ns from
his commander-in-chief? God's soldiers need no cannon, or battering
rams, or bombshells; all they require is a few rams' horns and good
lungs for shouting.

God's orders were obeyed. Six days in succession did the Jews march
round the walls of Jericho, no doubt to the great bewilderment of its
inhabitants, who probably wondered why they didn't come on, and felt
that there was something uncanny in this roundabout siege. On the
seventh day they went round the city seven times. How tired they must
have been! Jericho, being a capital city, could not have been less than
several miles in circumference. The priests blew with the trumpets,
the people shouted with a great shout, and the walls of Jericho fell
flat--as flat as the simpletons who believe it.

A scene of horror ensued. The Jews "utterly destroyed all there was in
the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass,
with the edge of the sword." Only Rahab and her relatives were spared.
The silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, were put
into the Lord's treasury--that is, handed over to the priests; and then
the city was burnt with fire. God commanded this, and his chosen people
executed it Could Jericho have been treated worse if the Devil himself
had planned the fight, and the vilest fiends from hell had conducted it?

Rahab the harlot, being saved with all her relatives, who were perhaps
as bad as she, dwelt with the Jews ever afterwards. Whether she
continued in her old profession we are unable to say. But it is certain
that the Jews soon after grew very corrupt, and the Lord's anger was
kindled against them. The first result of God's displeasure was that the
Jews became demoralised as warriors. Three thousand of them, who went up
against Ai, were routed, and thirty-six of them were slain. This seems
a very small number, but, as we have already observed, the Jewish
chroniclers were much given to bragging. Their losses were always very
small, and the enemy's very great.

After this rebuff the Jews funked; their hearts "melted and became as
water." Joshua rent his clothes, fell upon his face before the ark, and
remained there until the evening. The elders of Israel did likewise,
and they all put dust on their heads. To conclude the performance Joshua
expostulated with God, asked him whether he had brought his people over
Jordan only to betray them to their enemies, and expressed a hearty wish
that they had never c