After this, Joshua struck down and killed the kings, and he hung their bodies on five trees and left them there until evening.
It was a brave appearance, no doubt, which the five kings made when they took the field for the reducing of Gibeon, and a brave army they had following them; but they were all routed, put into disorder first, and then brought to destruction by the hail-stones. And now Joshua thought, his work being done, he might go with his army into quarters of refreshment.
Commenting on Joshua 10:15-27
And it came to pass, at the time of the going down of the sun,.... Which was the time fixed by the law of God for taking down bodies that were hanged, Deu 21:23, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees; not from, any respect to them, but that they might not defile the land, as dead bodies in a ceremonial...
THE FIVE KINGS HANGED. (Jos 10:16-27) these five kings . . . hid themselves in a cave--Hebrew, "the cave." at Makkedah--The pursuit was continued, without interruption, to Makkedah at the foot of the western mountains, where Joshua seems to have halted with the main body of his troops while a detachment was sent forward to scour the country in pursuit of the remaining stragglers, a...
Commenting on Joshua 10:16-27