JOSHUA’S LONG DAY
THIS event is recorded in the Book of Joshua, Chapter 10, verses 12 and 13, thus..
‘Then Joshua spoke to Jehovah in the day Jehovah delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon!
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.’
Notes:
‘The sky’ is literally ‘the heavens’. In Hebrew, heaven is always represented by the plural word shamayim. In a case such as this, and especially with the definite article, it used to indicate the sky. Thus in Genesis 1:1 it is used for the earth and the sky above it. A modern Hebrew-English dictionary defines shamayim as ‘the sky’ .
The sun remained still in the middle of the sky during this added period of time. Hence daylight continued throughout the entire period. There was no night.
The sun being in the middle of the sky represents midday.
The English translation of the Septuagint renders the last part of verse 13 thus:
‘… and the sun stood still in the midst of heaven. it did not proceed to set till the end of one day’.
The Septuagint’s translation of the Hebrew into Greek is I think a little more accurate, the last clause reading:
‘ou proeporeueto eis dusmas eis telos hemeras mias’
If this is translated literally the clause becomes:
‘It did not proceed to a setting until the coming- to-an-end of one day.’
This is in agreement with the A.V’s ‘hasted not to go down about a whole day.’
The Septuagint has ‘one day’ whereas the Hebrew has ‘a whole day’. However, there is a footnote to ‘one day’ which is interesting. This states:
‘i.e. additional day without a night between.’
We should observe the difference between ‘a whole day’ and ‘about a whole day’. As this difference may be important in the light of events that occurred much later, I have written an addendum at the end of this article to explain why the translations differ here.
After the defeat of the Amorites at the battle of Gibeon, Joshua was pursuing his enemies and decided that the amount of daylight left would be insufficient for his purpose. He had need of more time to complete their destruction.
He therefore consulted Jehovah and, clearly at God’s instigation, he said in the presence of the Israelites, “Let the sun be still in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon”.
Jehovah’s response was immediate, and the sun remained still in the sky for about a whole day. This means that the earth’s rotation upon its axis ceased for, or about, a full period of 24 hours. Then the earth’s rotation was resumed to complete what was left of the daylight period of the original day. But this does not indicate a 24 hour period consisting of day and night. Rather it was a 24 hour period of daylight during which the sun remained stationary. The fact that the moon also ‘stood still’ indicates that the extra 24 hour period only affected the daylight and not the night. See the footnote from the Septuagint quoted above. In other words, Joshua’s ‘long day’ occupied a period of 48 hours which consisted of 36 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night time.
During this extra period of daylight the earth’s movement in its orbit around the sun continued for 24 hours, and so during this period of 48 hours it covered the usual distance taken in two days. It was only the earth’s rotation on its axis that ‘stood still’. Consequently at this time Joshua (and the Israelites) experienced the length of two full day periods in one ‘long day’.
The incorporation of this event into our calendar has caused quite a problem.
Prior to this event and using our present calendar, the week started with Sunday, and Saturday being the seventh day, was the Sabbath.
Each of these days represented one rotation of the earth upon its axis. Hence there were six rotadons up to the end of Friday. That is, six working days between the two Saturdays (or ‘Sabbaths’). This occupied a period of 144 hours – 72 of daylight and 72 of night. The full week of seven days therefore consisted of 168 hours.
Let us assume that this ‘long day’ was a Tuesday. The actual day that it took place does not affect our reasoning. Nevertheless Professor C.A.L.Totten ascertained astronomically that the sun’s movement in the sky did cease at noon on a Tuesday. (Actually the ‘sun’s movement’ that ceased was the earth’s rotation on its axis). Obviously it must still have been daylight when Joshua consulted Jehovah. There are two ways in which this event may be regarded as affecting our calendar.
A. The first solution to the problem.
This depends on the fact that the earth’s movement around the sun is continuous and unchanging. It covers the same distance each day – i.e. every 24 hours. And Scripture gives no indication that the earth’s movement around the sun was in any way affected by the sun being ‘still’ on this one particular day. We are simply informed that at this time the sun’s movement stopped for a whole day – i.e. 24 hours. Hence Joshua’s ‘long day’ took the time of two days during which there was only one rotation, giving Joshua an extra 24 hours of daylight in which to continue the destruction of the Amorites.
