For Teaching

Joshua 10: What the Passage Says

161 claims across 43 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Joshua 10 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Five Amorite kings join forces to attack Gibeon because Gibeon has made peace with Israel. Joshua marches all night from Gilgal, and Israel routs the attacking armies; the LORD sends huge hailstones on the fleeing soldiers, and at Joshua's word the sun and moon stop until the fighting is done. The five kings are captured in a cave at Makkedah and executed. Joshua then takes Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir, destroying everyone in them, and conquers the whole southern region before returning to the camp at Gilgal.

Claim by Claim

10:1
- Adoni-zedek was king of Jerusalem.
- Adoni-zedek heard that Joshua had captured Ai.
- Adoni-zedek heard that Joshua had devoted Ai to destruction.
- Joshua did to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king.
- Adoni-zedek heard that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel.
- The inhabitants of Gibeon were living among the Israelites.
10:2
- They were greatly afraid.
- Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities.
- Gibeon was greater than Ai.
- All the men of Gibeon were mighty warriors.
10:3
- Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham king of Hebron.
- Adoni-zedek sent word to Piram king of Jarmuth.
- Adoni-zedek sent word to Japhia king of Lachish.
- Adoni-zedek sent word to Debir king of Eglon.
10:4
- Adoni-zedek told them to come up to him and help him.
- Adoni-zedek proposed that they attack Gibeon.
- Adoni-zedek said Gibeon had made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.
10:5
- The five kings of the Amorites were the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
- The five kings gathered together and went up.
- All their armies went with them.
- They encamped against Gibeon.
- They made war against Gibeon.
10:6
- The men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal.
- They told Joshua not to withhold his hand from his servants.
- They told Joshua to come up to them quickly.
- They asked Joshua to save them.
- They asked Joshua to help them.
- They said all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country had gathered together against them.
10:7
- Joshua went up from Gilgal.
- All the fighting people went up with him.
- All the mighty men of valor went with him.
10:8
- The LORD spoke to Joshua.
- The LORD told Joshua not to fear them.
- The LORD said he had given them into Joshua's hand.
- The LORD said not one of them would stand before Joshua.
10:9
- Joshua came upon them suddenly.
- Joshua went up from Gilgal all night.
10:10
- The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel.
- They were struck with a great slaughter at Gibeon.
- They were pursued along the way that goes up to Beth-horon.
- They were struck down as far as Azekah and as far as Makkedah.
10:11
- They fled from before Israel.
- They were on the descent of Beth-horon.
- The LORD cast great stones down on them from heaven as far as Azekah.
- They died.
- More of them died from the hailstones than those the children of Israel killed with the sword.
10:12
- Joshua spoke to the LORD on the day the LORD gave the Amorites over before the children of Israel.
- Joshua spoke in the sight of Israel.
- Joshua said, Sun, stand still over Gibeon.
- Joshua said, Moon, stand still over the valley of Aijalon.
10:13
- The sun stood still.
- The moon stopped.
- The sun and moon halted until the nation took vengeance on its enemies.
- This is written in the book of Jashar.
- The sun stood in the middle of the sky.
- The sun did not hurry to set for about a whole day.
10:14
- There was no day like that one before it or after it.
- On that day the LORD listened to the voice of a man.
- The LORD fought for Israel.
10:15
- Joshua returned to the camp at Gilgal.
- All Israel returned with him.
10:16
- The five kings fled.
- The five kings hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah.
10:17
- Joshua was told that the five kings had been found.
- Joshua was told they were hiding in the cave at Makkedah.
10:18
- Joshua ordered that great stones be rolled against the mouth of the cave.
- Joshua ordered that men be appointed over the cave to guard the kings.
10:19
- Joshua told the people not to stop.
- Joshua told them to pursue their enemies.
- Joshua told them to strike the ones at the rear.
- Joshua told them not to let the enemies reach their cities.
- Joshua said the LORD their God had given the enemies into their hand.
10:20
- Joshua and the children of Israel finished striking them with a very great slaughter until they were finished off.
- Survivors remained from among them.
- The survivors entered the fortified cities.
10:21
- All the people returned to the camp at Makkedah to Joshua in peace.
- No one moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.
10:22
- Joshua ordered that the mouth of the cave be opened.
- Joshua ordered that the five kings be brought out to him from the cave.
10:23
- They did as Joshua said.
- They brought the five kings out of the cave to him.
- The five kings were the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
10:24
- They brought those kings out to Joshua.
- Joshua summoned all the men of Israel.
- Joshua spoke to the commanders of the men of war who had gone with him.
- Joshua told them to come near.
