them; for
when the Canaanites had learned that the Israelites came out of Egypt
in order to destroy them, they were busy all that time in making their
cities strong. So he gathered the people together to a congregation at
Shiloh; and when they, with great zeal and haste, were come thither,
he observed to them what prosperous successes they had already had, and
what glorious things had been done, and those such as were worthy of
that God who enabled them to do those things, and worthy of the virtue
of those laws which they followed. He took notice also, that thirty-one
of those kings that ventured to give them battle were overcome, and
every army, how great soever it were, that confided in their own power,
and fought with them, was utterly destroyed; so that not so much as any
of their posterity remained. And as for the cities, since some of them
were taken, but the others must be taken in length of thee, by long
sieges, both on account of the strength of their walls, and of the
confidence the inhabitants had in them thereby, he thought it reasonable
that those tribes that came along with them from beyond Jordan, and had
partaken of the dangers they had undergone, being their own kindred,
should now be dismissed and sent home, and should have thanks for
the pains they had taken together with them. As also, he thought it
reasonable that they should send one man out of every tribe, and he such
as had the testimony of extraordinary virtue, who should measure the
land faithfully, and without any fallacy or deceit should inform them of
its real magnitude.

21. Now Joshua, when he had thus spoken to them, found that the
multitude approved of his proposal. So he sent men to measure their
country, and sent with them some geometricians, who could not easily
fail of knowing the truth, on account of their skill in that art. He
also gave them a charge to estimate the measure of that part of the land
that was most fruitful, and what was not so good: for such is the nature
of the land of Canaan, that one may see large plains, and such as are
exceeding fit to produce fruit, which yet, if they were compared to
other parts of the country, might be reckoned exceedingly fruitful;
yet, if it be compared with the fields about Jericho, and to those
that belong to Jerusalem, will appear to be of no account at all; and
although it so falls out that these people have but a very little of
this sort of land, and that it is, for the main, mountain