Joshua 10 Summary and Study Guide

The people of Gibeon had lied to Israel to get a peace treaty, and when five kings came to destroy them, Israel marched all night to save them. This Joshua 10 summary and study guide follows that rescue, the long day God gave to finish it, and the campaign that took southern Canaan.

Setting the Stage

In the chapter before this one, a group of Canaanites from a city called Gibeon came to Israel in worn-out clothes, carrying dry and crumbling bread, and claimed they had travelled from a far country. Israel believed them and swore a peace treaty without asking God about it (Joshua 9:14-15). Three days later the truth came out. Gibeon was a neighbour.

Israel kept the oath anyway, because they had sworn it in God’s name. Joshua 10 is the bill for that promise arriving, and it opens with five kings marching on Gibeon.

Comprehensive Joshua 10 Summary

Adoni-zedek, the king of Jerusalem, hears that Joshua has destroyed Ai the way he destroyed Jericho, and that Gibeon has gone over to Israel. Gibeon is a large city full of fighting men, and verse 2 calls it a city “as one of the royal cities” rather than one of them, apparently because Gibeon had no king of its own. Its defection frightens Adoni-zedek. He sends to four other Amorite kings, at Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon, and the five of them march on Gibeon together.

Gibeon sends an urgent message to Joshua at Gilgal, asking him not to abandon them. Joshua takes his whole army and climbs through the night to reach the city. Before the fighting starts, God tells him not to be afraid, because the enemy is already handed over. God then throws the coalition into confusion, and as they run down the Beth-horon road He drops hailstones on them that kill more of them than Israel’s swords do.

With the enemy scattering and the fighting unfinished, Joshua asks God, in front of the whole army, for the sun and moon to hold their place. He gets his day. The five kings escape into a cave at Makkedah, and Joshua has the entrance blocked with stones while his men finish the pursuit. Afterwards the kings are brought out, his captains put their feet on their necks, and Joshua kills them and buries them in the cave they hid in.

From there the campaign runs fast. Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron and Debir all fall, and so does Horam king of Gezer, who came to help Lachish. The chapter closes by naming the whole southern territory Joshua took, and gives one reason for it: the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.

One Word Summary

• Deliverance: five kings handed over, then a region.
• Loyalty: a war fought to honour an oath.
• Answer: God heard Joshua and moved the sky.

In One Sentence

Five Amorite kings attacked Gibeon for making peace with Israel, Joshua marched all night to defend the city, and the LORD fought for Israel with hail out of the sky and a day that lasted until the five kings were dead and southern Canaan had fallen.

Theme of Joshua 10

Joshua 10 is about the LORD as the warrior of His own people. Every gain is credited to Him: the panic in the enemy ranks, the stones from heaven, the extra light, and the whole southern territory taken in one campaign. Two ideas run alongside that one.

God fought for an Israel that had kept its word, and it stands on that battlefield only because it refused to break an oath obtained by deception. And it arrives through a leader who climbed twenty miles in the dark before asking God for anything, then spent the victory putting courage into men who still had wars ahead of them.

Joshua 10 Outline

• Joshua 10:1-5: Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem hears about Ai and Gibeon, and gathers the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon to attack Gibeon.
• Joshua 10:6-7: The men of Gibeon send to Joshua at Gilgal for help, and Joshua goes up with his whole army.
• Joshua 10:8-11: God promises Joshua the victory, Joshua marches all night, and the LORD routs the Amorites and kills them with hailstones on the Beth-horon road.
• Joshua 10:12-15: Joshua speaks to the sun and moon, and the day holds until Israel has won.
• Joshua 10:16-21: The five kings hide in a cave at Makkedah, Joshua seals them in and sends his men after the fleeing army.
• Joshua 10:22-27: The kings are brought out, the captains put their feet on their necks, and Joshua executes them and buries them in that cave.
• Joshua 10:28-33: Joshua takes Makkedah, Libnah and Lachish, and destroys Horam king of Gezer who came to help Lachish.
• Joshua 10:34-39: Joshua takes Eglon, Hebron and Debir.
• Joshua 10:40-43: The chapter sums up the whole southern campaign and returns Israel to Gilgal.

