BOOK V.

THE CONQUEST.

Joshua assumes the Command-Passage of the Jordan-Capture of Jericho-War with the Canaanites of the South—and of the North-Partition of the Land-Law of Property.

THE lawgiver had done his part, the warrior succeeded to the administration of affairs, and to the directing intercourse with Divine Providence. For thirty days Israel lamented the death of Moses, and then prepared themselves to fulfil his dying instructions. The first military operation of Joshua was to send spies to gain intelligence, and to survey the strength of Jericho, the most powerful city near the place where he proposed to cross the Jordan. The spies entered the city, and took up their lodging in the house of a woman who kept a public caravansary. The king sent to apprehend them; but Rahab, the mistress of the house, struck with religious terror at the conquests of the Jews, and acknowledging the superiority of their God, concealed them, and provided them with means of escape, letting them down the city wall, on which her house stood, and directing them to fly by the opposite road to that which their pursuers had taken. She received a promise, that on the capture of the city the lives of herself and her family should be spared. She was commanded to mark her house by a scarlet line hanging from the window. The spies brought word that the success of the Hebrew arms had struck terror into the native princes; and Joshua immediately gave orders to effect the passage of the river. The entrance into the promised land was made with suitable solemnity, not in the usual order of march.

Instead of occupying its secure central position, the ark of God, borne by the Levites, advanced to the van. This was a bold and dangerous measure. Joshua had no security against a sudden movement or a secret ambush of the enemy, which might surprise the sacred coffer, and thus annihilate the hopes, by extinguishing the religious courage of the people. The ark moved forward to the bank of the river; the whole army-for the warriors of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh, leaving their families and flocks behind, assembled in the common enterprize-followed at the distance of more than three-quarters of a mile. In the spring, the Jordan is swollen by the early rains, and by the melting of the snow on Mount Lebanon. In its ordinary channel, it is described by Pococke as about as broad as the Thames at Windsor, deep and rapid; but, during its inundation, it forms a second bed, of much greater width, the boundaries of which, according to Maundrell, may be distinctly traced. It was now the season of the flood; but no sooner had the priests, bearing the ark, entered the river, than the descending waters were arrested, the channel became dry, and the whole army passed in safety to the western bank. They encamped in a place named Gilgal; there they kept the fortieth passover since its first institution in Egypt. A rude monument, formed of twelve stones from the bed of the river, was set up to commemorate their wonderful passage; all who had not undergone circumcision were initiated by that rite into the commonwealth; and here the manna, on which they had fed in the desert, entirely failed.