Joshua 10:11

Great stones from heaven. Calmet has taken great trouble to collect evidence for showers of actual stones from heaven upon the enemies of Israel. But the next sentence of the verse states that they were hailstones, אַבְנֵי בָרָד . And even if there were not sufficient evidence of the fall of hailstones large enough to do great destruction to man and beast, we might fall back upon the theory that this was a miraculous hailstorm, since the whole history teems with miraculous intervention. But in point of fact this is unnecessary. We need not go further back than the famous storm of August 2nd, 1879, for an account of hailstones of enormous size falling within fifty miles of London. And in tropical climates still more destructive storms are of no infrequent occurrence. Every treatise on physical geography teems with instances. Masius refers to the well known story of the relief afforded by a sudden shower to Marcus Aurelius and his army, which he follows Eusebius in thinking attributable to Christian prayers, but which the emperor, in a medal struck on the occasion, attributed to Jupiter Pluvius (see Neander, 'Hist. of Christian Church,' vol. 1). He also fcites the verses of Claudian on a similar victory of Theodosius:

" O nimium dilecte Deo, tibi militat aether

Et conjurati veniunt ad praelia venti ."

They were more which died with hailstones. A conclusive proof, both to the Israelites and their antagonists, that the victory was owing rather to the favour of God than to the power of man, and suggesting the exclamation of the Psalmist, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name give glory" ( Psalms 115:1 ). See also Deuteronomy 9:4 , Deuteronomy 9:5 . It is, perhaps, worth while to remark that the printers have modernized this passage. For more the original edition has moe ; cf. Shakspeare's ' Lover's Complaint,' line 47—"Found yet mo letters sadly penned in blood." "Faith and troth they would no mo" (Greene, 'Shepherd's Ode ').