the

13. And seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets and the armed men went before them; and the reward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets

as they went.

but the rereward

14. And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.

about at

15. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times only on that day they compassed the city seven times.

16. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Josh'u-a said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.

13. Trumpets of rams' horns. These horns as a rule were straightened and flattened by heat.

The horns of

any animal may be shaped either by heat or by boiling in oil." "Only three proper tones are usually obtained." See "The Shofar" in Report of U. S. Nat. Museum for 1892, pp. 437450.- Polychrome Bible. The rereward. Those bringing up the rear. The rear guard.

14. So they did six days. Doubtless these inhabitants of Jericho made themselves merry with this sight. Wicked

Trumpet made of Ram's Horn.

"The

men think God in jest when he is preparing for their judgment. - Bishop Hall. plan no doubt exposed them to two things which men do not like, ridicule and danger. Possibly the ridicule was as hard to bear as the danger. God would protect them from the danger, but who would shield them from the ridicule?" —Blaikie.

On the other hand, Kitto says, "We do not, with some, think the proceeding was likely to awaken the mirth of the inhabitants of Jericho, more likely was it to make a solemn impression upon their minds."

15. On the seventh day. The circuit was made seven times; an all day's service. 16. At the seventh time, while the people were surrounding the city, when the priests blew with the trumpets, the long blast announced in v. 5 to be the signal. Joshua said . . . Shout. The Orientals take a peculiar delight in noise. "When our people are in dead earnest, they are generally silent; but the more in earnest an Oriental is, the louder he shouts. Even Arab boatmen, when in great danger, and every man is doing his utmost in struggling with the waves, will waste a lot of strength and breath in shouting." Hon. Selah Merrill. For the Lord hath given you the city. The result is given in v. 20. The wall fell down flat. Of course the shouting and the blare of the trumpets had no power to overthrow the broad walls of the city; but it connected the people with the miracle in outward form to show that only as they were really connected with it by faith would the work be done for them. The secondary means, some think, to have been an earthquake, but even then it must have been miraculous in its timing and in its limitation to the city, while the surrounding Israelites were untouched. AN INTERESTING COMPARISON. It is not at all likely that the explanation some have given is true, - that the keynote of the wall was struck by the tramping of the soldiers, the shouts of the people, and the blare of the trumpets, and that this caused the mud walls to fall. Such a thing has never been done. At the same time there are some interesting facts closely allied to it.

"All structures, large or small, simple or complex, have a definite rate of vibration, depending on their material, size, and shape, as fixed as the fundamental note of a musical chord. When the bridge at Colebrooke Dale (the first iron bridge in the world) was building, a fiddler came along and said he could fiddle it down. The workmen laughed in scorn, and told him to fiddle away to his heart's content. He played until he struck the keynote of the bridge, and it swayed so violently that the astonished workmen commanded him to stop. At one time considerable annoyance was experienced in one of the mills in Lowell. Some days the building was so shaken that a pail of water would be nearly emptied, while on other days all was quiet. Experiment proved it was only when the

devoted, even

is

are

17. And the city shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein, to the LORD only Ra'hăb the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because 'she hid the messengers that we sent. 18. And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the devoted thing; so should ye Is'ra-el a curse, and trouble it. accursed,

when ye have devoted it, 3

1 Josh. 2: 4.

yourselves
accursed thing, and

2 Deut. 7: 26; Josh. 7: 1, 11, 12.

accursed

devoted thing, lest make the camp of

3 Josh. 7: 25.

machinery was running at a certain rate that the building was disturbed. The simple remedy was in running it slower or faster, so as to put it out of time with the building. We have here the reason of the rule observed by marching armies when they cross a bridge, viz. Stop the music, break step, and open column, lest the measured cadence of a condensed mass of men should urge the bridge to vibrate beyond its sphere of cohesion. Neglect of this has led to fearful accidents. The celebrated engineer, Stephenson, has said there is not so much danger to a bridge when crowded with men and cattle as when men go in marching order. The Broughton bridge, near Manchester, gave way beneath the measured tread of only sixty men. A terrible disaster befell a battalion of French infantry while crossing the suspension bridge at Angiers, in France. Repeated orders were given the troops to break into section, but in the hurry of the moment and in the rain they disregarded the order, and the bridge fell.". Professor Lovering, of Cambridge. Tyndall tells us that "while away up amid the Alpine solitudes of Switzerland a few years ago, I noticed the muleteers tied up the bells of their mules, and was told that the protracted combined tinkling would start an avalanche."— Harper's Young People.

