Caleb and Joshua opposed this discouraging report. At it, the Israelites lost courage and murmured against Moses and Aaron and were about requesting a new captain who should lead them back to Egypt. At this critical moment, God appeared at the tabernacle threatening to destroy them. At Moses' intercession He spared them, but He declared that none of those who rebelled should see the Promised Land.

The Israelites then wandered in the wilderness for nearly forty years until all the men of twenty years and older, who had come up out of Egypt, had died in the wilderness as God had said. During that time they probably wandered about in the neighborhood of Kadesh-Barnea. During this period, Korah, Dathan and Abiram rose in rebellion against Moses and Aaron. The earth opened and swallowed them and their families up, while fire burst forth from the tabernacle. The people murmured at their fate and were about rebelling against Moses and Aaron, when God sent a pestilence among them.

SECTION 7.

THE JOURNEY TO CANAAN.
(Num. 17-Deut. 34.)

After nearly forty years of wandering, the Israelites gathered together to enter the Promised Land. Miriam had died, Moses and Aaron had committed the sin, which prevented them from entering the Promised Land. For when the people murmured for water, Moses upbraided them as rebels, saying: "Must we fetch you water out of the rock?" He then smote the rock. For that impatience and lack of faith, they were not permitted to enter Canaan. So at God's command, Moses took Aaron's garments from him and put

them on Eliezar, his son. And Aaron died at Mount Hor where the Israelites mourned for him thirty days.

While journeying in the eastern part of the Sinaitic peninsula, they were punished for murmuring by fiery serpents. So Moses made a brazen serpent upon which they looked and were healed. (John 3: 14). The Israelites marched northward and Moses defeated Og, the giant king of Bashan, and thus gained possession of the great region east of the Jordan.

Then Balak, king of the Moabites, who lived southeast of Palestine became alarmed at the victorious progress of the Israelites. He called to his aid, a famous prophet Balaam, who lived beyond the Euphrates, that he might curse Israel. Balaam at first refused to come because warned against it by God. Then Barak sent more and higher messengers and finally with God's perhigher messengers and finally with God's permission, Balaam came. Three times Balaam, to the great disappointment of Balak, found himself unable to prophesy against Israel. Finally when Balak upbraided him, he uttered famous star prophecy (Num. 24: 7), thus prophesying the ultimate conquest of Moab by the Israelites and the wide extension of God's kingdom. Unfortunately Balaam fell later. He suggested to the Moabites to tempt the Israelites into immorality and finally fell in battle fighting with the Midiantes against them.

the

Before entering the Promised Land, Moses permitted the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh to settle east of the Jordan. Moses, about to die, gathered the Israelites together on the plains of Moab. There he rehearsed to them God's dealings with them since they left Egypt and repeated the

law, all of which is given in the book of Deuteronomy (which means "second law"). Moses then went up to the top of Mt. Pisgah, east of the Jordan river. There God gave him a view of the Promised Land, which he was not permitted to enter. There he died and was buried by God in an unknown sepulcher. The Israelites mourned for thirty days and pledged obedience to Joshua as his successor. But no prophet ever after rose up like unto Moses, who had seen God face to face. Moses was great as a lawgiver, prophet and writer.

Chapter IV.

THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN AND THE TIME OF THE JUDGES. (1451-1171 B. C.)

SECTION I.

THE LIFE OF JOSHUA.
(Josh. 1-24.)

Joshua, who succeeded Moses as the Leader of the Israelites, prepared to enter the Promised Land. He sent ten spies, who entered Jericho the walled city west of the Jordan. Rahab received them into her house and hid them on the roof. She let them down from the window of her house outside the city wall. For this kindness they swore to save her family when the city would be taken by the Israelites, provided she would hang a scarlet thread out of her window. The spies then returned to Joshua, telling him that the inhabitants were fainting with fear of the Israelites.

Joshua led the Israelites across the river Jordan which at that time (April) overflowed its banks. As soon as the feet of the priests that bore the ark touched the water, the river divided. The priests stood in the midst of the river with the ark until the people had all passed over. Then they took twelve stones and made a heap in the river-bed as a perpetual memorial of the passage of the Jordan on dry land. The Israelites entered the Promised Land and kept the passover, just forty years after their fathers had kept it for the first time in Egypt. At God's command the people were circumcised and the place was called Gilgal. On the day after the passover, the manna ceased and they ate of the fresh food of the land.

While Joshua was considering how to cap-. ture Jericho, he had a vision of a man with a drawn sword-the Captain of the Lord's Host,who foretold the capture of Jericho and the method by which it was to be accomplished. The Israelites marched around the city once each day for six days bearing the ark and blowing ram's horns. On the seventh day they marched around it seven times. At the seventh time, they blew the trumpets, at which the city walls fell down and the Israelites rushed into the city. Rahab and her household alone were spared and she became the ancestress of David and of Christ. The city was burned and all the spoil devoted to the Lord.

The next conquest was the town of Ai, northwest of Jericho. Here, however, Joshua and his army of three thousand were at first defeated. God revealed to him that the cause of the defeat was the sin of the Israelites. Achan was found to be the guilty one. He confessed that he had secreted from the spoil of Jericho, which was all to be devoted to God, a Babylonish garment and

money, and had hidden them in the earth in his tent. As a punishment he was burned. Then Joshua, having thus purged Israel, again attacked Ai and captured it, reducing it to a heap of stones. He then marched to the centre of the Promised Land of Shechem. There he built an altar and read to the people the blessings and the cursings, as Moses had commanded.

The third victory of Joshua was at BethHoron. The Gibeonites, who lived northwest of Jerusalem came to Joshua at Gilgal, pretending by their old shoes and mouldy bread that they had come a very great distance and belonged to a distant tribe. They asked Joshua to make a treaty with them which Joshua did. Three days later the Israelites learned how the Gibeonites had deceived them. Joshua to punish them declared they should always be servants of the Israelites, "hewers of wood and drawers of water". The five kings of southwestern Canaan led by Adonibezek, formed a league against Joshua and besieged Gibeon, whose inhabitants appealed to Joshua for relief. Joshua, by a forced night-march from the Jordan valley, suddenly fell on these enemies and defeated them at Beth-Horon. As they fled the Canaanites were overtaken by a hail-storm, which slew more than had perished by the sword. Joshua commanded the sun and moon to stand still that he might complete their defeat. The five kings hid themselves in a cave and were captured, and put to death.

The last campaign of Joshua was against the the kings of the north whom he defeated at the Waters of Merom, north of the Sea of Galilee. He thus completed the conquest of the Promised Land. Joshua thus, by four campaigns, at Jericho, at Ai, at Beth-Horon and at Merom conquered