The Ark in the Jordan

BY FREDERICK R. PICKERSGILL, R. A., THE ENGLISH

ARTIST, DIED 1900.

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“And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you.”—Jos., 3, 10.

NOR three days the spies were away; and during those

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three days Joshua bade the people prepare and

sanctify themselves, even as Moses had given them three days of purification before the Lord spake to them from Sinai. Another wonder was now to assure the multitude that, to their new leader also, had God given His divine aid and authority.

The season was springtime, the period when the Jordan, rushing down in fullest flood, may have spread almost a mile from shore to shore. Yet Joshua made no preparations for bridges or for boats. He only bade the people stand back and watch, and assured them they should cross, Then he sent forward the priests who bore the holy ark of God. With confidence equal to Joshua's own, the priests marched onward to the river edge; and, as their feet touched the first swirling, muddy wavelets, the wonder happened. The waves drew back. As the ark steadily advanced, the waters always fell away before it, until at length the whole furious flood was checked, and the priests stood dryshod in the very center of Jordan's channel.

JOSHUA V-THE CIRCUMCISION

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the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.

19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. 20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone

over:

24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for

ever.1

Chapter 5

1 The Canaanites are afraid. 2 Joshua reneweth circumcision. 10 The passover is kept at Gilgal. 12 Manna ceaseth. 13 An Angel appeareth to Joshua.

ND it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

2 ¶ At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. 3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

4 And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.

5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.

6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD Sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

flint."

"This last clause is altered in the Revised Version to read "that they may fear, etc." Or "knives of

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JOSHUA V-THE CAMP AT GILGAL

7 And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.

8 And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.

9 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal1 unto this day.

10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.2

11 And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. 12 And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

13 ¶ And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am · I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?

15 And the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy, And Joshua did so.

Chapter 6

1 Jericho is shut up. 2 God instructeth Joshua how to besiege it. 12 The city is compassed. 17 It must be accursed. 20 The walls fall down. 22 Rahab is saved. 26 The builder of Jericho is cursed.

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

2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour."

3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.

4 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.

5 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

Gilgal comes from the verb galal, meaning "to roll." This feast of the passover completed the forty years from the time of the first passover in Egypt. Apparently this verse continues the address of the captain of the Lord's host" in the preceding chapter.