The Song from the Book of Jasher

In the middle of the battle account the narrative stops and quotes a poem:

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 had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Joshua 10:12-13

Joshua told the sun to hold its place over Gibeon and the moon to hold over the valley of Ajalon, and both did, until Israel had settled the score with its enemies.

The lines have the shape of Hebrew poetry, with sun matched to moon and one place matched to another. Then comes the line readers stop on: “Is not this written in the book of Jasher?” The writer breaks off and sends his readers to a different book for the same event. This is the one place in Joshua where the account stops to quote a song.

Observations from Joshua 10

Stones Do Three Different Jobs (10:11, 10:18, 10:27)

God throws stones out of the sky and they kill (10:11). Joshua rolls stones over a cave mouth and they imprison (10:18). Then stones are laid over that same cave and they bury (10:27). God once asked Job whether he had ever seen where the hail is kept, “which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war” (Job 38:22-23).

God stores hail, and He stores it for a day He means to fight on. Joshua 10:11 is that store being opened. The kings hid in the cave at Makkedah, and it became the place their bodies were sealed in. Their shelter became their grave, and all three uses of stone say the same thing: there was nowhere in Canaan to get away from the God who was fighting for Israel.

God Is the One Doing the Fighting (10:10)

Verse 10 gives God four actions in a row. The LORD confuses the Amorite army. The LORD strikes them.

The LORD chases them along the road up to Beth-horon. The LORD strikes them again as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

Israel is on that field swinging swords, and Joshua had marched all night to get there. Still, every action in the verse belongs to God. Israel fought hard and God won the battle, which is the claim the whole chapter is built to make.

Every City Is Measured Against Jericho (10:28, 10:30, 10:39)

Makkedah’s king is treated “as he did unto the king of Jericho” (10:28). So is Libnah’s (10:30). Then Debir is treated like Hebron, which was treated like Eglon, which was treated like Lachish, which was treated like Libnah (10:39).

Every city in the southern campaign is measured against the first city God gave Israel. Jericho was the city Israel never had to break into, because God brought its walls down for them, and it stays the standard for everything won afterwards.

Fear Moves From One Side to the Other (10:2, 10:8, 10:25)

The chapter opens with Canaanite kings who “feared greatly” because of what God had done at Jericho and Ai (10:2). Then God tells Joshua “Fear them not” (10:8), and Joshua passes the same words to his own captains, “Fear not, nor be dismayed” (10:25). Fear starts in the enemy camp, and God twice lifts it off His people. By the end of the chapter the kings who feared are dead, and the men told to be brave are standing on their necks.

Difficult Verses Explained

Did the Sun Really Stand Still?

Scripture states the result and leaves the mechanism unexplained. Verse 13 says “the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day”, meaning the sun stayed overhead and delayed its setting for roughly the length of a day.

Christians who take the Bible seriously have read this in several ways: that God stopped or slowed the earth’s rotation; that He extended the light by some other means over that region; that the Hebrew word behind “stand still” can also mean “be silent” or “be dark”, so Joshua may have asked for the light to be held back rather than prolonged; and that the lines are quoted poetry describing God’s victory in the raised language poetry uses. Scripture leaves the choice open, and verse 14 puts the weight somewhere else entirely.

What Was the Book of Jasher, and Is It a Lost Book of the Bible?

It was an old book of Hebrew verse remembering Israel’s great moments, quoted again in 2 Samuel 1:18, and every copy of it is lost. Quoting a source does not turn that source into Scripture, which is why Paul could quote a pagan poet in Acts 17:28 without making him a prophet. One thing to know before you go looking: the volume sold today under the title “The Book of Jasher” is a much later work, and Joshua 10:13 points somewhere else.

Why Does Verse 15 Say Israel Returned to Gilgal Before the Chapter Is Finished?

Verse 15 has Israel back at Gilgal, and verse 21 has the army at Makkedah, still in the middle of the fighting. Most readers take verse 15 as the closing line of the quoted section, or as a summary placed early before the narrative goes back to fill in what happened to the five kings. Verse 43 then gives the return again at the proper place in the sequence.

How Could God Command Israel to Destroy Everyone?