As the sun ‘stood still’ (i.e. stopped rotating) for one whole day of 24 hours it becomes clear that Joshua’s ‘long day’ actually consisted of two days during which there was only one rotation upon its axis. Consequently in this special week the two days, Tuesday and Wednesday must be regarded as one day. Following this long Tuesday the next day would then become Thursday.
The six days, or rotations ended on Saturday, and the Sunday, the seventh rotation, now became the seventh day and therefore the Sabbath. Interpreted this way there were 192 hours in this week. See accompanying chart.
Following this it is considered that our calendar week should commence on Monday and end on Sunday, which being the seventh day would then be the Sabbath.
B. A second solution to the problem.
Although the first solution appears to be quite logical, there is one vital matter that has been overlooked – what should we regard as being a day? As usual, to find the answer to this we must consult God’s Word. If we do this we find that a day is specifically defined for us in the first chapter of Genesis. From the Hebrew we read in verses four and five:
‘And God (Heb. elohim) saw the light that it was good, and God distinguished (‘divided’ or ‘separated’) between the light and the darkness. And God called light, day, and He called darkness, night.
And there was evening and there was morning – one day.
Continuing we read:
from v.8: ‘And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.’
from v. 13: ‘And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.’
from v. 19: ‘And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.’
from v.23: ‘And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.’
from V 31: ‘And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.’
(The use of the definite article before ‘sixth day’ may point to this being a particular day, the last day of the creation and thence the last working day of a week.)
It is clear from this that a day consists of one rotation of the earth upon its own axis, which of course, distinguishes between the light of day and the darkness of night. But there is no indication of the actual length of a day, for this depends entirely upon the earth’s movement around the sun.
Hence if, as in Joshua’s ‘long day’, the daylight were to be increased to 36 hours so that the whole day lasted 48 hours, this would still be one day. Nevertheless a length of two days had elapsed during this one day.
From this it is reckoned that this one day, the Tuesday, lasted for 48 hours and the day was Wednesday. Hence there is no need to alter the days of the calendar.
There were six rotations of the earth from Sunday until the end of Friday, and the Sabbath still fell on the Saturday. This does not take into account the fact that the earth’s movement round the sun had not altered and that in these six day-night periods it would have moved a distance equivalent to seven days of 24 hours – i.e. 168 hours. Again there would be 192 hours in this week whereas the normal week of seven days has 168 hours. This is shown in the above chart.
From this study my conclusion is that Saturday is the Sabbath day.
There is something else which I suggest should be kept in mind regarding the effect of Joshua’s long day on the keeping of the Sabbath. Joshua himself, and following him, all Israel until after the time of our Lord, continued to keep the Sabbath on the same day as before. That is, they continued to hold it on the day we now call Saturday.
Also, the changing of the Sabbath day to a Sunday appears to have no support from Scripture. The need for such a change is not mentioned. Nor was this brought about by Israel. The Jews, who are the only acknowledged nation of Israel today, still retain Saturday as their Sabbath, as did our Lord and His disciples. I therefore see the change to Sunday as an unauthorised religious alteration brought about by our Christian leaders.
Addendum
‘About a full day’ or ‘for a full day’
On first reading this passage of Joshua, I translated the above phrase as ‘for a full day’. This is quite a normal and correct translation and is so rendered by Green’s Interlinear Hebrew-English Bible, and by the King James II Version printed in the side column. I could not understand where the A.V. got the word, ‘about’, for the Hebrew text simply has the prefix K” before the word yom, a day. This means ‘for a day’.
However on looking through Gesenius’ Lexicon I found that when used of time, as with yom in this case, it also denotes ‘almost’, ‘nearly’ or ‘about’. This usage may give us the reason why God caused the sun’s shadow to be put back ten degrees in the time of Hezekiah. This is equivalent to 40 minutes and may account for the use of ‘about’ in connection with Joshua’s long day. Read 2 Kings 20:8-11 and Isaiah 38:8.
