in which twelve tiles or bits of skin or leaves were cast, each bearing the name of a tribe. Either Joshua or the priest, or else perhaps a little child, drew out one of these. It was that on which the name of Judah was written. This set all the other tribes free from suspicion. Then the names of the three sons of Judah-Pharez, Zerah, and Shelah—were put in. The lot fell on Zerah. He had had five sons, and their names were the next. Of them Zabdi was chosen, and each head of a family among his children was then named. One guilty heart must have trembled as the unerring lot came nearer and nearer. Carmi was marked out, and then, when his sons were put in, the lot fell upon Achan. The Eye had watched him when he thought none could see him, as surely as it watches us; and the punishment of deeds of darkness will never miss, though it may be longer deferred than was his. Still one hope was left to the miserable man. Free confession would-in Joshua's kind and fatherly words-"glorify God;" so that even while Achan suffered there might be pardon. The confession was made, and as if in the spirit of true repentance. The spoil that had been set apart beforehand as sacred to the Lord had tempted him, and he had hidden the richly-worked robe, the silver and the gold, in the earth under his tent. There they were found, and then came the terrible judgment on those who had robbed God-on Achan, the troubler of Israel, as he is called in the Book of Chronicles, and on all his family. It was a part of the Law that "the children shall not be put to death for the fathers," but Achan's family had no doubt known, concealed, and thus shared his sin; nor could the cattle of the sacrilegious man be shared among his kindred. Therefore all died by stoning, the regular form of execution among the Jews. Nor was it a very cruel death. The persons to suffer were usually placed on the edge of a precipice, and the first heavy stone was so aimed as to strike the head, throw them down, and thus usually kill them, or at least stun them at once, and the next stone thrown on the chest was almost certain to end the work. A great heap of stones was the monument of the danger of sacrilege-that is, of robbing God; and the spot was called the Valley of Achor-that is, "Causing trouble."

LESSON IX.

THE AMBUSH AGAINST AI.

B.C. 1451.-JOSHUA viii. (abridged).

And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land:

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.

So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent them away by night.

And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready:

And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city : and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us as at the first, that we will flee before them.

For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before them.

Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.

And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.

And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they halted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

* Men put in hiding.

And there was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, that went not out after Israel and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.

And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched

out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.

And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand : and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.

And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again and slew the men of Ai.

And the other issued* out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day.

And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.

COMMENT.-Though the city of Jericho had been miraculously given over to the Israelites, they were to win other places by the usual rules of warfare, only with the Lord blessing their arms. And the city where they had been beaten while Achan's sin was still among them was in a place they must have heard of with honour and reverence, for Abraham had built an altar in a valley with Ais on one side and Bethel on the other-Bethel, which later took its name from the dream of Jacob.

Joshua drew profit from his former defeat. He sent 30,000 men to hide themselves in that very valley,+ while he drew out the main body of his army in the other valley in front. On the third day the King of Ai came confidently out to battle, and Joshua feigned that his army was beaten, and took to flight. All the warriors of Ai rushed out of their city, leaving the gates open, and

*Came out.

He sent 5,000 more to join them the next night (verses 9 to 12)

Then

they were joined by those of Bethel, to hunt their enemies. Joshua gave the signal by stretching out his spear. He had probably reached some height where he could be seen by the men in ambush, for they instantly obeyed, and hastened to the open gates of Ai. There they set fire to the town; and so soon as Joshua saw the smoke, he faced round and began to fight with the men of Ai. It was of no use to fly, for the city was on fire behind them, and the men who had been in ambush came out and attacked them on the other side.

Thus it was that Ai was utterly destroyed. Joshua held up his spear, or leading staff, all the day till the work was over and the city lay in ruins, the King beneath a heap of stones where the gate had been.

[This, we may believe, was a continuation of that same type that we first saw in Moses at the battle of Rephidim. The Mediator stretches out His hands all day, as long as His people have their battle with sin to fight, and again the victorious Saviour upholds His Cross, their banner, until sin, the world, and the devil shall all be destroyed.]

Ai not being the firstfruits like Jericho, there was no special dedication of the spoil, but it was shared among the victors; only all the inhabitants were slain, as being under the direct sentence of God. The city never appears to have been rebuilt, and the exact place where it once stood is uncertain.

LESSON X.

THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE.

B.C. 1451.-JOSHUA viii. 30-35.

Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal, As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.

And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.

And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.

There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant* among them.

COMMENT.-The conquest of Ai had brought Joshua close upon Shechem, which was to be the inheritance of his own tribe. But his thought was to obey the command given by God through Moses, that on the entry into the Land of Promise the terms on which it was held should be proclaimed from Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

As this is a short lesson, turn back to Book II., Lesson lxxi., and read the commands of Moses respecting it. Then think of the solemn scene there must have been, half the tribes standing on the slopes of the one hill, half on the other, the valley between filled with white-robed priests and Levites surrounding the Ark of God, and Joshua with his victorious spear, and the roll of the Book of the Law left him by Moses.

His voice began, "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image." The Levites took it up in one mighty and terrible chant, and from the bare rocky hill of Ebal came back an Amen from thousands and thousands of voices, as he went through all the curses; then through all the blessings, with the responses from Mount Gerizim. And lastly, Joshua read through the whole of the choice that had been put before the people, both at Sinai and at Pisgah-the description of joy and prosperity on the one hand, and of woe, misery, and desolation ever increasing on the other-as in the 26th of Leviticus and the 28th of Deuteronomy. Men, women, children, and the strangers conversant among them, such persons as Hobab and his Midianites, or any Edomites and Moabites who might have joined them, or the descendants of the

* Who were on friendly terms with the:n.