Joshua 10:10-11

THE GREAT BATTLE OF GIBEON AND BETH-HORON, Joshua 10:10-11.

[“The battle of Beth-boron, or Gibeon,” says Stanley, “was one of the most important in the history of the world; and yet so profound has been the indifference, first of the religious world, and then (through their example or influence) of the common world, to the historical study of the Hebrew annals, that the very name of this great battle is far less known to most of us than that of Marathon or Cannae. It is one of the few military engagements which belong equally to ecclesiastical and to civil history, which have decided equally the fortunes of the world and of the Church.”] 10. And the Lord discomfited them The victory is ascribed not to Joshua but to the Lord. He had inspired the great Hebrew chieftain with confidence to strike a sudden blow, probably in the early morning dawn, and the panic-stricken enemy fled in confusion. There is no need of supposing, with some expositors, that God made use of thunder and lightning, or any other terrific natural phenomena, to discomfit the Amorite host early in the morning. The sudden assault of Joshua with his battalion of picked men was sufficient to produce such a result. God is often said to do that which is done through the agency of men. The issue of battles, like every other human event, is in the hands of Almighty God. In the sphere of mind there is a field for divine interposition, breathing courage into one army and dismay into the other. Hence many of the most wonderful triumphs in the world’s history have been achieved by the weaker army.

Beth-horon The house of caves. Upper Beth-horon is on an elevation northwest of Gibeon, higher up, and is at the head of a ravine through which there is a steep pass to Lower Beth-horon and to the plain of Sharon. The flight of the Amorites was toward this pass up the long ascent, the way that goeth up. Then came the second stage of the flight down the steep ravine, in the going down to Beth-horon the lower. Azekah was a town in the rich agricultural plain into which the valley of Aijalon opens westward. Its position has not yet been recognized. Makkedah is supposed to be in the same plain, but its situation has hitherto eluded discovery.