Chapter LXXXE.

THE TAKING OF JERICHO.

AFTER the children of Israel had passed the river Jordan, they encamped at a place called Gilgal, near to the city Jericho. And at Gilgal, Joshua set up the twelve great stones, which had been taken from the midst of the Jordan. And he spoke to the children of Israel, and said, "When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, What mean ye by these stones? then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land."

And when all the kings of the nations that dwelt in the land of Canaan heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, "their hearts melted with fear, neither was there spirit in them any more."

It was on the tenth day of the first month that the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, and

four days after, on the fourteenth day, they kept the Feast of the Passover at Gilgal. On the fourteenth day of the first month, forty years before, the Lord had brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.

And now that God's people had come into that good land which He had promised them, the manna with which the Lord had fed them for forty years ceased to fall, and they ate of the corn and the fruit which grew there.

The children of Israel were encamped very near to Jericho, and the people of that city were sore afraid because of them. But Jericho had a high and strong wall round about it; and the people closed the gates, and watched the wall, and the children of Israel could not enter into it.

Then the Lord appeared to Joshua by an angel, and told him, that He would give the city into the hands of the children of Israel. He said that Joshua should go round about the city with the men of war, and with the ark of the Lord, and with priests bearing trumpets, for six days. And on the seventh day, they were to go round about the

city seven times, and then the priests were to blow a long blast with their horns, and all the people were to shout with a great shout, and the Lord said that the walls of the city would then fall down flat, and the people should go in and take it.

Then Joshua called the priests, and told them to take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord. And he commanded the armed men to pass on before the ark, and go round about the city; and the rest of the people were to follow after the ark.

For six days the children of Israel went round about the city Jericho; and the priests that went before the ark of the Lord blew with their trumpets, but the people moved in silence; for Joshua had said that they should make no noise, nor speak a word, until the day that he should bid them shout.

For six days they compassed the city once each day, but on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day, and compassed the city in

the same manner seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, "Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city." And when the priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat.

Then the people went up into the city every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword; all were destroyed, except Rahab, and those that were with her in her house. For the two men whom she had hidden from the king of Jericho went into her house, where they saw the scarlet line bound in the window, and they brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and all her kindred, and all that she had, and left them in the camp of Israel.

Then the children of Israel burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein. Only the silver and the gold, and the vessels of brass and iron,

they consecrated unto the Lord; they were kept for the house of the Lord.

The children of Israel were commanded to destroy the people of Jericho, and all that they had, because that city was accursed of God for its wickedness. The people of that country were, as the people of Sodom had been before, sinners before the Lord exceedingly. They not only worshipped false gods, idols of wood and stone, but they burnt their own children as sacrifices to these gods. And they lived in every kind of wickedness, which is hateful to God, and to all good men. But now the time had come when God would bear no longer with them; and He destroyed them by the sword of His people, the children of Israel, as of old He had destroyed the wicked world by a flood, and the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from heaven.

Joshua iv. 19-24; v. & vi.

To compass the city, was to go round it.

To consecrate, is to set apart for God's service, and count holy.