The kings of these four cities agreed to the request, and there marched against the city of Gib'eon an army of five nations combined. This army was so much greater in numbers and strength that the forces of the Gib'eon-ites were in grave danger of complete destruction. Terrified by the superior forces of the five nations which gathered before the city, the Gib'eon-ites sent an urgent appeal to Josh'u-a for help.
Josh'u-a's response was prompt and wholehearted. He immediately led the host of Is'ra-el against the armies of the five united kings, marching all night in order to make an attack early the next morning. The distance from Gil'gal to Gib'eon was eighteen miles, but by daybreak there was an Is'ra-el-ite army numbering at least four hundred thousand ready to go into battle at once. In the meantime the LORD appeared to Josh'u-a in a vision and promised him success, saying to him, "I have delivered them into thy hand." Thus victory was assured before a single blow had been struck.
In the battle which followed, the Is'ra-el-ites fell upon the armies of the Am'o-rite kings like a mighty avalanche rolling down a mountain. The Am'o-rites were slaughtered by the thousands as they fled before the attack, and they were too greatly terrified and confused to make a firm stand. Soon they rushed in mad retreat down the western pass from Gib'eon, pursued by the Is'ra-el-ites, and constantly growing weaker. Then they fled up the steep mountain slopes leading to Beth-Ho'ron, a few miles to the northeast.
The Am'o-rites thought that they had found a place of security in this little city, But the hand of God soon struck them a heavier blow than that which they had just received from Is'ra-el. The LORD caused a great hailstorm to fall upon them, some of the stones weighing as much as a pound, and it is said, "more were slain by the hailstones of the LORD than by the swords of Is'ra-el." Just as the fire and brimstone had fallen from Heaven upon their ancestors in Sod'om and Go'mor'rah, so deadly weapons of ice now poured down upon the idolatrous Am'o-rites.
