[Illustration: THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOST.]




HOW JERICHO WAS CAPTURED.


When men in olden times attacked a city, they tried to batter down the
walls with heavy beams of wood, having heads of iron, called battering
rams; but God did not instruct the Israelites thus to capture Jericho.
They were to remember that it was not by their own power they could
conquer the Canaanites, but only as God gave them the victory over
their enemies. So God commanded Joshua to lay siege to Jericho in a
very strange way. He said that seven priests, each having a trumpet,
were to go before the ark. In front of them the armed men of Israel
were to march; and behind the ark the people were to follow. In this
way they were to go round the city once each day for six days, the
priests blowing their trumpets each time. The seventh day they were to
go in the same manner round the city seven times; and God said that
when the priests blew their trumpets the seventh time, the people were
to give a great shout, and the walls of the city would fall down.

Joshua and the people did as God commanded. They marched round the
city carrying the ark, the priests blowing their trumpets; and on the
seventh day they marched round seven times. The last time, when the
priests blew their trumpets, the people shouted with a great shout,
and the walls of the city fell down flat. Then the Israelites went up
and took possession of it.