Clarke's Bible Commentary - Joshua 10:14
Verse 14. And there was no day like that] There was no period of time in which the sun was kept so long above the horizon as on that occasion. Some learned men have supposed that the Fable of Phaeton was founded on this historic fact. The fable may be seen with all the elegance of poetic embellishment in the commencement of the second book of Ovid's Metamorphoses; but I confess I can see nothing in the pretended copy that can justify the above opinion.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. And there was no day like that, before it, or after it , etc.] Which must be understood as referring not to natural days, or such as are according to the natural course of things, as those in the northern and southern poles, which are much longer, but to miraculous and extraordinary ones: never was there such a day as this, occasioned by the sun standing still; and as for Hezekiah’s day, which is objected, when the sun went ten degrees backward on the dial of Ahaz, it is not certain whether those degrees were hours, or half hours, or quarters of an hour; and if they were hours, as the going backwards was at once, in a moment, it could only make an addition of ten hours in the return of them, and so it must make but a day of twenty two hours: besides, the writer of this book only speaks of days that had been in his time, and not of what might be hereafter; add to which, that this respects not so much the length of the day, as the manner in which it became so long; and especially it regards the following circumstance, being at the entreaty of a man, and that delivered in a very authoritative manner: that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man ; expressed in prayer, and which prayer was a prayer of faith: for the Lord fought for Israel : by casting hailstones upon their enemies, and preserving them from them by the stopping the course of the sun, until they had taken full vengeance on them. The day on which this miracle was wrought, is conjectured to be Wednesday the eleventh of April, in the year before Christ 1454 f196 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 7-14 - The meanest and most feeble, who have just begun to trust the Lord, ar as much entitled to be protected as those who have long and faithfull been his servants. It is our duty to defend the afflicted, who, lik the Gibeonites, are brought into trouble on our account, or for the sake of the gospel. Joshua would not forsake his new vassals. How muc less shall our true Joshua fail those who trust in Him! We may be wanting in our trust, but our trust never can want success. Yet God' promises are not to slacken and do away, but to quicken and encourag our endeavours. Notice the great faith of Joshua, and the power of God answering it by the miraculous staying of the sun, that the day of Israel's victories might be made longer. Joshua acted on this occasio by impulse on his mind from the Spirit of God. It was not necessar that Joshua should speak, or the miracle be recorded, according to the modern terms of astronomy. The sun appeared to the Israelites ove Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Ajalon, and there they appeare to be stopped on their course for one whole day. Is any thing too har for the Lord? forms a sufficient answer to ten thousand difficulties which objectors have in every age started against the truth of God a revealed in his written word. Proclamation was hereby made to the neighbouring nations, Behold the works of the Lord, and say, What nation is there so great as Israel, who has God so nigh unto them?
Original Hebrew
ולא 3808 היה 1961 כיום 3117 ההוא 1931 לפניו 6440 ואחריו 310 לשׁמע 8085 יהוה 3068 בקול 6963 אישׁ 376 כי 3588 יהוה 3068 נלחם 3898 לישׂראל׃ 3478