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 1. This plan of capture impressed upon the people the two elements by which all their victories and prosperity could be obtained, — the divine power, leading them to obey and trust God; and the human instrumentality through which that power worked.

2. It well illustrates the victories which the gospel was to obtain over all the principalities and powers of earth and hell. No human force was to be used. Nothing but the simple announcement of the truth, and that by the instrumentality of weak and sinful men, was the means chosen for the destruction of idolatry and the establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom over the earth. We should never be dismayed at any outward obstacle or hindrance in the way of God's kingdom; nor at the seeming feebleness of the means to be used.

3. All the people shall shout, in order that all may have their part in the victory. So when all Christians utter with all their might the words of Jesus, the kingdom of Satan will soon fall. By the weak things of earth God confounds the mighty (1 Cor. 1: 17–24).

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4. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down (Heb. 11: 30). All the acts of Joshua and of the people were the fruit of faith. So by faith only will Christians conquer the world, a faith manifested in obedience to the word of our Captain. IV. The Destruction of Jericho. Vs. 17-20. 17. And the city shall be accursed, devoted," Hebrew, herem. "That is herem which is devoted to God beyond redemption or exchange." "If destructible, that which is herem is to be utterly destroyed, thus putting it beyond the reach of every being but God. If not destructible, it is to be put to permanent religious use. The Canaanites and Amalekites were to be made herem, that is, utterly destroyed, as a religious act." "The people and animals of Jericho are to be made herem by slaughtering them, and the houses and clothing by burning, but the metals (Josh. 6: 19, 24; 7: 1, 11, 21) by putting them into the treasury of the house of Jehovah." - Prof. Willis F. Beecher. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, because of her aid to the spies, which may have arisen from her longing for a better life and a true religion. However bad her previous conduct, she seems to have repented, and trusted in the true God, and lived a good life henceforth, or she would not have been married to a leading Israelite, an ancestor of Jesus, nor her name be one of the only three women named in his genealogy. A bad past life will not prevent future usefulness and blessing, always provided that the bad is forsaken and hated, and the soul turns to a higher life.

NOTE how she showed her faith by binding the scarlet cord in her window, as told to do by the spies. Whoever saw the scarlet cord spared that house. She was safe, as were those Israelites who forty years before put the blood stains on their door-posts.

18. Keep yourselves from the accursed thing. "The Old English Version is here simple, but in part misleading. The R. V. is confused, and the phrase 'when ye have

are holy

19. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD. 20. 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 and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down a flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

and

a

IV. 5; Heb. 11: 30.

a Hebrew, under it.

devoted it' is erroneous. Transferring the Hebrew word, the clauses come out as follows, Keep ye from the herem: In this and in every case a man ought to keep his hands off from that which is religiously devoted to God. Lest ye cause herem: Here we have the verb, of the same stem. If you interfere with what has been religiously devoted to destruction, you will bring the same ban upon yourselves and those whom you represent. And take of the herem: Everything in Jericho here is herem,· devoted to God, to be either destroyed or placed in his treasury. You will be tempted to seize upon some things for yourselves, saving them from destruction, or keeping them from the treasury. Guard against the temptation. And put the camp of Israel for herem: If you take that which God has devoted to destruction or to his treasury, you will bring your nation into the condition of a thing similarly devoted." — Prof. Willis J. Beecher in S. S. Times. The story of the defeat at Ai and the destruction of Achan are the commentary on this verse.

19. All the silver, and gold, that could not be destroyed, but could be purified, was used for religious purposes.

This massacre seems terrible. But several things are to be remembered in addition to the suggestions in the last lesson.

1. It was in an untrained, semi-civilized age, and not the best thing absolutely, but the best thing possible under the circumstances.

