The sun was struck dumb and did not set for about a whole day

tonychanyt · May 19, 2024

Joshua prayed in 10:

12 At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
“Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” 13 And the sun stood still [H1826],

Strong's Hebrew: 1826. דָּמַם (damam) — 30 Occurrences

Brown-Driver-Briggs:
3. be struck dumb, astounded, in amazement and fear

and the moon stopped [H5975], until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

How was this possible physically?

It was not possible physically. It was a supernatural event.

How to explain this miracle from a scientific perspective?

The Bible did not explain, and Joshua used poetic language, not a scientific one. It was a sustained miracle similar to the parting of the Red Sea but at an astronomical scale. God created the heavens and earth in the first place. Nothing was too difficult for him.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped [H5975] in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

Gill commented:

In the Chinese history (g) it is reported, that in the time of their seventh, emperor, Yao [堯帝], the sun did not set for ten days, and that men were afraid the world would be burnt, and there were great fires at that time; and though the time of the sun's standing still is enlarged beyond the bounds of truth, yet it seems to refer to this fact, and was manifestly about the same time; for this miracle was wrought in the year of the world 2554, which fell in the seventy fifth, or, as some say, the sixty seventh year of that emperor's reign, who reigned ninety years.

(g) Martin. Sinie. Histor. l. 1. p. 25.

d taylor · May 19, 2024

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How did it happen, not too difficult to see and understand. That is if the reader believes in the true creation God created and is described in The Bible and not the one science puts forth as what evolved.

God created a sun, moon and stars that move over His stationary earth. So God stopped the movement of the sun and moon at Joshua's command the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.

HTacianas · May 19, 2024

tonychanyt said:
Joshua prayed in 10:

Strong's Hebrew: 1826. דָּמַם (damam) — 30 Occurrences

Brown-Driver-Briggs:
3. be struck dumb, astounded, in amazement and fear

How was this possible physically?

It was not possible physically. It was a supernatural event.

How to explain this miracle from a scientific perspective?

The Bible did not explain, and Joshua used poetic language, not a scientific one. It was a sustained miracle similar to the parting of the Red Sea but at an astronomical scale. God created the heavens and earth in the first place. Nothing was too difficult for him.

Gill commented:

The summer solstice. Solstice literally means "sun stands still". All of the ancients referred to the solstice by different names, but they all meant that the sun stood still. The battle was fought on the day the sun stood still.

Sorn · May 19, 2024

d taylor said:
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How did it happen, not too difficult to see and understand. That is if the reader believes in the true creation God created and is described in The Bible and not the one science puts forth as what evolved.

God created a sun, moon and stars that move over His stationary earth. So God stopped the movement of the sun and moon at Joshua's command the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.

Or God probably did the sensible & logical thing & stopped the Earth from rotating for a time. Possibly may also have stopped the Earth from orbiting the Sun for the same time too.

d taylor · May 19, 2024

Sorn said:
Or God probably did the sensible & logical thing & stopped the Earth from rotating for a time. Possibly may also have stopped the Earth from orbiting the Sun for the same time too.

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No need to do an or, I just simply believe the account as give in The Bible.

Sorn · May 19, 2024

d taylor said:
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No need to do an or, I just simply believe the account as give in The Bible.

Which is what exactly? It doesn't say what you think it says, you need to read carefully.

d taylor · May 19, 2024

Sorn said:
Which is what exactly? It doesn't say what you think it says, you need to read carefully.

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So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you.” Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal. So the Lord routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah. And it happened, as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon, that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.

Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon;
And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
So the sun stood still,
And the moon stopped,
Till the people had revenge
Upon their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.

Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

Sorn · May 19, 2024

d taylor said:
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So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you.” Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal. So the Lord routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah. And it happened, as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon, that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.

Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon;
And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
So the sun stood still,
And the moon stopped,
Till the people had revenge
Upon their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.

Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

So for the talking bit , the part in quotes, its Joshua speaking isn't it? And he, Joshua, is telling God what he wants, right?

d taylor · May 19, 2024

Sorn said:
So for the talking bit , the part in quotes, its Joshua speaking isn't it? And he, Joshua, is telling God what he wants, right?

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Yes

Sorn · May 19, 2024

d taylor said:
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Yes

So...from Joshua's perspective, a peasant with no scientific understanding all he knows is that as far as he is concerned the sun moves form one side of the sky to the other. He has no knowledge of the solar system or orbital mechanics or gravity or anything like that.

But God does!.

Also the verses immediately after
'So the sun stood still,
And the moon stopped,'

Do you suppose that they are describing what God did, as in what actions God took
OR - there's that OR again
do you think that could be what the author of the book, & also Joshua & anyone else on earth at the time saw?? ie the EFFECTS of what God did from their perspective on Earth.

Those 2 lines describe the result as seen by someone on the planet and from that perspective. From that perspective, the Earth stopping its rotation and possibly its orbit would indeed seem to them as if the sun had stopped. But for someone hovering out in space like, oh i dunno, God perhaps, or a passing UFO they would be able to clearly see that it was in fact the planet that stopped rotating & orbiting because in the normal course of events its the planet that revolves around the sun & not the other way around.

So God was able to grant Joshua's request by stopping the earth rotating and orbiting for a time.

Diamond7 · May 19, 2024

tonychanyt said:
How was this possible physically?