- Joshua told them to put their feet on the necks of these kings.
- They came near.
- They put their feet on the necks of the kings.
10:25
- Joshua told them not to be afraid.
- Joshua told them not to be dismayed.
- Joshua told them to be strong and courageous.
- Joshua said the LORD would do this to all their enemies against whom they fight.
10:26
- Afterward Joshua struck the kings down.
- Joshua put them to death.
- Joshua hung them on five trees.
- They hung on the trees until evening.
10:27
- At the time of sunset Joshua gave a command.
- They took the kings down from the trees.
- They threw them into the cave where they had hidden.
- They placed great stones against the mouth of the cave.
- The stones are there to this very day.
10:28
- On that day Joshua captured Makkedah.
- Joshua struck it with the edge of the sword, along with its king.
- Joshua devoted them and every person in the city to destruction.
- Joshua left no survivor.
- Joshua did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.
10:29
- Joshua passed from Makkedah to Libnah.
- All Israel went with him.
- He fought against Libnah.
10:30
- The LORD gave Libnah and its king into the hand of Israel.
- He struck it with the edge of the sword, along with every person in it.
- He left no survivor in it.
- He did to the king of Libnah as he had done to the king of Jericho.
10:31
- Joshua passed from Libnah to Lachish.
- All Israel went with him.
- They encamped against Lachish.
- They fought against Lachish.
10:32
- The LORD gave Lachish into the hand of Israel.
- Israel captured Lachish on the second day.
- He struck it with the edge of the sword, along with every person in it.
- He did to Lachish according to all that he had done to Libnah.
10:33
- Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish.
- Joshua struck down Horam and his people.
- Joshua left him no survivor.
10:34
- Joshua passed from Lachish to Eglon.
- All Israel went with him.
- They encamped against Eglon.
- They fought against Eglon.
10:35
- They captured Eglon on that day.
- They struck it with the edge of the sword.
- He devoted every person in it to destruction that day.
- He did to Eglon according to all that he had done to Lachish.
10:36
- Joshua went up from Eglon to Hebron.
- All Israel went with him.
- They fought against Hebron.
10:37
- They captured Hebron.
- They struck it with the edge of the sword, along with its king, all its cities, and every person in it.
- He left no survivor.
- He did to Hebron according to all that he had done to Eglon.
- He devoted Hebron and every person in it to destruction.
10:38
- Joshua turned to Debir.
- All Israel went with him.
- He fought against Debir.
10:39
- He captured Debir, its king, and all its cities.
- They struck them with the edge of the sword.
- They devoted every person in it to destruction.
- He left no survivor.
- He did to Debir and its king as he had done to Hebron.
- He did to Debir and its king as he had done to Libnah and its king.
10:40
- Joshua struck the whole land: the hill country, the Negev, the lowland, and the slopes.
- Joshua struck all their kings.
- He left no survivor.
- He devoted to destruction everything that breathed.
- He did this as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.
10:41
- Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza.
- Joshua struck all the land of Goshen as far as Gibeon.
10:42
- Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time.
- The LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.
10:43
- Joshua returned to the camp at Gilgal.
- All Israel returned with him.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1: "Utterly destroyed" translates a Hebrew term (herem) for a practice in which a captured town was handed over to God entirely: nothing was kept as plunder and no inhabitants were spared. It was a religious act, not ordinary looting, and the same word is used throughout this chapter. (Jerusalem at this point is a Canaanite city with its own king; Israel does not hold it until David's time, centuries later.) The peace treaty with Gibeon was made in the previous chapter, after the Gibeonites disguised themselves as travelers from far away and tricked Israel into swearing an oath to spare them.
10:2: Gibeon is compared to a royal city rather than called one because, unlike its neighbors, it had no king of its own; the previous chapter shows it governed by its elders. Adonizedec's alarm is partly at a large armed city switching sides.
10:3: A "king" in Canaan at this time ruled a single walled city and the villages around it, not a country. Several such kings existed within a day or two's march of each other, which is why five of them can combine here.
10:4: "Come up" is literal. Jerusalem and Gibeon sit high in the central hill country, and any army coming from the lowlands had to climb to reach them.
10:5: "Amorite" is used in these books both for a particular people and, as here, as a broad label for the inhabitants of the Canaanite hill country.
10:6: Gilgal was Israel's base camp on the plain near Jericho, close to the Jordan and far below Gibeon in altitude (hence "come up." The march was roughly twenty miles, climbing some three thousand feet.) Calling themselves Joshua's "servants" is treaty language: by the agreement of the previous chapter Gibeon had become a subject ally, which obliged Israel to defend it.
10:7: "Mighty men of valour" is a standing phrase in the Old Testament for hardened, experienced soldiers, the troops a commander relies on rather than the general levy.