2. It was a question which should be destroyed, the Israelites or the Canaanites. It was something like a modern self-defense against robbers. It is an awful thing to shoot a man, and yet there are times when the best Christian nations sometimes feel justified in doing it. It is an awful thing to imprison a man, and yet the police duty that requires it is sustained by the best Christian sentiment.

3. God cares for wild animals and all his creatures. the "Ancient Mariner ":

"He prayeth best who loveth best

All things both great and small;

We agree with the sentiment of

For the dear God, who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."

But if we lived in India, where a current report of the Government "shows that during the year 1899 the number of deaths among human beings attributed to wild animals was 2,966 — tigers caused the death of 899, wolves of 338, and leopards of 327 human beings, while bears, elephants, hyenas, jackals, and crocodiles were accountable for a large proportion of the remainder; and the loss of human life from snakes reached the high total of 24,621”we would not hesitate to destroy the wild animals and the snakes to save the 27,587 human beings.

NOTE. The Israelites were forbidden to take any of the spoil, because they needed the lesson. "The people and cities of Canaan were rich; the Israelites were poor. Canaan had the resources of a somewhat high civilization; gold, silver, vessels of brass and of iron; goodly Babylonish garments - all dazzling before the eyes of a people forty years in a barren wilderness. Now, suppose the Lord had given them free license to plunder, to steal and hide and appropriate all they could lay hands on! This movement for the conquest of Canaan would have become a savage, plundering, marauding expedition, not a whit above the demoralizing wars of all barbarous tribes upon nations largely in advance of themselves in wealth and luxury.' "" Cowles.

ILLUSTRATIONS of the sudden results of unseen forces. (1) The lightning flash preparing for a long time in the unseen gathering of electricity in clouds and earth. (2) How long a time the authorities were busy undermining Hurlgate rocks, beneath the waters, till the little daughter of the commandment touched the electric button. (3) The same is seen in the French Revolution, the Reformation, the destruction of slavery.

JOSHUA AND CALEB.-Joshua 14: 5-15.

GOLDEN TEXT. He wholly followed the Lord. JOSH. 14: 14.

I. The Land of the Conquest. THE LAND. We will first try to obtain a clear idea of the land as a whole, as presented in Prof. Geo. A. Smith's Historical Geography. By means of the accompanying map, we see that the country consists of four or five strips running north and south.

The central range is broken by the plain of Esdraelon, with which exception it runs from Lebanon southward till it falls away into the Negeb, i. e., the south country.

In the low country the inhabitants could war with cavalry and chariots.

In the central mountains only infantry could be used.

"The central range represents Israel's proper and longest possessions, first won and last lost; while all the valley land and table-land was, for the most part, hardly won and scarcely kept by Israel."

Eastern and western Palestine were almost as separate as the northern and southern cantons of Switzerland with the Alps between.

So

THE INHABITANTS. The conformation of the land implies the neighborhood of a wonderful variety of races, governments, and systems of civilization. The differences of soil and climate imply differences of occupation and character. that a revolution or invasion or devastation in one part might take place without affecting the other countries or peoples. Palestine was almost as much divided into petty provinces as Greece, and far more than those of Greece are her divisions intensified by differences of soil and climate. The petty kingdoms often consisted of a single city with its environs, or a small group of towns.

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THE NEW INHABITANTS. "Taking the nation as a whole, Israel's entrance into the land marked a rise in civilization from the nomadic to the agricultural stage." "From such passages as Deut. 29: 13; 31: 7; 30: 15-18, etc., may we not see that this land was more, in the eyes of their great leaders, than a mere home? It was to be their workshop, school, place of service for God and the world. The mere instinct of possession does not adequately explain their motives and acts.” "The spirit which animated the leaders of the people is illustrated in the case of Caleb (Josh. 14: 6-15; 15: 13-19) and of Joshua (Josh. 18: 3; 19: 49, 50). The religious point of view is best set forth by the expressions of Deuteronomy, which may be compared almost at random." "The land placed the Hebrew in the very center of the streams of the human life of the time, midway, as she was, between Egypt and Babylonia. It was an observatory and a school. At the same time, the peculiar topography of the country made it capable

Physical Map of Palestine.