Is it true that the sun stood still?

It doesn't go anywhere, actually, 'standing still' in the center of our solar system, all the planets going around it, so whatever this verse means, it can only be from the point of view of people on Earth observing a radical difference in daylight hours, where they stood, at least. (Much like the bit in Genesis 1 about Day Four - it has to be understood as the view from someone on Earth.)

Joshua 10:12-14 states that both the sun and the moon appeared to ‘stand still’, giving Joshua enough time to complete the battle and so to defeat the Amorites. Verse 13 says this was recorded in the Book of Jashar, an ancient source for the writer of Joshua. It was well known in ancient Israel but has not survived as a separate document. However, some suggest that it spoke of the summer solstice, so the account meant June 21. The word 'solstice' comes from the Latin 'sol' (sun) and 'sistere' (to stand still). Every summer solstice the sun appears to rise over the same spot for about a week. Then there's "the land of the midnight sun" where in mid summer the sun almost never sets. Did God do something with the Earth's axis for a brief time? The Bible indicates that something supernatural happened.

Some people link it with another supernatural account in 2 Kings 20:9-11 when the sun’s shadow went back ten steps (either on a sundial or on steps) to prove to King Hezekiah that God would heal him. Well, a Mr Harold Hill used to preach about this in his lay-sermons. He said that when he was working for Nasa in the 1960s, calculations of planets were being made in connection with spacecraft trajectories. They hit a wall – there seemed to be a day missing from the calculations! This was pondered, when someone recalled Joshua 10. The computers had 'lost' 23 hours and 20 minutes.

Nasa disputes the explanation, however. They agree that Mr Hill did maintenance work on one of its diesel engines but said he could not have been party to the calculations. The Nasa Public Affairs office in Washington says, “There is no truth to the recurring story that Nasa uncovered a lost day.”

But here's an intriguing point. The sun and moon were two of Canaan's most powerful gods, and they proved powerless against Yahweh. Joshua and his troops travelled all night from Gilgal and took the Amorite armies by surprise, so the moon 'helped' them - not the Amorites who worshiped the moon! Likewise the day of chasing them resulted in the sun 'helping' them - not the Amorites. I lean towards this combining with a miraculous "land of the midnight sun" type event where it never normally occurs.

No. If that had happened, various predictable astronomical events would occur at the wrong times and we don't see that. There would be a discrepancy between the timing of, for example, eclipses before the battle and eclipses after it. There is an urban myth which says that's so, but it isn't and that can be verified by looking at ancient documents.

I wasn't there, but it sounds like an expression, like it rained cats or dogs or I ran to the store for milk.

That's what it says!

If we need help to overcome our enemies we can call on God at any time.

You mean, did the Earth stop moving, right? The position of the sun for us has to do with the earth's rotation rather than the sun moving. Well, if that happened, the oceans would have flooded far beyond the west coast of... Everything.

who knows? our surviving records of Joshua's escapades weren't written until 6-700 years after it would've happened