Joshua’s Long Day
And Other Pole Shifts Recorded in the Bible
ABSTRACT: Several significant events in the Scriptures involved pole shifts—where the North and South poles moved thousands of miles to a new location in less than a day. These events include Joshua’s long day and Hezekiah’s going back of the shadow of the sun. Understanding these events gives an understanding of the mighty works God has done in our world throughout history. The Lord fought decisive battles for Israel by casting meteors from the sky. These events were recorded so the student can see how God works in our world. The second article in this series, “The Stopwatch and Key to the Apocalypse,”[1] describes a pole shift during the heavenly signs in Revelation 12.
CopyrightÓ2007 Bruce Alan Killian July 14, 2007A.D. email bakillian at earthlink.net
Updated July 28, 2020 A.D.
To index file: www.scripturescholar.com/JoshuasLongDay.pdf
Lists of Pole Shifts
Probable Pole shifts evidenced in the Bible starting with the most recent
- In Hezekiah’s days, c. 704 B.C. Going back of the shadow of the sun (2Ki 20:8-11).
- In Joshua’s days, c. 1398 B.C. the long day of Joshua (Josh 10:9-13).
- In Peleg’s days, c. 2669-2436 B.C., the earth was divided (Gen 10:25).
- In Noah’s days, c. 3200 B.C., the Flood of Noah (Gen 7:17-8:14).
- On the third day of creation, the land was divided from the sea (Gen 1:9-10).
- Pole shift in general c. 2000 B.C. God answers to Job (Job 38:1:23)
The Pole shifts will be discussed in reverse chronological order.
Going Back of the Shadow of the Sun
Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?” Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?” “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.” Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. (2 Kings 20:8-11)
“This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: 8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.[2] (Isaiah 38:7-8)
Commentaries usually interpret this passage about the going back of the shadow of the sun as some strange refraction of the sunlight. It has also been interpreted as a weird shadow, resulting from an eclipse. It was a change in the apparent position of the sun due to a pole shift.
In the time of Hezekiah c. 704 B.C., the pole shifted to its current position. It shifted from a position where the North Pole was near the western side of the Hudson Bay. See Figure 1 Location of pole preceding the current position, page 3.
The sign of the going back of the sun on the sundial of Ahaz was widely observed. It wasn’t some local eclipse phenomena or some strange refraction of the sun. Babylon sent emissaries to inquire about it. They asked Hezekiah about the miraculous sign which occurred in the land. (2 Chronicles 32:31)
When the poles shift, the earth continues to spin on its axis, and the North Pole continues to point at the North Star. The tilt axis of the earth remains the same. The crust doesn’t slip over the interior of the earth. What happens is that an asteroid hits the earth, which can cause the gyroscope earth to have a few hour hiccup, resulting in a new point on the crust of the earth pointing at the North Star. After the poles shifted, the magnetic poles gradually line up with the actual poles over a few thousand years. The magnetic poles are still attempting to line up. Currently, the magnetic poles are moving toward the North Pole at the rate of 36 miles (58 km) per year.
Daniel preserves a memory of this event when he says that He (God) changes the times and the seasons (Daniel 2:21). Changing the times refers to the length of the year. When this event happened, the length of the year changed from 360 days to 365.242 day/year and from 30 days/month to 29.6 days/month.[3] The earth doesn’t take longer to get around the sun, but rather the earth rotates more slowly, so the length of the day is slightly shorter than it was.
If the stairs of Ahaz was an early sundial, then the pole shift caused it to become useless because all sundials are latitude specific. A sundial at the wrong latitude doesn’t display the proper time.
The great blast that destroyed the Assyrian army was probably a meteor shower or a bolide. When God needs to defend His people, he can unleash some spectacular power. Because this pole shift occurred during the day, the meteor shower that caused it was less visible.
The pole shift was rapid (a few hours), if it took longer, there would have been no apparent reverse movement of the shadow of the sun on the stairs of Ahaz. There are hints in the Bible of the change of climate. Israel was in a desert-like climate. This climate change is evident in that there was no rain for three and a half years in the days of Elijah the prophet.
“Wilson mapped a series of ancient cisterns below the present Temple mount platform. One, Patrich says, preserves a vestige of the Temple that stood until Rome destroyed it in A.D. 70.
