Joshua 10:6-11

Here the writer used the name "Amorites" (Joshua 10:6) generally of the Canaanites who were living in the nearby hills, including the Jebusites. The Amorites who lived in the mountains were the strongest of all the Canaanites. [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 104.]

This was the first time Israel had gone into battle against an alliance of city-states. God reassured Joshua that he would be victorious (Joshua 10:8). God’s strategy included an early morning surprise attack that caught the Amorites off guard (cf. Exodus 23:27). Israel was able to gain the advantage and pursued the fleeing Amorites for several miles. God also sent a hailstorm (cf. Exodus 9:24) as the Amorites descended from Upper Beth-horon to Lower Beth-horon along the ridge route that connects these towns (the "descent," Joshua 10:11). This storm killed many of the enemy but none of God’s people. By this the Amorites and the Israelites realized that this victory came as a result of the supernatural help of Yahweh and not simply by Israel’s own power. Yahweh as well as Israel had devoted the Amorites to destruction.

"The crossing of the Jordan at high flood and the cyclonic hail storm at Aijalon are of special theological significance, for Baal was the great Canaanite storm god who was supposed to control the rain, the hail, the snow and the floods of Palestine. These episodes proved that Baal was as powerless before Yahweh in Palestine as he had been in the episode of the plagues in Egypt." [Note: J. L. Kelso, Archaeology and Our Old Testament Contemporaries, p. 53.]

Note in Joshua 10:9-15 how the writer alternated references to the activities of the Israelites and God. He seems to have wanted to impress the reader with the fact than God and men were laboring together to secure the victory (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:9).