"which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not"; it is most likely that this book of Jasher, in which this miracle was recorded, was a public register, or annals, in which memorable events were written, as they happened in different ages by different persons; and Masius thinks Josephus means this by the archives laid up in the temple, to which he appeals for the truth of this miracle:so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven; somewhere above the horizon, very probably this was about noon, when the sun was in its meridian.
Gussetius thinks about ten or eleven o'clock; it may be supposed that early in the morning Joshua came up with his troops, and engaged the kings, and it might be noon before the battle was over, and the victory obtained, at least before Joshua had proceeded in his pursuit of them, so far as he had done, when the miracle was wrought; and the rather, as it would be the more conspicuous in the several parts of the world; for had it been near sun setting, it could not have been seen in some places, and particularly by the Chinese, as it seems to have been by what has been observed:and hasted not to go down about a whole day; which was either artificial or natural; if an artificial day, then it stood still but twelve hours; if a natural day, twenty four hours; and accordingly the length of the day must be judged of; if it was at noon when it stood still, and continued so a natural day, or twenty four hours, then as it had gone six hours to noon, and, after it returned to its motion, had six more to go to its setting, this day must be thirty six hours long; and so the Jews commonly say ; but if an artificial day, or twelve hours, then it was but a day of twenty four hours; but if this was, as the Jews say , on the third of Tammuz, which answers to part of June, and was in the summer solstice, on the longest day in the year, when their days consisted of fourteen hours, this will make this long day four hours longer.
According to the author of Ecclesiasticus, in the Apocrypha:"Did not the sun go back by his means? and was not one day as long as two?'' (Sirach 46:4)it was a double day, or, as he expresses it, one day became two, or was as long as two.
(In the late 1960's, someone circulated a story that NASA had discovered there was a missing day in the solar system. Using this passage they accounted for about twenty one missing hours and the account in Isa 38:8 to account for the rest of the missing time.
This story is a complete fable and has absolutely no basis in fact. Editor.) See Bayle's Dictionary, vol. 4. p. 268. Martin. Sinie. Histor. l. 1. p. 25. T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 35. 1. Bolduc. in Job.
ix. 7. Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 17. Comment. Ebr. p. 281. Targum in Cant. i. 1. T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 25. 1. Kimchi in loc. So Justin Martyr. Dialog. cum Tryph. p. 361. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p.
31.