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Og, the two Amorite kings, on the other side of Jordan. "These actions have flashed terror amongst our people, "and quite dispirited them. Your God is the only God "in heaven and earth. Now, therefore, in regard of the "service I have done in concealing you, shew favour to "me and my family, when you come into power, and "save us alive; and of this ye shall give me some assu"rance." They readily promised, upon their lives, to secure her and all that belonged to her; upon which she let them down by a cord from the window which faced the country, for her house stood on the town wall. When they had descended, she advised them immediately to make to the neighbouring mountains, and there to conceal themselves for three days, till their pursuers should give over the search. The spies, perceiving the sincerity of the woman, in consulting their security, resolved to make her easy in their promise to her; and for a token of their integrity in the performance of it, give her this farther assurance. When she should see the Israelitish army approach the town, they bid her be sure to tie a scarlet cord in the window, through which she let them down; and to bring her father, mother, brethren, and all her family home to her house, and be careful to keep them within doors, that when their forces should enter the town, by this token they might distinguish the house and spare them. them. And that if any should straggle from the house, their blood should be upon their own heads; but if any one in the house should come to any damage, they would answer for it. To these terms she gladly agreed, and so dismissed them.

The spies having hitherto thus happily succeeded, take Rahab's advice, and make the best of their way to the mountains, where they lay concealed three days; in which time, those who went in pursuit of them, despairing to find them, returned to Jericho; and the spies, descending from the mountains, ford the river, arrive safely in the Israelitish camp, and give Joshua, their general, a faithful account of their expedition; adding, that, unquestionably the Lord had delivered the country into their

VOL. I.

hands, for the people were utterly dispirited at the fame of them.

Joshua, roused at this news, decamps from Shittim, and approaches the river Jordan: then, reminding the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, of the agreement made between them and Moses, that they, leaving their families and cattle on this side the river, should, with their best forces, go over armed before their brethren, to assist in subduing their enemies, and placing them in their possessions, they acknowledge the agreement, and declare their readiness to go; promising in all things to be subject to him their general, as they had been to Moses, and in all things to obey his commands, under penalty of death.

The army being provided with necessaries for their march, the officers, going through the host, commanded the people, that when they should see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord their God, and the priests of the Levites bearing it, then they should move and follow it, that they might know the way by which they were to go, because they had never before passed that way. And that order might be observed in their march, direction was given, that they should leave a space of about two thousand* cubits between the ark and the people.

Things being thus disposed, Joshua, early in the morning, on the ninth day of the first month, exhorted the people to sanctify themselves, because the Lord would on the next day, do wonders amongst them; and giving order for the priests to move, they took up the ark, and

• Two thousand. There were two thousand cubits between the Ark and the camp when they marched, Josh. iii. 4. and în all probability the same proportion was observed when they rested: this distance of ground some interpret to be one mile, some two; some measuring it according to a less, others according to a longer cubit, which they term a geometrical cubit. But all agree in this, that these two thousand cubits were a sabbath-day's journey; because on the sabbath-day they were all to repair to the place of God's public worship, which was two thousand cubits distant from those who encamped nearest.

marched with it, before the people, to the banks of Jordan, where they halted: here the Lord assured Joshua that he would so distinguish him in the sight of all Israel, that they should know his presence should be with him, as it had been with Moses. He directed him to tell the priests, who were to carry the ark, to halt on the brink of the river, which they accordingly did; and Joshua thereupon calling the people together to hear the words of the Lord their God, told them, That they should hereby know that the living God was among them, and that he would drive out the nations before them: for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the Earth passing into the river Jordan before them, as soon as the feet of the priests that bare it should touch the waters, they should divide and stand as an heap. Accordingly, the priests march into the river with the ark, and stopping in the midst of it, they stood on firm ground, the rapid stream dividing, and the waters, forgetting their fluidity, condense in heaps to afford them a dry passage. Thus did God make good his word to Joshua, in promising to magnify him in the sight of the people, by dividing the waters of Jordan, as he had done before to Moses, when the Israelites passed the Red Sea.

But before the people crossed the river, the Lord commanded Joshua to select twelve men, one out of each tribe, who, as soon as the people had passed the river, were to take up twelve stones from the place where the priests stood on dry ground, according to the number of the twelve tribes, and to set them up as a memorial of this great miracle in that place. He commanded them likewise to take other twelve stones, and to carry them on shore, for another memorial of the same miracle.