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Patrich’s reconstruction of the Temple in 1st century A.D. overlaid on modern Temple Mount. The octagonal feature is Dome of the Rock. The diagram is oriented east up. Courtesy Hebrew University. (Drawing by Leen Ritmeyer) Solomon’s Temple Orientation[4] |
Solomon’s Temple Orientation 3D |
The Tabernacle and therefore the Temple were to face the east. Solomon got the direction of the Temple proper when he had it constructed. But the earth changed. This change in the direction east can help determine when the Temple was constructed. Because the Temple was destroyed when Jerusalem was captured c. 586 B.C. When Zerubbabel reconstructed the Temple, c. 516 B.C., he naturally oriented the Temple to face east.
The angle of the Temple is about 16.4 degrees south of east. The angle from the current position of Jerusalem to the spot where one experiences the maximum rebound from the polar ice cap near the Hudson Bay is about 17 degrees north of west from Jerusalem. The Temple would have been located due east in Solomon’s day before the pole shift occurred.
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The center of the depression, the likely spot for the previous North Pole location is approximately 55° N by 98°W |
Dynamic ice cap over Canada museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/index.html
Figure 1 Location of pole preceding the current position
This figure shows the surface level rebounding following the removal of the ice cap when the pole moved. The pole moved quickly enough that it didn’t cause a depression of its path as it moved. When this pole shift happened, Israel moved about 24 degrees north in latitude.
For the shadow of the sun to appear to go backward, the movement of the pole had to be quick, no more than a few hours to make the entire transit.
To read what happens when the pole shifts, see Charles Hapgood The Path of the Pole. To read how the pole might change position if hit by a meteor, see “On the Possibility of Very Rapid Shifts of the Poles” by Flavio Barbiero.[5]
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The red dot on the map to the left marks the spot where the mantel has replaced the crust.
Articles on the Missing Crust[7] |
Figure 2 Position missing crust
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The map shows Hapgood’s proposed north and south pole positions and movements.[8] |
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Figure 3 Position of the most recent four pole locations
The Great Lakes were formed, due to the ice cap in its new position. The area where the Great Lakes are at was near the edge of the ice cap.
In c. 703 B.C., the most recent pole shift occurred at the time of Hezekiah[9] it moved from the western Hudson Bay to its current position. It was at this time that the mammoths were frozen. The pole shifted in a few hours, and the climate in Siberia rapidly changed, so the mammoths there froze. Features some cite to prove glaciers didn’t produce the great lakes, etc. prove the pole shifted. For instance, the Niagara escarpment and the raising or lowering of land in various places.
Land moving toward the equator is stretched while land moving toward the poles is compressed. Stretching produces rifts, lowering elevations, etc. The compression causes rising elevations, mountain building as the crust buckles, etc. This effect is most pronounced near the equator, but it continues right up to the poles. Mountains rise, valleys are created, rifts, ridges, escarpments, etc. result. The features that are cited as proof that it wasn’t the glaciers that made the Great Lakes don’t disprove the glaciers. They show there were glaciers “and” then a rapid change in the position of the ice cap.
God makes epic events happen by forcing a pole shift.
This movement of the pole is the end of the Ice Age in Europe and the start of the Ice Age in North America (Pleistocene end in Europe and starts in North America). Scientists are correct that there was an Ice Age, but they are wrong about the timing (it was much more recent than they stipulate). They are also wrong in the extent because they have the ice age in Europe coincident with the ice age in North America rather than sequential events.
Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—they discovered all the dead bodies!
Joshua’s Long Day
One of the most evident pole shifts in Scripture is recorded in Joshua 10:13. In Joshua’s day, the North Pole was located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norway. At that time, the polar ice cap covered much of Northern Europe. The evidence of glaciation is widespread, but the effect of being near the pole reaches down to Egypt, where there was significantly increased rainfall. Old Kingdom records evidence a great deal of increased rainfall in Egypt. [[Add section on archaeological evidence.]]
It is commonly stated that during the Ice Age, the polar ice caps greatly expanded, covering much of Canada and Northern Europe. One indication that the poles moved, rather than the whole world getting colder, is there was no ice cap in Alaska. In contrast, continental ice caps covered the area of the great lakes.
The long day of Joshua can more easily be understood in imagining as if Joshua climbed aboard a 747 in Europe and flew west to the United States. Joshua didn’t have a 747, but the ground he was standing on moved as if he were flying west. The day is far longer than usual. Jerusalem in Joshua’s day started at a latitude equivalent to London today.
