there with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua said to him, Art thou for us or for our enemies? The man said that he had come to be the captain of the children of Israel, to show them how to fight, and to lead them unto victory.

Then Joshua bowed down, and worshipped him, for he knew it was the Lord.

Now Jericho was straitly shut up, because of the children of Israel: none went out and none came in.

And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.

And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once: thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout: and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Joshua told the people what the Lord had commanded them to do. And he charged them not to shout, nor to make any loud noise, until he gave them the word. Then they were to shout with all their might.

So the seven priests with the seven trumpets marched in front of the ark, and behind it followed the armed men. And they marched round the city once each day for six days, returning to the camp and remaining quietly there. On the seventh day they rose early, and went out and marched seven times around the city. And the seventh time, the priests blew more loudly on their trumpets, and Joshua called out to the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city!

So the people shouted, and the wall fell down, and the Israelites marched in and took the city, and laid it waste with fire and sword. Only Rahab and her kindred were left alive, and they were taken to a safe place near the camp of the Israelites.

God had commanded the children of Israel not to touch the ark under penalty of death. This meant they were to do no

sin, but to keep all the laws of God, and to lead pure and holy lives. And if one man committed a sin, all the children of Israel were to be held guilty.

Now when Jericho was being burned up, one of the Israelites, a man named Achan, saved from the flames a lump of gold, a quantity of silver, and a costly robe, and hid them in his tent, thinking no one would discover his crime. But the eye of God was upon him, and he could not escape being found out.

Joshua sent two or three thousand men from Jericho to Ai, to conquer that place; but the men of Ai killed thirtysix of the Israelites, and put the rest to flight. This defeat was a great blow to Joshua, and he and the elders of Israel put dust on their heads as a token of their grief and shame.

The Lord made it known to Joshua that Israel had sinned; that some one in their midst had kept back some of the treasures of Canaan that were to be burned by fire. For the Canaanites were worshippers of idols, and the Israelites were not to covet their goods.

God told Joshua that the children of Israel should win no victories over their enemies until these spoils of war were taken out of the camp and burned up. And he told Joshua how to find the man who had committed the crime, and what was to be done with him and his household.

So Joshua called up the children of Israel according to their tribes, and questioned them. And Achan the son of Carmi, of the tribe of Judah, confessed the crime, and told Joshua what he had done.

And Joshua sent messengers to his tent, and they brought the silver and gold and costly garments, and spread them out before him. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day.

And the Israelites took Achan, and his family to a valley north of Jericho, and stoned them to death. After which they and everything belonging to them were burned, and a heap of stones was raised over the ashes. The place was called the valley of Achor from that day.

The Lord told Joshua not to be afraid, but to go to war

against the people of Ai, and he would deliver the city into his hands, and he was to destroy it as he did Jericho.

Joshua did as the Lord commanded; and he chose out thirty thousand men and sent them away by night to lie in wait, or in ambush, beyond the city. The next morning Joshua set out with about five thousand men, and took his stand in front of the city. When the king of Ai saw these men, he thought

they had all come, and went out to fight against them and to drive them from the land. All the people in Ai gave chase, and Joshua and his five thousand fled as if beaten in battle. In this way the people were drawn far from the city, and those that were hidden back of the city went in and set it on fire.

The men of Ai looked back and, behold, the smoke of

their city was up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that.

And thou shalt do to Ai and her king, as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.

Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord on Mount Ebal, and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings upon it. Afterwards he wrote upon the stones the words of God's law, and read them to all the people, as Moses had commanded the children of Israel.

And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite heard thereof; that they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.

And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, they acted with more cunning. They went to Joshua, putting on old clothes and wornout shoes, and having dry and mouldy bread with them, to pretend that they had come from a far distant country, and had been a long time on the road.

And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Jeshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye?

And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come, because in the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt. Therefore our elders sent us to ask you to make an alliance with them and to be our friends.

And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us?

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Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.

And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and draw

ers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose. There was living at Jerusalem about this time a heathen king, who became alarmed at the victories of Joshua, and, moved by fear and jealousy, he sent for four other kings of Canaan to consult with them. They came up to the city where the Gibeonites lived who had deceived Joshua and the Israelites, but whose lives had been spared because Joshua made peace with them.

Come up unto me, said the king of Jerusalem to the four other kings, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon; for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

Then the men living at Gibeon, who wore the old shoes and old garments, and carried with them the dry and mouldy bread when they deceived Joshua-these men were greatly afraid, and did not know what would become of them, and they sent unto Joshua, the great soldier of God, who was then staying at a place called Gilgal.

Come up to us quickly, they said, and save us, and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered against us.

So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war, and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.

And the Lord gave Joshua and the men of war that were with him victory over their enemies, and they were slain with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased along the way that

, goeth up to Beth-horon, because they were very wicked people.

The Lord sent a great hailstorm from heaven upon them, and a great many more died in the awful storm than were Islain with the sword.

It was getting late in the day, and Joshua, desiring to end the battle before dark, looked up into the sky and commanded the sun to stand still. So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.