Verse 40 says Joshua “utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded”, and softening that would be dishonest. Two things frame it. God had told Abraham centuries earlier that his descendants would have to wait generations for this land, because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16).

The sin of these nations had not yet reached the point where God would act, so He waited, and Joshua 10 is a day inside the judgment that finally came. And the command was bounded: it applied to the Canaanite cities in that land at that time (Deuteronomy 20:16-18), and to nothing beyond them. The New Testament defines the church’s warfare as spiritual rather than military (Ephesians 6:12), so this chapter gives Christians no pattern for how to treat people.

Was Hebron Taken Here, or by Caleb Later?

Both, at different stages. Joshua 10:36-37 reports Joshua breaking Hebron’s power during the southern campaign, and Joshua 14:6-14 and Judges 1:20 record Caleb receiving Hebron as his inheritance and driving out the people living there afterwards. Judges 1:10 credits the tribe of Judah with the same city. A campaign can defeat a city’s army without the land being settled, and the later chapters cover the settling.

Common Misunderstandings

• No missing day has ever been found in the historical record, and Joshua 10 never asked for one. The popular claim that NASA’s computers turned one up has no source behind it. The companion story, that Chinese, Aztec, Incan and Egyptian records all describe the same long day, fails on its own terms, since those accounts disagree with each other on the date and the time of day. This chapter asks to be believed on the word of God, not on outside records.
• The Book of Jasher you can buy today is a later work that took the name. The book verse 13 points to is lost, and no copy of it survives.
• The chapter says its own point is that the LORD fought for Israel. Verse 42 gives that as the reason for the whole campaign, so the long day serves the claim rather than standing on its own as the thing worth remembering.
• The feet on the necks scene gave Israel’s officers courage for a war God had commanded, and it licenses nothing for Christians. Joshua explains the gesture himself in verse 25. Ephesians 6:12 tells the church its fight is against spiritual powers rather than against people.
• Israel was tricked into the treaty and held to it anyway. The oath had been sworn in God’s name (Joshua 9:19-20), so the deception gave Israel no release from it, and the whole chapter turns on Joshua treating that oath as binding.

Christ Connection

The strongest link the New Testament itself makes runs through verse 24, where Joshua’s captains put their feet on the necks of five defeated kings. In that part of the ancient world the gesture was a public sign that a beaten enemy had nothing left, and Scripture takes it up as one of its settled pictures of a king’s total victory. Psalm 110:1 makes it a promise: “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”

The New Testament applies that promise to Jesus directly. Paul says Christ must reign “till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25), and Hebrews says He is now seated, “from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool” (Hebrews 10:12-13). What Israel’s officers did to five kings in one afternoon, Christ is doing to every power that has ever set itself against God.

Three more connections run through the chapter:

• The five trees. Joshua killed the kings and hanged their bodies on trees, then took them down at sunset (10:26-27), which matches the law of Deuteronomy 21:22-23, where a hanged man is under God’s curse and his body is to be buried the same day. Five guilty men carried their own curse on five trees. Galatians 3:13 says Christ “hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”, so one innocent man carried ours on one.
• The name. Joshua and Jesus are the same name, one in Hebrew and one in Greek, and the King James translators left it in Greek at Hebrews 4:8, where the verse reads “For if Jesus had given them rest” and means Joshua. The man who fought for people with no claim on him points toward the one who does the same on a far larger scale.
• The city and its king. Joshua 10:1 is the first time the name Jerusalem appears in the Bible, and it belongs to Adoni-zedek, whose name means something close to lord of righteousness, who leads the war against God’s people and dies under judgment. Genesis 14:18 had already shown a true king of righteousness at Salem, Melchizedek, whom Hebrews 7:1-3 presents as a picture of Christ, and Psalm 76:2 sets Salem alongside Zion as one place. If Salem is the same city, as most take it to be, then Jerusalem’s first two kings in Scripture are a priest who blessed Abraham and a warlord who died under Joshua’s judgment. The chapter itself never draws the comparison, so hold it as a reading rather than a claim.

The gospel thread through all of it is that Gibeon had no standing. They had lied their way into the covenant, and when the armies came their only argument was that Joshua had given his word.