Joshua’s battle begins at dawn and continues throughout the extended day. Starting with a twenty-mile night march, before the start of the battle Joshua and his troops covered eighty-miles pursuing the Amorites. In this passage, stones strike the earth. Modern translations make these to be giant hail. But the word is the common word for stone, and, with the sun in the sky, it is unlikely that giant hailstones were forming. God cast meteors at the Amorites and killed them.
After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. 10The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down to Azekah and Makkedah. 11As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large stones [meteorites] down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the stones [meteorites] than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
12On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” 13So, the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! (Joshua 10:9-14)
In Joshua 10:11, it mentions a large number of stones (Hebrew, eben; Greek, lithos) from the sky, killing the Canaanites. Enough stones to kill tens of thousands of Amorites. I believe, with Immanuel Velikovsky (Ages in Chaos, and others), that these were meteors, hitting the earth. They changed the position of the North and South Poles. The shift happened over one day (about 12 hours), and the day was lengthened, much as someone in an airplane flying west experiences a very long day. The earth didn’t stop rotating, but the day, as seen by Joshua, was longer because the position of the North Pole was changing. The pole at the time of Joshua was off the coast of Norway (see Charles Hapgood, The Path of the Pole) and moved to where the Hudson Bay is today. The fjords in Norway are due to the North Polar ice cap rapidly cutting the rock, much as is occurring in Greenland today.
The time of Joshua’s long day was late in the year. This time can be discerned from several factors. The most important was it occurs after the reading of the law on Mounts Gerizim and Ebal. It occurred during the feast of Booths, in around October. Nehemiah mentioned that the feast of Tabernacles hadn’t been properly celebrated since Joshua’s day. The reading of the law, mentioned above, is the only mention in Joshua of doing so. The people then return to Gilgal, where they make a covenant with the people of Gibeon. After the news of that pact spreads around the kings of southern Canaan ally together and attempt to punish Gibeon for making a treaty with Israel. So it is most likely, late in the year when the length of days is short. After Joshua’s pole shift, Jerusalem ended up at approximately the latitude of the equator.
Some doubt that Joshua 10 is accurate because there are few supporting references. There is a second similar incident recorded in both 2 Kings and Isaiah. These passages support each other and bear witness to the change in the relative position in the sky from its expected position, without destroying the continuity of day and night, seasons, etc. But on two different days recorded in the Bible, the sun didn’t appear progress across the sky as it usually does.
There is evidence that the United Kingdom is still rebounding from the removal of the Ice Cap at the end of the Ice age in Europe.[10] There were super floods due to these ice caps melting, creating features like the Grand Canyon.
Formation of Dry Land
Today the oceans cover 70% of the surface area of the earth to an average depth of five miles. The earth, as created, had no land. If the earth was covered with oceans several miles deep, how did dry land appear? The short answer is there was a series of pole shifts. It was necessary to separate the water from the land, e.g., make dry land appear.
Before there were plants or animals, but after the earth was rotating, there were a series of pole shifts. Each one caused the seafloor to spread and the continents to rise. If the earth had the same velocity of rotation that it has today, then with any one pole shift, there would be a maximum of about 25 miles of expansion of the seafloor. If the earth’s crust split in two places, then at most there would be 12.5 miles, expansion of each ocean with each pole shift.
Pole shifts are recorded in the Bible, if you know how to look for them, from the very beginning. The earth initially had no land, and the deep ocean (about 4 miles deep) covered the entire earth.
Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. To create land (the continents), God caused the earth to go through a series of pole shifts. Each pole shift created then widened the ocean basin (basalt) by about 25 miles on either side of the planet and forcing the granite of the continents to collect in one place. The granite of the continents floats on the basalt of the ocean basins. Genesis 1:9-10 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. For the continents to form, the position of the poles had to change hundreds of times, probably in a cyclic pattern.
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Before any pole shift |
After one pole shift |
After many pole shifts |
After 100 pole shifts |
Figure 4 Formation of Dry Land
Figure 5 Picture of the Atlantic seafloor.
The description given will assume that the continents are composed mainly of granite and granite has a lower density than basalt.
Because the earth is 25 miles bigger around the equator than around the poles, each shift can open up, at most, 25 miles of new ocean floor and compress the continents 25 miles. If we imagine the planet earth being formed from a variety of elements and compounds, the denser ones will tend toward the core of the planet and the lighter ones toward the surface. So gases would be on top, then liquids, then low-density solids (let’s call it granite). Below that a layer of medium density (let’s call it basalt) and then a high-density core (let’s call it iron). The granite floats on the basalt and the basalt on the iron.
