which indicates an actual occurrence.  For example, in Book II of the Iliad, Agamemnon prays that Zeus may keep the sun from setting.  If the Greeks observed a day in which the sun stood still, then it is possible that they worked it into their mythology.  Other cultures reference times of great power in which the moon stood still for longer than usual, which also supports the story of Joshua.  I would argue they add extremely compelling evidence, in fact, but none of these prove the event occurred.

So we must always, at all times, use our critical thinking to determine the validity of any story.  While I firmly believe in the event described in Joshua 10, it is because so much of the Bible has already been demonstrated to be true, at the very least plausible, and the God revealed in the Bible has demonstrated Himself to be both present and trustworthy in my own life.  My faith in the accuracy of Joshua 10 does not come from any "proof" attested to by well-meaning but misinformed Christians, however.  Rather than blindly take a claim as fact, just a few moments of thought will tell us that such a claim is simply false.  This is not to say our faith is without evidence, of course, but we all need to be careful about undoing compelling evidence by upholding false truth.