10:8: God speaks as if the fight is already over. He is telling Joshua the win is certain.
10:9: The distance from Gilgal to Gibeon is roughly twenty miles, climbing about three thousand feet out of the Jordan valley into the hills. Covering that uphill in a single night is why the attack came as a shock.
10:10: Beth-horon was a pair of villages, Upper and Lower, on the main road running from the hill country down to the coastal plain. The road drops steeply between them, which is why the enemy is described first as being chased up toward Beth-horon and then, in the next verse, fleeing down the slope.
10:11: "Great stones from heaven" is explained in the same verse as hailstones. Severe storms in this region can produce hail large enough to kill people and animals in the open, and a routed army strung out along a mountain road has no shelter.
10:12: The Valley of Ajalon lies west of Gibeon, on the plain below the Beth-horon descent. The sun standing over Gibeon and the moon over Ajalon places the two in opposite parts of the sky at once, the picture of a morning when a setting moon and a risen sun are both visible.
10:13: The Hebrew verbs behind "stood still" and "stayed" mean to stop or to be still, and can also mean to be silent or to cease acting; readers from ancient times onward have disagreed over whether Joshua asks the sun to halt in its course or to hold back its blazing heat. The translation leaves the question open. The book of Jasher ("the upright one") was a collection of poems about Israel's heroes, now lost; it is quoted again at 2 Samuel 1:18. The verse cites it as a source outside this book, which is why the wording shifts into poetry.
10:14: "The LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man" simply means God listened to a human being's request. "Hearken" is ordinary 1611 English for listen or pay attention.
10:15: This return to Gilgal comes before the Makkedah episode that follows, and the same sentence appears again at the end of the chapter, verse 43. The oldest Greek translation of Joshua does not have this verse at all. It reads most naturally as the closing line of the older account quoted in verses 12–14, with the narrative then resuming where verse 11 left off.
10:18: Sealing the cave with boulders and leaving a small guard means the kings are trapped without the army having to stop and deal with them, so the pursuit can continue while the enemy is still scattered.
10:19: "Smite the hindmost" means attack the stragglers at the back of a fleeing army, the standard way to turn a retreat into a slaughter. "Suffer them not" means do not allow them; "suffer" in the King James Version usually means permit.
10:20: "Fenced cities" in the King James Version means cities fortified with defensive walls. It has nothing to do with fences around fields.
10:21: The Hebrew is an idiom, literally that no one "sharpened his tongue" against the Israelites, used for a silence in which not even a word of complaint or defiance is risked.
10:24: Placing a foot on a defeated enemy's neck was a recognized gesture of total victory across the ancient Near East, shown in Egyptian and Mesopotamian art and referred to in their royal inscriptions. Joshua has the commanders, not himself, perform it, making it a lesson for the army.
10:26: The hanging happens after the kings are killed: the bodies were put on display, a public shaming of the corpse rather than a means of execution.
10:27: Taking the bodies down at sunset follows the rule in Deuteronomy 21:22–23, which forbids leaving an executed body exposed overnight. "Which remain until this very day" is the writer speaking to his own readers, and shows the account was written down long after the events, when the stone-blocked cave could still be pointed out.
10:28: "Killed with the sword" renders a Hebrew phrase, literally "struck it to the mouth of the sword," used throughout these chapters as a set formula for capturing a place by force.
10:31: "Encamped against it" means laid siege: the army surrounds the walled city so that nothing and no one can get in or out, then attacks.
10:32: Taking a city "on the second day" is remarkably fast. Lachish was one of the strongest fortified sites in the region, and archaeologists have uncovered its massive defenses; sieges of places like this normally lasted weeks or months.
10:33: Note that Gezer itself is not said to be taken, only its king and the force he brought to Lachish. Gezer stayed in Canaanite hands for centuries afterward (Joshua 16:10; 1 Kings 9:16).
10:40: The four regions are the standard geographical divisions of the land west of the Jordan: the central hill country; the Negev, the dry grazing land in the south; the Shephelah, the low foothills between the hills and the coastal plain; and the slopes running down from the hills toward the Dead Sea.
10:41: This Goshen is a district in southern Canaan, later listed among the towns of Judah (Joshua 15:51). It is not the Goshen in Egypt where Israel had lived. Kadesh-barnea is the desert oasis far to the south where Israel had camped during the wilderness years; Gaza is on the Mediterranean coast. The two names mark the outer limits of the area covered, not places Joshua is said to have captured.
10:42: "At one time" means in a single continuous campaign, without returning home between battles, the point being the speed of the whole operation.

Read Joshua 10