Repeated pole shifts can break the granite and push it together, and the gap would be filled in with basalt from the layer beneath the granite. But the basalt is denser than the granite, so gravity would try to even things out. Basalt would tend to settle at a lower elevation than the granite. Water, seeking the lowest level, would tend to cover the basalt because it is at the lowest level.
After enough pole shifts (done in an orderly manner), enough of the granite would gather to poke out of the water, somewhat like an iceberg floating on the basalt. Water will float on both granite and basalt.
If the shifts were not orderly, then the breaks would occur randomly. The breaks in the crust would go across the continents, and the granite would form into a checkerboard pattern, rather than gather into continental masses.
It takes a finite amount of time for the earth’s poles to change position. Joshua’s long day describes one pole shift. The poles would have to shift hundreds and probably thousands of times for the continents to gather and the seafloor to spread. So the third day lasted for at least several years. (Remember it isn’t until the fourth day that the sun, moon, and stars are made and have any chance to control the length of the day).
Joshua’s Long Day
On Joshua’s long day, the earth continued to revolve on its axis, and the earth continued to move in its orbit around the sun. The moon continued to move in its orbit around the earth. The earth didn’t stop. An additional temporary spin was placed on the earth as the poles moved from their place. This movement made the length of the daylight hours in Israel lengthen.
It was very much like the lengthening of the day a person experiences as they fly west on an airplane from Europe to the United States. Israel also moved toward the equator where the length of the day was naturally longer in the winter months. These two actions combined approximately doubled the daylight hours in Israel during that one day.
Joshua’s long day occurred during the shorter days at the end of the Fall or the early winter. We can discern that it was winter because Joshua had celebrated the feast of Tabernacles in Fall, sometime before these events.
The story of Joshua’s long day is preserved in several other places in the Scriptures. In Habakkuk 3:11, the memory of the sun and moon stopping is preserved.
God has changed the earth, and He will change it again. The word for new, as in new heavens and a new earth, is “kainos,” that is, new in quality as opposed to “neos,” which means new in time.
The earth was divided
Genesis 10:25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan. This event is the least clear pole shift, and it isn’t even for sure that it is a pole shift. In Jasher 7:19 “… to Eber were born two children the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the sons of men were divided, and in the latter days, the earth was divided.” This passage seems to imply there were two divisions: one of the men, presumably, languages at Babel, and a second division of the land. A division of the land sounds like a sea separating two pieces of land that were originally joined. This division may refer to something like the rift going through the Red Sea separating Africa and Asia.
The Flood
For water to cover the whole earth, an enormous amount of water has to be added to the earth. There is another way for water to cover the whole earth, and that is for the land to sink. The land can sink if it is moved toward the equator. If the land sinks enough, it will be covered by the ocean, without adding any extra water to the earth.
The flood is another place where pole shifts can be assumed, but not detailed. When a pole shift occurs, land moving away from the equator towards the poles rises, so landmasses on the globe moving toward the equator sink. The breaking open of the fountains of the deep sounds like volcanoes, which incidentally spew a great deal of water into the atmosphere. Secondly, volcanoes send a great deal of particulate matter into the atmosphere. Rain requires dust to form. Dust is a seed around which the rainwater collects. God would also be sending a great deal of extra-planetary water on to the earth. For documentation that this extra-planetary water is still coming on the earth, small comets of ice regularly striking the atmosphere of the earth.[11] The end of the flood came with another pole shift bringing the land back above sea level. So the different things cause the land to go below sea level. A pole shift is the most crucial mecanism to cover the land with water. There are other mechanisms: extra-planetary water, water from the earth’s interior, and dust from the volcanism that seed the raindrops. Near the end of the flood, there was at least one more pole shift where the now-submerged landmasses were moved toward the poles, causing the land to rise above sea level.
There is nothing in the Genesis record that says the whole earth was covered with a flood at the same time.
The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished--birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. (Genesis 7:18-21)
When we read that water covered the tops of all the mountains to at least 15-cubits, it is natural for us to think that this happened at the same time, but the Bible doesn’t say so. It could be that one section of the world was submerged on one day, and, on another day, another part of the world was submerged. An enormous tsunami could sweep across vast sections of the continents, covering everything and destroying all life, yet not be simultaneously submerging all land worldwide. I do believe that the waters where the ark was, remained one vast ocean during much of the year that the flood lasted.
