Joshua 10:13

Book of Jasher. Literally, “book of the upright.” The Syriac calls it “book of praises,” or “book of hymns.” The book is directly referred to only twice in the Old Testament, here and in 2 Samuel 1:18-27. The LXX of 1 Kings 8:53 mentions a “book of the song,” probably also a reference to the book of Jasher. The book, as a whole, seems to have been made up of ballads accompanied by prose introductions, dealing with historical heroes — upright men — showing how they lived and what they achieved. It was evidently compiled by degrees, as the events performed by these upright men and women occurred. That the ballad of 2 Samuel 1:19-27 was composed by David and recorded in the book of Jasher is no proof that parts of the book were not in existence earlier, even, perhaps, in the time of Joshua. The remarkable event of the standing still of the sun and moon may have been recorded soon after its occurrence. If so, when Joshua recorded the battle of Gibeon (see p. 169), probably a short time before his death, it would seem that he quoted this particular ballad with its prose introduction as part of his account of this remarkable incident. Verse 15 implies that it is a part of the quotation, or at least words of comment on the contents of the ballad. The first part of verse 12, by way of introduction, and verse 15, by way of conclusion, may have been added by the writer of verse 14, but it seems more probable that all except the formula of citation, “is not this written in the book of Jasher?” is part of the quotation.