There are two difficulties connected with this book which have given rise
to much discussion, (1.) The miracle of the standing still of the sun and
moon on Gibeon. The record of it occurs in Joshua’s impassioned prayer
of faith, as quoted (Joshua 10:12-15) from the “Book of Jasher” (q.v.).
There are many explanations given of these words. They need, however,
present no difficulty if we believe in the possibility of God’s miraculous
interposition in behalf of his people. Whether it was caused by the
refraction of the light, or how, we know not.
(2.) Another difficulty arises out of the command given by God utterly to
exterminate the Canaanites. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
It is enough that Joshua clearly knew that this was the will of God, who
employs his terrible agencies, famine, pestilence, and war, in the righteous
government of this world. The Canaanites had sunk into a state of
immorality and corruption so foul and degrading that they had to be rooted
out of the land with the edge of the sword. “The Israelites’ sword, in its
bloodiest executions, wrought a work of mercy for all the countries of the
earth to the very end of the world.”
This book resembles the Acts of the Apostles in the number and variety of
historical incidents it records, and in its many references to persons and
places; and as in the latter case the epistles of Paul (see Paley’s Horae
Paul.) confirm its historical accuracy by their incidental allusions and
“undesigned coincidences,” so in the former modern discoveries confirm its
historicity. The Amarna tablets (see ADONIZEDEC) are among the most
remarkable discoveries of the age. Dating from about B.C. 1480 down to
the time of Joshua, and consisting of official communications from
Amorite, Phoenician, and Philistine chiefs to the king of Egypt, they afford
a glimpse into the actual condition of Palestine prior to the Hebrew
invasion, and illustrate and confirm the history of the conquest. A letter,
also still extant, from a military officer, “master of the captains of Egypt,”
dating from near the end of the reign of Rameses II., gives a curious
account of a journey, probably official, which he undertook through
Palestine as far north as to Aleppo, and an insight into the social condition
of the country at that time. Among the things brought to light by this letter
and the Amarna tablets is the state of confusion and decay that had now
fallen on Egypt. The Egyptian garrisons that had held possession of
Palestine from the time of Thothmes III., some two hundred years before,
had now been withdrawn. The way was thus opened for the Hebrews. In