God questions Job regarding his knowledge of pole shifts
When the Lord answered and questioned Job, His questions revealed Job’s ignorance but revealed much of how He has shaped the earth and His control over our planet. God asked Job where he was when I laid the earth’s foundation (Job 38:4). The word for earth is aretz the word for land. If the land is primarily made of granite, then the foundation of the land is the basalt underneath the land. In typical Hebrew poetry, God repeats on what were its (the earth’s) footings set (Job 38:6)? Granite forms the land, and it floats on basalt, which underlies it.
Who shut up the sea when it burst forth when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness (Job 38:8-9). The land shut up the sea, at the separation, the sea no longer covered all the earth. The resulting volcanic activity at each pole shift blackened the sky. If there are more that one pole shift, the sky could be blackened for years.
This darkness could explain one or more of the evenings of Genesis 1, especially before the creation of the sun. So the evening of one day could go on for as long as God shifted the poles. When the clouds of smoke and ash finally cleared, the earth would experience morning the start of a new day. There might have been a pole shift associated with each day of creation.
Have you ever given orders to the morning and shown the dawn its place (v.12). If the sun rises offset from its expected place, a severe disruption has occurred. To command the dawn to occur in a new place means you have commanded a pole shift. Commanding the dawn to change places is taking hold of the ends of the earth and shaking it (v. 13). Note God doesn’t shake the earth by the four corners (North-East-West-South), but the ends, which would be the poles. The purpose of shaking the earth is to shake the wicked out of it, something that happened in Noah’s, Joshua’s, and Hezekiah’s day and something that will happen during the tribulation.
We are further told that the earth takes shape like clay under a seal (v.14). So when the pole shift occurs, the land changes like clay changes when a seal is pressed into it. The clay forms ridges and valleys that are entirely new from the way the earth was before the shaking occurred. And parallel to this, the features of the earth take shape like a garment, it wrinkles and folds when the slightest pressure is applied to it. So clay forming under the seal or garments wrinkling, both demonstrate what happens to the earth’s surface.
God asks, “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep” (v. 16.)? Portions of the seafloor become land and vice versa, so after a pole shift, one can walk on the land that was once the recesses of the sea.
God questions Job about the abode or border of light and where does darkness reside (v. 20). He is probably asking him about the land of the midnight sun or the areas that experience no light for extended periods. That is the Polar Regions where it is light during the summer for 24 hours per day in the summer and dark for 24 hours per day during the winter.
Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of hail (v. 22)? Many think this refers to flying into the clouds. I believe God is referring to is where are comets, asteroids, and meteors are stored, that is out in space. Today we know that comets are very much like giant dirty snowballs. The word for hail here is frequently associated with stones, fire, and coals. Both of these images fit with the topic of pole shifts because they are the tools of instruments that God uses to bring about the pole shift. God further says that these are reserved for days of war and battle (v. 23). Snow and hail are common annual occurrences, comets and meteors hitting the earth are unusual, something that God reserves for special occasions.
God’s first line of questioning Job had to do with the how, when, and why of pole shifts. Job wasn’t able to answer, and today only because of the Scriptures are we able even to get a hint to be able to answer God’s questions. But God reveals His way of working so that we might learn His ways.
Conclusion
Throughout history, God has used pole shifts as a way He imposed His will on man. From creating a place for man to dwell by raising land from the depths of the ocean, to placing barriers between groups of men to limit their interaction. He covered the whole world with a flood to allow a more righteous family to restart the world’s population. On several occasions, the events were used to destroy the armies of nations, which were formed to destroy Israel. God uses comets or asteroids and a vast number of meteorites to destroy these enemies. He can be quite selective, destroying one person and leave another nearby untouched.
When these events happen, it is quite devastating for the earth, particularly those locations that experience the most significant change in latitude. When this happens, new sections of the world become habitable. Former deserts, sea beds, or mountains become highly productive land. Some of the best lands become uninhabitable. They are covered with an ice cap or sea or moved to the top of high mountains. Many passages in the Bible describe these changes. So these changes that seem almost impossible did happen and will happen again.
For the second article in this series, about the predicted pole shift detailed in the Book of Revelation, see The Stopwatch and Key to the Apocalypse.[12]