The priests who carried the ark walking on dry ground to the midst of Jordan, and halting there, as Joshua had ordered them, he commanded the rest of the people to follow, forty thousand of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, well armed, leading the van. When they were all safely arrived on the other side of the river, the general commanded the priests who bare the ark, which stood in the midst of Jordan till all

the people had passed over, to come out of the river with it; which they had no sooner done than the waters returned to their natural channel, and overflowed the banks as they usually did.

The Israelites, having thus securely passed Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, encamped in a place called afterwards Gilgal, which was in the east border of Jericho. Here Joshua erected the twelve stones, which the twelve men had brought out of Jordan, as a monument to posterity, that when the descendants of the Israelites in future times, should ask the reason of it, they might know, that the Lord their God had dried up the waters of Jordan, and caused his people Israel to pass that river on dry land, as he had formerly dried up the Red Sea for their passage out of Egypt; and that all the people of the earth might be sensible of the omnipotency of the mighty God of Israel.

The fame of this miracle soon spread through the neighbouring countries, and struck the inhabitants with astonishment and terror; for when the kings of the Amorites, who were on the west of Jordan, and the kings of the Canaanites, who inhabited the sea coast, heard that the Lord had miraculously conveyed his people over the river by dividing the waters, their hearts sunk for fear, and their courage entirely failed them.

Joshua having thus conducted the Israelites through the river, God commanded him to cause them all to be circumcised:* which being done, the Lord said to Joshua,

Circumcised. The great goodness as well as wisdom of God was very conspicuous in this act of circumcision after the Israelites were safe on the other side of Jordan; for their miraculous passage through that river, and the fame of former miracles wrought by God in their favour had so affected the neighbouring nations with fear, that they dare not offer the least opposition to Israel in their passage. But now that they were safe on the other side of the river, God had a work to do upon his people, which would render them for a while not only unable to assault their enemies, but even to defend themselves. For during their travel in the wilderness, circumcision had been omitted; not, it is supposed, through a neglect of that ordinance; but being, or at least expecting to be, always upon the march, they thought it unsafe to expose themselves to the hardship of it; and all

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"This day I have taken away the shame* of Egypt from you." And from this act of circumcision, the place where it was done was then called Gilgal.† Here the Israelites tarried till their circumcision wounds were healed; and here it was they kept the Passover,‡ on the fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening. the Israelites begin to enjoy the good of the land; the delicious products of the promised inheritance for on the next day after the Passover they ate of the corn, and there being plenty of all fruits, on the morrow the Manna was withdrawn.

Now did

All things being ready for approaching the city of Jericho, Joshua gives the word, and the army marches

they who were men, when they came out of Egypt, and had been circumcised there, being dead, (Joshua and Caleb only excepted) most of the present generation being such as had been born within the forty years of their travel in the wilderness, had not been circumcised hitherto. Therefore now that they had passed over Jordan, and were ready to take possession of the promised land, and the inhabitants of it under a general consternation having shut themselves up in Jericho, the Lord commanded Joshua to prepare for the circumcision of the people.

Shame. This shame might be either the reproachful diffidence of the Egyptians, who would not believe that the Lord would make good his promise in bringing his people into the promised land; (which Moses often hinted, when he addressed himself to God in behalf of the people, to deprecate God's anger from them, urging that their enemies from thence would take occasion to ridicule and question his omnipotence ;) or, remaining uncircumcised, they were like the Egyptians and other idolatrous nations.

+ Gilgal. Or Galgal, which signifies removing, rolling, or taking away. This word is used before in Josh. iv. 19. and in Deut. xi. 30. but it was in either place only by way of anticipation. This place is called by St. Jerome Golgal, a famous city, formerly about fifty furlongs from Jordan, and ten from Jericho in the straight road thither.

Passover. This was the third Passover the Israelites celebrated. The First the day before they came out of Egypt, Exod. xii. The Second was the year after, upon their receiving the Law, and setting up the tabernacle in Sinai, Numb. ix. 2. The Third was this in the Holy Land, in the plains of Jericho, Josh. v. 10.

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