THE WALLS OF JERICHO FALL DOWN.

THE first town besieged by Joshua after he had made his miraculous passage over the river Jordan, was Jericho, a considerable city in the tribe of Benjamin, about seven leagues from Jerusalem, and called the city of Palms, in consequence of the great numbers of those trees that grew upon the plain in which it stood. Before he commenced the siege, the Israelite general sent into the town two spies, who, after they had executed his orders, went into a house of public entertainment, kept by a woman named Rahab. When search was made after them, the hostess hid them under some stalks of flax which were drying upon the roof, and they thus escaped detection. After the search was over, her house being situated upon the city wall, and the gates being shut to prevent their escape, she let them down by a silken cord from a window which opened upon the country. For this service, Joshua ordered that, upon taking the city, the two spies should enter Rahab's house, and protect her and all her relations from violence, and that the whole of her property should be secured from plunder. The siege was undertaken at the express command of God, and was to be pursued as follows. All the army was to march round Jericho, accompanied by seven priests walking in procession before the ark, having in their hands trumpets made of rams' horns. This was to be repeated for six successive days. On the seventh day, the whole army was to pass in battle array round the city seven times, when, on a given signal, the priests were to blow their horns, and the people to shout, upon which the divine oracle declared that the walls should fall down, and the city be taken. These orders were obeyed to the minutest particular. "So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city*." The point of time taken by the artist is the first crash of the tumbling walls, caused by the miraculous blast from the rams' horns, and the shout raised by the people. Joshua appears in the foreground, raising the voice of thanksgiving to God.

JOSHUA COMMANDING THE SUN TO

STAND STILL.

THE Gibeonites having by a crafty device beguiled Joshua into an alliance with them; in consequence of their desertion from the common cause and their league with the invaders of Canaan, four kings of the Amorites, under the command of Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem, confederated against Gibeon and encamped before it. The Gibeonites, unable to resist so powerful a combination, in their extremity sent to Joshua, who, coming immediately to their rescue, engaged the enemy and routed them. As the confederates fled from the pursuit of the victors they were overtaken by a storm of hail, which fell upon them in such large masses that few escaped alive; and in order to enable the host of Israel to accomplish their entire destruction, the setting of the sun was protracted, and the moon remained stationary in her course until the extermination of the Canaanites was completed. "Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies."* In the illustration, Joshua is seen upon an eminence above the armies, in the act of commanding the sun to stay his course. Beside him are the high priests of Israel, whom the artist supposes to have borne the ark of the Covenant to the battle. On the summit of a distant hill appears the city of Gibeon, whence the Gibeonites are issuing to support their allies. They advance and attack the Amorites in the rear, already discomfited by the Israelites, who are pursuing them towards Bethhoron, which appears in the perspective above the camp of the confederates. In the extreme distance Mount Lebanon is just

visible.