He kept it, at cost, for people who had earned nothing. That is the shape of what Christ does, and 2 Timothy 2:13 puts it plainly: “if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” Our faithfulness wavers and His holds.

When, Where, and Why

• When: During Israel’s conquest of Canaan, in the generation that crossed the Jordan under Joshua. Bible scholars debate the date, with an earlier view putting it near 1400 BC and a later view near 1200 BC.
• Where: The action starts at Gilgal in the Jordan valley, climbs about twenty miles up to Gibeon in the hill country, then runs down the Beth-horon pass westward toward Azekah and Makkedah, and finishes across the lowlands and hills of the south. The climb matters, because Joshua did it overnight before fighting.
• Why: The book of Joshua is written to show God keeping the land promise He made to Abraham, and this chapter records the moment the southern half of Canaan falls into Israel’s hands. The writer seems to have a second purpose in verses 12 to 14, since he pauses the battle report to preserve a poem about the day and names the book his first readers could look it up in.

Key Verses

“And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.”

Joshua 10:8

God told Joshua to stop being afraid, because He had already handed the enemy over and none of them would stand against him. This comes before the battle, and it is why verse 9 begins with Joshua marching.

“They were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.”

Joshua 10:11

More of the enemy were killed by the hail than by Israel’s soldiers. The chapter keeps the score deliberately, and God’s side of it is larger.

“And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.”

Joshua 10:14

There had never been another day like it, because on that day God listened to what a man asked Him. The verse names the unrepeatable thing, and it is the answered request rather than the astronomy.

“Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.”

Joshua 10:25

Joshua told his officers to stay brave, because God would deal with every enemy they faced the same way. He turns a finished victory into fuel for battles that have not happened yet.

“And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.”

Joshua 10:42

Joshua captured all these kings and their territory in a single campaign, and the reason given is that God did the fighting. This is the chapter explaining itself in its own words.

Key Lessons from Joshua 10

• Israel went to war for Gibeon because an oath means little until keeping it costs something (10:6-7).
• God’s promise of victory did not excuse Joshua from the march, it sent him on it (10:8-9).
• The biggest part of the win was the part Israel could not have done, since the hail killed more than the swords did (10:11).
• Joshua asked God for something enormous where every soldier could hear him, on the strength of what God had already told him (10:8, 10:12).
• He finished the pursuit before he collected the prisoners, because unfinished work does not wait for a celebration (10:18-19).
• Joshua used one day’s victory to build courage in his officers for the fighting still ahead (10:25).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Joshua 10.

Bible Study Questions

1. Read Joshua 9:14-15 and then Joshua 10:6-7. What did Israel’s oath to Gibeon actually cost them, and what does Joshua’s response say about how he treated his own word?
2. In verse 8 God says the enemy is already delivered, and in verse 9 Joshua marches all night anyway. How do those two verses fit together?
3. Verse 11 compares the hailstones to Israel’s swords. Why does the chapter bother to tell us which killed more?
4. Verse 14 says there was never a day like that one. According to the verse itself, what made it unlike any other day?
5. In verses 24 and 25 Joshua explains why he had his officers put their feet on the kings’ necks. What was he trying to build in them, and where do you need that kind of courage?
6. Verse 42 gives one reason for the entire southern campaign. What difference would it make to your week if you believed that reason applied to your own battles?

Frequently Asked Questions

Joshua 10, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 Now it came to pass, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;

2 That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty.

3 Wherefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying,

4 Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.

6 And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.

7 So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour.

8 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.

9 Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.

10 And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.

11 And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.

12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had 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.

14 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

15 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.

16 But these five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.

17 And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makkedah.

18 And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them:

19 And stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities: for the LORD your God hath delivered them into your hand.

20 And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into fenced cities.

21 And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace: none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.

22 Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave.

23 And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.

24 And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them.

25 And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.

26 And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening.

27 And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave’s mouth, which remain until this very day.

28 And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.

29 Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah:

30 And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.

31 And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:

32 And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.

33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.

34 And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it, and fought against it:

35 And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

36 And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:

37 And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.

38 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it:

39 And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.

40 So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.

41 And Joshua smote them from Kadesh-barnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.

42 And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.

43 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.