Joshua 10:11
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.
At Gibeon the Lord fought for Israel against a league of five kings, and as they fled in the going down to Beth-horon unto Azekah He cast great stones from heaven upon them, so that more died by the hailstones than Israel slew with the sword. The victory was won because the Captain of Jehovah's hosts was with Israel, using the forces of nature to destroy His enemies and vindicate what is right. In casting the hailstones as the attackers fled, He kept faith with a people protected by an oath made in His name even though they had secured it by craft. The slaughter is a type of the battle of the great day and of the second advent, giving the pattern for the seventh vial when great hailstones will again be cast down from heaven upon men. The souls destroyed in the conquest were the whole persons who were killed, showing that soul means a living person who can die, not an immortal being.
Historical Setting and Details
The verse belongs to the battle at Gibeon, where Israel defeated a league of five kings that the king of Jerusalem had helped form. As the enemy fled from before Israel in the going down to Beth-horon unto Azekah, the Lord cast great stones from heaven upon them. More died by the stones than the children of Israel slew with the sword. The stones may have been very large hailstones, meteoric stones, or both, but their fall was the Lord's own intervention to destroy the fleeing enemies.
The day was lengthened so the work could be finished, yet it remained one day measured by the sun. Its unusual length did not change the order of the days or affect the seventh-day Sabbath. The verse belongs to the conquest of several petty kingdoms, in which sparing the peoples to continue their corrupt influence would have been a perversion of mercy.
Divine Power and Deliverance
The victory was won because the Captain of Jehovah's hosts was with Israel, with God's invisible army fighting for Israel as at Jericho. Trust in God brings victory, while failure to trust brings defeat as at Ai. Had Israel stayed faithful after such triumphs she would soon have possessed all the land, instead of falling into backsliding, captivity, and years of adversity when she might have lived in prosperity. The victory shows the practical, working faith of the generation that entered Canaan after crossing the Jordan, going out to war under the direction of the Lord of hosts, drilled in doing and daring in actual struggle and conflict for the King of kings. They were obedient as at Jericho and cleansed and toughened by discipline as at Ai. The victory at Beth-horon brought southern Canaan into subjection, as part of a war of several years against powerful opposed tribes and fenced cities until Canaan was mastered.
God used the forces of nature to destroy Israel's enemies and vindicate what is right, and the hailstones killed more of the fleeing enemy than Israel's soldiers slew with the sword. Nature's laws are among God's means of delivering His people and fulfilling His promises. The hail from heaven striking the fleeing Canaanite armies was God's judgment with supernatural power that brought about their defeat. It demonstrates God's power to bring judgment on proud enemies.
The Lord fought for Gibeon after Israel had sworn to protect it, casting great hailstones upon the attackers as they fled toward Beth-horon, so that more died by the hailstones than by Israel's sword. This displays God's faithfulness to a people protected by an oath made in His name, despite their having secured it by craft.
Final Judgment and Soul
The slaughter at Gibeon is a prophetic type of the battle of the great day, when hail will fall on the wicked, for the Lord fought for Israel by casting great hailstones from heaven on the fleeing enemies and more died by the hailstones than by Israel's swords. That same battle is a type of the great hailstones that fall under the seventh vial, when the Lord fights Israel's enemies by casting great stones from heaven. It is a literal judgment from heaven giving the pattern for the seventh vial of wrath, when great hailstones will again be cast down from heaven upon men, the beast and the false prophet will be taken, the remnant of men will be slain, and the earth will be desolated of its inhabitants. The Lord going forth to fight Israel's enemies in the day of battle by casting down great stones from heaven is a type of the second advent, when the Lord goes forth to fight against the nations gathered against Jerusalem, fulfilled in the great hailstones under the seventh vial in the battle described in symbol in Revelation 19.
The destruction with supernatural power, when great hailstones fell on the fleeing enemies and more died from the hailstones than from the swords, is a precedent for the final judgment, when Christ comes forth from the heavenly sanctuary and the wicked perish under God's punishment. It is a precedent for the final outpouring of wrath, when hail will fall in the last plague near Beth-horon and the wicked will perish as Christ's restrained wrath is released, killing more than Israel killed with the sword. The stones hurled upon the fleeing Amorite armies going down toward Beth-horon and Azekah, killing more than the sword, serve as a precedent for a future heavenly-stones catastrophe described as even more dreadful.
The people called souls in the conquered towns were destroyed when killed, showing that soul refers to a person who can die, not an immortal being. Souls destroyed in the wars means the whole persons who were killed, the people themselves in the cities, whom Joshua destroyed. Soul can mean a person or living creature, as people slain in the account are called souls, with the original wording meaning dead soul. Soul means the entire man, the person himself, so slaying all the souls in the cities means killing all the persons there, the same meaning as man became a living soul meaning a living person, a term also used of the lowest creatures that have animal life. The repeated use of soul for persons over and over shows its primary meaning is the whole being, the whole creature, a living person.