It is not possible because the Sun does not stand still. It does not rotate around the Earth. It had to be some kind of a time delusion which I have experienced. Like when we are in grade school and it takes forever for the clock to move. One second seems so very long. Or if you fall off a ladder it is as if time stops and you have all the time you need to land on your feet so you do not get hurt. Even the other day we were working on the yard and we got a huge amount of work done in a very short period of time. Then the next day it was as if we accomplished nothing in the same amount of time. So there are lots of times in life when time flies or time seems to stop. That is just our perception of time. Science can confirm that our perception of time can change.

Reminds me of the people who say they are convinced the universe is only 6,000 years old.

d taylor · May 19, 2024

Sorn said:
So...from Joshua's perspective, a peasant with no scientific understanding all he knows is that as far as he is concerned the sun moves form one side of the sky to the other. He has no knowledge of the solar system or orbital mechanics or gravity or anything like that.

But God does!.

Also the verses immediately after
'So the sun stood still,
And the moon stopped,'

Do you suppose that they are describing what God did, as in what actions God took
OR - there's that OR again
do you think that could be what the author of the book, & also Joshua & anyone else on earth at the time saw?? ie the EFFECTS of what God did from their perspective on Earth.

Those 2 lines describe the result as seen by someone on the planet and from that perspective. From that perspective, the Earth stopping its rotation and possibly its orbit would indeed seem to them as if the sun had stopped. But for someone hovering out in space like, oh i dunno, God perhaps, or a passing UFO they would be able to clearly see that it was in fact the planet that stopped rotating & orbiting because in the normal course of events its the planet that revolves around the sun & not the other way around.

So God was able to grant Joshua's request by stopping the earth rotating and orbiting for a time.

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The account in The Bible does not need your added assumption or added idea so The Bible will agree with science. I believe Joshua 10 just as it has been given.

Qubit · May 19, 2024

FYI...

2 Kings 20:11
"And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz."

Time has not been linear since the Creation. Maybe it has been tweaked a day or two, maybe it has been tweaked by billions of years.

Verses like the above and the one OP shows are proof positive that the age of the Earth cannot be reliably calculated by adding the age of people.

Sorn · May 19, 2024

d taylor said:
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The account in The Bible does not need your added assumption or added idea so The Bible will agree with science. I believe Joshua 10 just as it has been given.

Yet its okay for you to assume things about the text !

The text DOES NOT say 'God stopped the sun' That is YOUR interpretation based on your assumptions.

Sorn · May 19, 2024

Diamond7 said:
It is not possible because the Sun does not stand still. It does not rotate around the Earth. It had to be some kind of a time delusion which I have experienced. Like when we are in grade school and it takes forever for the clock to move. One second seems so very long. Or if you fall off a ladder it is as if time stops and you have all the time you need to land on your feet so you do not get hurt. Even the other day we were working on the yard and we got a huge amount of work done in a very short period of time. Then the next day it was as if we accomplished nothing in the same amount of time. So there are lots of times in life when time flies or time seems to stop. That is just our perception of time. Science can confirm that our perception of time can change.

Reminds me of the people who say they are convinced the universe is only 6,000 years old.

He didn't stop the sun He stopped the Earth rotating & possibly orbiting, same result.

d taylor · May 19, 2024

Sorn said:
Yet its okay for you to assume things about the text !

The text DOES NOT say 'God stopped the sun' That is YOUR interpretation based on your assumptions.

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So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven,

Diamond7 · May 19, 2024

Sorn said:
He didn't stop the sun He stopped the Earth rotating & possibly orbiting, same result.

That is impossible. The entire universe is very finely tuned. If you stopped the earth from spinning everything on the earth would die. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? God is not lawless. He does not break His own laws.

Diamond7 · May 19, 2024

Sorn said:
The text DOES NOT say 'God stopped the sun'

The Hebrew letters וַיִּדֹּ֨ם (pronounced “vayidom”) appear in the Bible and convey specific meanings:

ו (Vav): This letter represents the conjunction “and” in Hebrew. It often connects phrases or actions within a sentence.
י (Yod): The smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, Yod symbolizes divine presence, wisdom, and the beginning of creation. It appears frequently in biblical texts.
דֹּם (Dom): This word means “silent” or “still.” It comes from the root ד-מ-ם (D-M-M), which relates to quietness or cessation of movement.

Putting it together, וַיִּדֹּ֨ם signifies “and he was silent” or “and he stood still.” This word appears in various contexts throughout the Bible, emphasizing moments of awe, reverence, or divine intervention.

Sorn · May 19, 2024

d taylor said:
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So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven,

God didn't write that though did He?! That was written by the author of the book of Joshua, a man who was on Earth and saw things from the perspective of someone on Earth, recounting the events they saw, its not a scientific piece of text. From the perspective of anyone on Earth the earth stopping its rotation would indeed appear as the sun having stopped moving.

Sorn · May 19, 2024

Diamond7 said:
That is impossible. The entire universe is very finely tuned. If you stopped the earth from spinning everything on the earth would die. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? God is not lawless. He does not break His own laws.

God can override the natural laws, just like Jesus can instantaneously create matter (multiplying fish & loaves, or remove the energy out of a system (calm the seas) so too God can in a microsecond suspend, alter or otherwise manipulate natural laws to achieve the effect of the Earth stopping its rotation for a time, and likewise He can start it up also.

The sun was struck dumb and did not set for about a whole day

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