Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

Is Callaway correctly translating and understanding Joshua 10:12 ? Are there
other readings of this verse ?

"Joshua is quoted as saying "Sun, stand thou still (literally, be silent,
don't shine) at Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Aijalon" (Joshua
10:12). If the sun was over Gibeon and the moon over Aijalon, the sun was
rising in the east and the moon was setting in the west, and Joshua was
asking for a prolongation of the night. The biblical interpreter, however,
was not as sensitive to geography in this account as he was in the Ai
account, so he claimed that the day was prolonged. Did he not know that
Gibeon was east of the valley of Aijalon ?"
(p.69, Joseph A. Callaway, "Was my Excavation of Ai Worthwhile ?," Biblical
Archaeological Review, March/April 1985, Vol. XI No.2 )

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany