The first divine intervention, in verse 10, is the panic that the Lord brought on the enemy. The second one occurs during the chase down the mountain pass: large hailstones (literally “large stones from heaven”) came down and killed more of the enemy than were killed by the Israelites. Hailstones are frozen drops of rain or snow; sometimes they can be almost as large as hens’ eggs.

In the Hebrew text the Amorites are not expressly mentioned by name, but in the restructuring of Good News Translation it was felt helpful to do so. The clause While … army may be inverted: “While the Israelite army was chasing the Amorites down the pass….” The main clause of this first sentence (the LORD … to Azekah) may be divided into two parts: “the LORD caused large hailstones to fall down on the Amorites. This happened all the way to the city of Azekah.”

The passive construction (More were … than by the Israelites) may be stated as an active: “The hailstones killed more of the enemy than the Israelite army did.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .