of them heathen; that is, they did not know so much about God as the
Children of Israel knew. But God knew them, and to Balaam God sometimes
spoke, and told him what was right and what was wrong; so that people
came to Balaam, even from distant lands, that he might tell them the
will of God. Thus before a battle, a general or even a king might come
and say, “Tell me, Balaam, is God for me or against me? Shall I lose or
win?” And Balaam would go away by himself and ask God, and God would
speak in Balaam’s soul and teach him what to say, and Balaam would come
back and say it. Many people thought that Balaam could do quite as he
liked, and bless or curse as he pleased, and they said, “See, Balaam,
here is gold and silver: come now, bless me and curse my enemy.” But
Balaam would speak only that which the Lord God taught him to speak.
Balak was the king of Moab. After the Children of Israel had come across
the Red Sea out of Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness and lived in
tents till they grew strong enough to go to war. They had no country of
their own, but they meant to take the country which God had promised to
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. There were already people living in that
country, having walled cities and brave soldiers, and the Children of
Israel had to grow very strong indeed before they could hope to take it
away from them. But now the time had come. The Children of Israel were
on the march. Only one country remained to be crossed before they came
to the Promised Land: and that was Moab.
So Balak, king of Moab, was filled with fear, and he sent for Balaam.
“Behold,” he said, “there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they
cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now,
therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, else shall they lick us up
as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” And the princes of Balak came
to Balaam with these words.
And Balaam said, “Stay here this night, and I will ask the Lord, and in
the morning I will tell you.” So the princes stayed at Balaam’s house,
and in the night God spoke in Balaam’s soul, and God said, “Do not go to
Balak. Thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
And when the morning was come, Balaam told the princes that he could not
go.
But Balak was not satisfied. He sent more princes, and they came to
Balaam with splendid promises. And Balaam answered, “I must do as the
Lord says. If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I
cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more. But
wait another night, and I will see if the Lord will speak again.”
And that night God did speak again, and God said, “Go with the men, but
yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.” So in the
morning he saddled his ass, and away he went with Balak’s princes. And
thus he rode, sometimes in haste and sometimes in doubt, between the
farms and vineyards.
Now Balak had gone out to meet Balaam that he might take him to the top
of a high hill whence he should curse the Children of Israel. And they
two went together. And Balaam said, “I am come in vain. The Lord God is
against you. Even as I came, the ass on which I rode refused to go and
crushed my foot against the vineyard wall, and the ass said, ‘Behold,
there is an angel in the way,’ and lo, there was an angel with a drawn
sword to keep me back! I cannot do you any good. I cannot curse the
Children of Israel.”
But Balak urged him, and on they went. And as they climbed the hill, at
last the army of Israel came in sight, all in their goodly tents along
the valley, as gardens by the river’s side, and as cedar trees beside
the waters. And Balak built seven altars and offered on every altar a
bullock and a ram; and Balaam prayed amidst the altars, and God told him
what to say, and Balaam cried aloud and blessed the Children of Israel.
Then Balak took Balaam
[Illustration: THE ASS AND THE ANGEL]
to another mountain, to the top of Pisgah, and there built seven altars
and offered on every altar a bullock and a ram; and Balaam prayed in the
midst of the altars, and again he cried aloud and blessed the Children
of Israel. And so a third time, on a third mountain, from the top of
Peor.
Then Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands
together. And Balak said, “I called thee to curse my enemies, and thou
hast blessed them these three times!” And Balaam answered, “That is what
I told you before I came, what the Lord saith that will I speak.” And he
blessed them a fourth time. And Balaam rose up and went and returned to
his place: and Balak also went his way.
XIV
THE WALLS OF JERICHO
The Promised Land, toward which the Children of Israel were marching
through King Balak’s country, was bordered on that side by the river
Jordan. The Jordan flows through a very deep valley from a large lake in
the north to a large lake in the south: the northern lake is called the
Sea of Galilee, and the southern is called the Dead Sea. King Balak’s
land was beside the Dead Sea; so when they had passed through that
country they came to the river, and thus to the first place where they
could cross over into the Promised Land. And on the other side of the
river was a city, called Jericho. The first thing to do was to attack
Jericho.
Moses was now dead, and in his place Joshua was the leader and general
of Israel. Moses had climbed one day to the top of Mount Pisgah, to the
high place where Balaam had stood with Balak, and there had looked over
into the Promised Land. It lay before him, full of hills and valleys, a
good land and a large, with vineyards and olive trees, and streams of
water, and walled cities. There Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had fed
their flocks. Moses had done his great work; he had brought his people
out of Egypt, and had given them the laws of God, and had made them a
nation and an army, and had led them to the very entrance of the
Promised Land. Below were the people waiting and waiting; as they had
waited at the foot of Mount Sinai for Moses to come down. But this time
he did not come. On the mountain top, in sight of the Promised Land, he
died. And Joshua took his place.
So General Joshua sent two men to go as spies to Jericho. They were to
enter very quietly into the city, without letting anybody know who they
were, and, having found out all they could, they were to come back and
report. So they went to Jericho and found a lodging place, and began to
look about. They saw that the town had a wall around it, and that the
gate was shut every evening as the sun went down. And they could see at
a glance that the people were rich. But the men of Jericho discovered
the spies and told the king, and the king sent to their lodging place to
take them.
But the woman of the house, whose name was Rahab, was very good to the
spies. Her house was by the city wall, and on the flat roof there were
stalks of flax drying in the sun. So when the pursuers came knocking at
the door, Rahab hid the spies under the flax, and sent off the pursuers
on a vain search. And when they were gone she took a stout rope and let
down the spies out of her window down the wall, and while the pursuers
ran one way toward the river, the spies ran another way toward the
hills, and so escaped.
And Rahab said, “We have all heard about you here. We know how you came
over the Red Sea, and how the Lord is with you; and we are all afraid.
When you take the town, have pity on me and on my father and mother and
on my brothers and sisters, and save us alive.”
And the spies said, “Bind a scarlet line in this window by which we
escape, and when we come back with the army of Israel we will spare all
who are in this house.”
Then they climbed down the rope, and away they went to the hills, where
they stayed three days till the pursuit was over. And they returned to
Joshua, and said, “The Lord has delivered the city into our hands. They
are all afraid of us.”
Then Joshua sent his captains among the people to tell them what to do.
“The priests,” he said, “shall go down first into the river, and the
people shall follow.” So the priests went, carrying the Ark of the
Covenant; that is, the great chest in which were the Ten Commandments
cut in stone, as Moses brought them down from Sinai. And as they went,
it was like the Red Sea over again. They marched across as if the river
had been a sandy road. And in the middle of the river stood the priests
with the Ark till all the people were gone over. And they took twelve
stones out of the river where the priests had stood, and built an altar
with them on the other side, and thanked God that He had brought them at
last into the good land which He had promised to their fathers.
The next thing to do was to take Jericho. At first, the men of Jericho
came out to fight, but they soon ran back and hid behind their walls and
locked their gate. And the Children of Israel made a camp around the
city so that nobody went out or came in.
And Joshua said, “Form a procession: first the armed men, then seven
priests with trumpets, then the Ark, and then the people. And march
around the city. Let the priests blow their trumpets, but let all the
rest of you keep silence. Let nobody speak a word, until I tell you to
shout. Then shall ye shout!” So they marched around the city, and the
people of Jericho looked on from the walls in great amazement. And the
next day, they did it a second time; and the third day a third time, and
so on for six days.
At last, on the seventh day, the Children of Israel rose up very early,
just as the sun came up over Mount Pisgah. And that day they went around
and around the city seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh
time, when the priests blew with the trumpets a longer and louder blast
than ever, Joshua cried to the people, “Shout! for the Lord hath given
you the city.” And all the people shouted with a great shout. And the
walls fell flat, and the armed men marched straight in and took the
city.
Indeed, the walls were already falling that day when the spies climbed
down over them hand under hand on Rahab’s rope. For the true walls of a
city are the stout hearts of its citizens, and these had failed for
fear. Thus the Children of Israel began the conquest of the Promised
Land. But they spared the people who were in the house which had a line
of scarlet bound in the window on the broken wall.
XV
THE WEDGE OF GOLD
There was a soldier in the army of Joshua whose name was Achan. He had
taken part in the siege of Jericho. He had marched before the Ark around
the city; he had joined in with all his might when the army shouted with
a great shout; and he had rushed with the others into the streets when
the walls fell flat.
Now Joshua had given strict orders that no man should take anything for
himself. All the gold and silver and whatever else was of value was to
be saved for the Lord: it was to be put into the common treasury. But
Achan had stolen something.
The citizens of Jericho were neither strong nor brave to fight, but they
were rich. The sun beat down upon the town, and the mist came drifting
in from the river, and it was very hot there, and the heat made the
people weak; but they lived in handsome houses, and wore fine clothes
every day, and had money to spend. To Achan, who had been born in the
wilderness, and had never known any other roof than the top of a tent,
and had never seen a city in all his life, the houses of Jericho seemed
like the magic treasure houses of the fairy stories.
So when Achan came with the other soldiers, running though the Jericho
streets, and breaking into the houses, he looked about him with great
surprise. And when, at last, in one house he found a wedge of gold, it
blazed in his eyes like the sun shining in the clear sky at noon. Beside
the gold was a glittering pile of two hundred pieces of silver, and a
splendid cloak made in Babylon, stiff with embroidery and colored like a
jewel. And Achan was so dazzled by these riches that he did not see the
difference between right and wrong. He took them for his own. Under his
gown he hid them, and back he hurried to his tent, and then he dug a
hole in the earth in the middle of the tent and buried them.
The next day, Joshua sent two spies to visit the next city, which was
called Ai. And they came back and reported that Ai was only a small
town, and that there was no need to send the whole army to take it.
Three thousand men, they said, would be enough. Now Ai was built upon a
hill. So up the soldiers climbed, expecting a quick and easy victory,
but the men of Ai came out to meet them like a pack of bears and tigers,
and the men of Israel turned their backs like scared sheep, and ran away
down the hill as fast as they could go, and the men of Ai after them.
So it was a great defeat.
And Joshua was troubled exceedingly, and he and all his captains tore
their clothes and threw dust upon their heads, and lay down on the
ground before the Ark all day; for that was the custom when men were in
great distress of mind.
And as the night came on, Joshua cried, “O Lord God, why hast thou
brought us into this land to give us into the hands of our enemies to
destroy us? O Lord, what shall I say when the men of Israel turn their
backs before their enemies?”
And God said, “Get up, Joshua. Why do you lie upon the ground? There is
a thief in the camp. One of your soldiers has disobeyed your orders.
Find him, and punish him; then shall you have victory instead of
defeat.”
So the first thing the next morning, Joshua made the army pass before
him in a long procession, tribe after tribe, and he chose the tribe of
Judah. Then he made the tribe of Judah pass before him, family by
family, and he chose the family of Zerah. Then he made the family of
Zerah pass before him, household by household, and he chose the
household of Carmi. Then he made the household of Carmi pass before him,
man by man, and he chose Achan. And there was Achan discovered before
all the people.
And Joshua said, “My son, tell me what you have done. Do not hide
anything from me.”
And Achan answered, “I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. When
we took Jericho, I saw a shining wedge of gold, and a goodly garment,
and a pile of silver pieces, and I coveted them and carried them away
and hid them in my tent. There they are, buried in the earth.”
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to Achan’s tent, and there they
found even as Achan had said. And they took the gold and silver and the
garment and brought them to Joshua. And Joshua led Achan apart into a
valley, and said, “Why hast thou troubled Israel? The Lord shall trouble
thee this day.” And Joshua commanded, and the soldiers stoned Achan with
stones until he died, and a great heap of stones was piled upon his
body.
Then Joshua attacked Ai again. But this time he was more careful. He
sent a great company of soldiers by night into an ambush behind the
town. And in the morning he marched up the hill, and when the men of Ai
came out again, very bold and fierce, he pretended to be frightened and
made his soldiers run away, so that the men of Ai ran after them. All
the men of Ai ran out of the town
[Illustration: SO THEY STONED ACHAN]
after the men of Israel. Then suddenly Joshua stopped and lifted up his
spear, and the soldiers in the ambush saw it and they ran into Ai and
began to burn the town. And the men of Ai looked back, and there was the
whole town on fire. So they were between two armies. The army of the
ambush was at the top of the hill, and the army which had pretended to
run away was at the bottom. Thus the men of Ai were defeated with a
great defeat.
XVI
THE RELIEF OF GIBEON
High among the hills of the Promised Land lay a town called Gibeon. Men
who ran away from the defeat at Ai came straggling into Gibeon, and told
the news. “The Children of Israel,” they said, “are coming with a great
army. They have destroyed Jericho and Ai, and are on the march for
Gibeon.” Then the Gibeonites held a council and considered what to do.
And they took men and dressed them in the oldest clothes which they
could find, all rags and tatters, and put upon their feet the oldest
shoes, all holes and patches, and gave them baskets in which were loaves
of dry and mouldy bread. And they said, “Go down now to the camp of
Israel and find Joshua and tell him thus and so.”
So down they went, and came into the camp, walking very slowly, as if
their feet were sore after a long journey, and as if they were too tired
to go another step.
And they said, “We come from a far country to ask you to make a league
of peace with us.”
And the men of Israel said, “How do we know that you are telling us the
truth? It may be that you are our neighbors.” And they brought them to
Joshua, and Joshua said, “Who are you, and from whence do you come?”
And the men of Gibeon answered, “From a very far country. Why, these
shoes we put on new the day we came away; and see them now. These
clothes we had made for this journey, and we have worn them out on the
way. This bread was fresh baked; it was taken hot out of the oven as we
started; and now it is all dry and mouldy. The land where we live is
over the hills and far away, but even there we have heard about you, and
we have come to ask you to give us a promise of peace.”
Then Joshua believed that what they said was true, and he made them a
solemn promise that there should be peace between the men of Israel and
the men of Gibeon. So they journeyed on together and after three days
they came to a town among the hills, and Joshua said, “What town is
this?” And the men of Gibeon answered, “This is Gibeon, where we live.
But you have promised that you will be at peace with us. You must not
destroy Gibeon as you destroyed Jericho and Ai.” And the Children of
Israel were very angry, and they said, “Come, let us kill them, and let
us burn their city, for they lied to us.” But Joshua answered, “No, we
have given them our promise, and we must do as we said.” So they let
them live; but they made them their servants, to cut wood and draw
water.
Now the kings of five neighboring cities, when they heard that the men
of Gibeon had made peace with the men of Israel, were much displeased.
And they gathered their armies together and came up against Gibeon. And
the Gibeonites sent messengers to Joshua, saying, “Come up to us quickly
and save us and help us, for now that we have become your friends all of
our neighbors have become our enemies.” So Joshua gathered together all
the people of war and all the mighty men of valor to fight with the
kings who were encamped about the walls of Gibeon. All night they
climbed the hills, and came upon the kings suddenly in the early
morning, while all the camp was sleeping. And the kings and all their
men waked up in a great fright when they heard the trumpets blowing and
the men of Israel shouting, and they ran away, and the men of Israel ran
after them. And there was a great storm that day of rain and hail, and
the hailstones beat in the faces of the kings’ men. As for the five
kings, they hid themselves in a cave.
So Joshua and his soldiers chased the enemy down the long valley. And
somebody told Joshua where the kings had gone, and he had his men block
up the mouth of the cave and leave a guard there, while the rest of the
army fought the battle. Now in the afternoon, as the sun began to go
down and the moon began to shine with a faint light, like a dim ball of
gray silver, Joshua wished that the day might last all night. For he
knew that as soon as it became dark the battle would be over and the
enemy would escape. So he cried aloud and said. “Sun, stand thou still
upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” And it seemed as
if the sun and moon stood still, that day was so long and the victory
was so great. And long after, the soldiers sang about it in their war
songs: how the stars in the sky fought on the side of Israel, and the
sun and moon stood still to see the battle.
But at last the soldiers came back from following the enemy. And Joshua
said, “Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings unto me
out of the cave.” So they took away the great stones and brought the
five kings. And Joshua made the five kings lie upon the ground before
all the army, and he called his captains and said, “Come near, and put
your feet upon the necks of these kings.” And they came near and put
their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said, “Fear not, be strong
and of good courage; for thus shall the Lord do unto all your enemies
against whom ye fight.”
XVII
THE BATTLE OF THE GREAT PLAIN
Right across the Promised Land, between the river and the sea, lay a
great plain. Mountains stood about it on every side, and through the
midst of it ran a winding river, called the Kishon. Some of the tribes
of Israel had settled among the hills on the north; others had settled
among the hills on the south. But the plain itself was held by the
enemy. They had a king named Jabin, and a general named Sisera, and nine
hundred chariots of iron. And for twenty years, they mightily oppressed
the Children of Israel. They were so strong and cruel that the Children
of Israel did not dare to show themselves, but went along the by-paths,
or through the woods, keeping out of sight. And none of them had either
shield or spear.
Now there was a woman in the land who was braver than any of the men,
and her name was Deborah. She was not only brave, but wise, so that
people used to come to her from all directions to ask her questions, and
she told them what to do. Thus she sat every day under a palm tree,
listening to the people and answering them. Many who came told Deborah
how poor and miserable they were, and how King Jabin’s men, the
Canaanites, troubled them, and stole all that they had, and were very
bad to them. So Deborah knew how the land was filled with suffering.
At last, one day, she sent for a man named Barak. “Barak,” she said, as
he came under the palm tree, “you know how the Canaanites are treating
our people, day by day, and year by year, and how since Joshua died we
have no leader. We must stop it. You must take the lead. God has spoken
in my soul, and has told me that you are the man, and that this is the
time. Go now, and get an army.”
But Barak said, “Deborah, we are all afraid, and we have no shields or
spears, nothing but sticks out of the woods, and Sisera has nine hundred
chariots of iron. Am I to do this thing alone, or will you go with me?
If you will go with me, I will go: but if you will not go with me, I
will not go.”
And Deborah answered, “I will surely go with you, but it will be a woman
and not a man who shall have the honor of the victory.”
So Barak sent messengers to all the tribes who lived among the hills by
the Great Plain. Some of the tribes said that they would not come, some
said that they would think about it; but Issachar and Zebulun and
Naphtali sent soldiers, until Barak and Deborah had ten thousand men. In
the meantime, Sisera gathered his great army, thousands upon thousands
of footmen, and thousands upon thousands of prancing horses, and nine
hundred chariots of iron. And Barak and his soldiers were on the side of
Mount Tabor, and Sisera and his soldiers were in the Great Plain. And
there came a storm out of the north, as if the clouds were an army in
the sky pouring water out of great buckets. And Deborah cried, “Up,
Barak; for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into
thine hand.” And Barak rose up and his men with him, and down they
charged over the side of the mountain. And the Great Plain was filled
with mud by the beating of the rain, so that the wheels of the chariots
sank like the wheels of Pharaoh’s chariots in the Red Sea. And the
Kishon overflowed its banks. And the army of Sisera fled east and west,
and the army of Barak followed them.
Now Sisera, when he saw that he was defeated and that his chariot was
stuck fast in the mud, leaped down in great haste and ran for his life.
And as he ran he came to a tent away off among the hills, where a man
lived whose name was Heber and his wife’s name was Jael. Heber had no
[Illustration: JAEL TAKES THE TENT PIN]