God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token; And that ye will save alive my father and my mother, and my brother, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death."

To this request of Rahab the spies readily assented; and they promised, in the name of their leader, that when the city was taken, she and all who were in her house should be saved alive. Rahab's house was built upon the walls of the city, and a window looked out upon the open country without the gates, which were shut and guarded, to prevent the escape of the spies. To this window she now took them, and let them down by a cord to the foot of the wall; whence she desired them to flee into the mountains, and wait there concealed three days, until the men of Jericho who were sent in their pursuit should be returned; after which they might re-cross the Jordan, and proceed in safety to their camp. Before leaving Rahab, the spies fixed upon a token by which to distinguish her house, when their army should come to besiege Jericho. They desired her to bind in her window the line of scarlet cord by which she had let them down; and they again solemnly promised that if she would bring into her house her parents and relations, all these should be saved, in return for the protection she had afforded them. They then fled

in haste to the mountains, where they remained three days, until all danger of pursuit was over, and then they returned to Joshua.*

We should be careful to observe that the conduct of Rahab in deceiving the king's messengers in order to save the spies, is not put down for our imitation, but simply recorded as a fact: nor is she rewarded for the manner in which she rescued the spies, but for believing in the God of the Israelites, and preserving the lives of his people. She, like the rest of her nation, had heard of the miraculous manner in which the Israelites had been brought out of Egypt, and led through the imminent dangers which beset their journey across the wilderness; fame spoke loudly of the destruction which had overwhelmed the Midianites, and Amorites; and, while the king of Jericho hardened his heart, like Pharaoh, and resolved to resist a power evidently divine, Rahab took the wiser and more virtuous course of submission, and obedience. She considered the Israelites as the chosen people of God; and as such, and evidently only because they were such, she preserved the lives of the spies, and by so doing, saved her own: for, "she perished not, with them that believed not, when she had

* The houses in the east are usually built with flat roofs, surrounded with a parapet, whither the family resort in the cool of the evening, to enjoy the delightful freshness of the air: sometimes an awning is put up, and the roof thus becomes the pleasantest apartment of the house. The parapets between the houses are usually so high as to secure the most complete privacy.

received the spies with peace." Heb.xi. 31. Meanwhile, the spies returned in safety to Joshua, to whom they related all that had befallen them, concluding with these words, "Truly the LORD hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the land do faint because of us."

Immediately on the return of the spies, Joshua broke up his camp at Shittim and marched to the Jordan, where he rested three days. Here he commanded the Israelites to sanctify themselves, in holy preparation of the great miracle about to be wrought; which was to magnify Joshua in the sight of the people, and prove that the Almighty was with him, as He had been with Moses.

"And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God. And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perrizzites, and the Gergashites, and the Amorites and the Jebusites. Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. Now, therefore, take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the Ark of the LORD, the LORD of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut

off from the waters that come down from above;

and they shall stand upon an heap." "And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people, as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare it were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overflowed all his banks all the time of harvest,) that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap, very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan ; and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people passed over right against Jericho.* And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan; and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan."

When the people had passed, the Levites bearing the sacred ark, came up out of the bed of the river, and the waters returned to their usual course: the twelve men whom Joshua had commanded to be selected from each tribe, took twelve stones out of the river, from the spot where the Levites stood, and carried them to Gilgal, where the Israelites encamped that night:

*The portion of the bed of the river laid dry is supposed to be about seven miles; the ark borne by the Levites being close against the wall of water, was thus interposed between it and the people which passed below,

there they were erected into a pillar, to be for a sign and memorial to their children's children, of the mighty miracle which had signalized their entrance into the land promised to their fathers; "that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD that it is mighty; and that the Israelites might fear the LORD their God for ever."

CHAPTER II.

THE ISRAELITES KEEP THE PASSOVER of GilgAL.

MANNA CEASES. THE TAKING OF JERICHO.

THE night after the Israelites passed over Jordan, they encamped at Gilgal, a small town situated between the Jordan and Jericho, the exact site of which is unknown. Here the miraculous supply of manna, which had afforded them food in the desert plains of the wilderness, ceased; for in the Land of Promise whither they were come, plenty reigned, and they eat of "the old corn of the land," and of "parched corn the self same day. It was at the time of the barley harvest, after the corn-harvest, and the parched corn was probably ears of new corn roasted or baked, which is at this day a common and favourite dish with the inhabitants of the East. Before proceeding to the conquest of the