They are said to have been sent “from heaven” (verse 11); but the name “heaven” must be taken for the air — for so “heaven” is often taken in Scripture: as when the birds are called [birds] “of heaven” (Psalm 8; Matthew 6, verse 26; chapter 13, verse 32). And so sometimes in Aristotle’s Meteorologica ἀήρ (aēr, “air”) is so taken; and in Cicero, Tusculans 1, when he says: “that it may penetrate this heaven, in which clouds, rains, and winds are gathered, which is both moist and murky on account of the exhalation of the earth”; and in Pliny (book 2 of the History, chapter 38): “For our forefathers called this too ‘heaven,’ which by another name [is] aër — all that which, like a void, pours forth this vital breath. Below the Moon is its seat, and far lower”; and chapter 59: “We have received [reports] that the crash of arms and the sound of the trumpet have been heard. That the heaven itself burns is not at all wonderful, and has more often been seen when fire is seized by a greater force from the clouds.” And the heading of chapter 60 is: “On stones falling from heaven.” For this heaven [i.e. the air], subject to that great [heaven], is the workshop of hail, as also of the other things which the Philosopher calls μετέωρα (meteōra, “meteors”). Hence, says Pliny (chapter 38), [come] clouds, thunders, and other lightnings; hence hails and hoar-frost, rains, storm, whirlwinds. Hence very many evils of mortals, and Nature’s war with herself. [These stones, however,]…
(col. 1001)
…[these stones, however,] are stones made by the work of Angels in the region of the air; and [are], as it were, vibrated and hurled by their hands — so that, as was said above, by a sure and aimed blow they might strike the Chananaeans [and] spare the Israelites. These Angels, moreover, I judge to have been holy [ones], who fought for the people of God — although not a few ascribe the hail by which Egypt was overwhelmed to alastores, wicked spirits (from Psalm 77 [78], verses 48 & 49), and among these our [fellow Jesuit] Del Rio (Magical Disquisitions, book 2, investigation [disquisitio], question 11).
That Joshua by his prayers obtained this downpour of rushing stones the context of this chapter does not indeed assert, but Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] (chapter 48, verse 6) [does]: “Joshua called upon the Most High, the Powerful, in besieging the enemies on every side; and the great and holy God heard him, in stones of hail of exceedingly strong power.”
[Translator’s note: the print reads “chapter 48” here, but the passage quoted is Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 46:6 — the chapter on Joshua — which Serarius himself cited correctly as 46:6 on the preceding column (1000). The “48” is a slip.]
Whence it appears that Joshua, when he saw the enemy slipping away in swift flight, and that not so many of them were falling as the good end and the necessity of this war demanded, lifted up his hands to heaven, and, becoming a suppliant to God, [prayed] that those whom the Israelites could not [lay low] with the sword, He Himself might deign to lay low with showers of hailstones. And to this prayer too could be referred those words of verse 12, “Then Joshua spoke to the Lord.”