Saint Joshua

This land, promised to the patriarchs, and where their descendants were to dwell as masters, was then of marvelous fertility. Situated at a latitude even more southern than the portion of Africa that is today French, it presents its valleys and hills to the fires of an ever-warm sun. The Mediterranean sends its refreshing breezes there from the West; Lebanon with its cedars protects it against the cold winds of the North; a chain of mountains, which bounds it to the South and then runs to the East, beyond the Jordan, stops in their path those waves of burning air that exhale from the sands of Arabia. Rains are rare there, except in the seasons of autumn and spring; in summer, there are only heavy dews. But abundant springs gush from the flank of the mountains, and the hollows of the valleys turn green under this humidity constantly maintained by nature. The soil, admirably diversified, presents plains suitable for cultivation, stony hills where vines and fruit trees can grow, and whose base, covered with thick grass, would easily nourish numerous herds. The country had in abundance oil and honey, barley and wheat, and all the savory and delicate productions of the southern regions.

Thus, waves of men were soon able to crowd within its narrow borders, without having to suffer the rigors of misery and hunger.

About to bring the borders of this beautiful land under his arms, Joshua sent before him two brave men tasked with scouting the point where the invasion was to take place. He was then at Shittim, two leagues beyond the Jordan, to the north and not far from the Dead Sea. Opposite, on this side of the river, also at a distance of tw o leagu Jéricho Place where Sabas had a hospital built. es, was Jericho, the first city that had to be taken. It was there that the two scouts went, at the peril of their lives. They stopped before a house that overlooked the ramparts, belonging to a woman of questionable morals, whose na me wa Rahab Woman of Jericho who hid the Israelite spies. s Rahab. The king was promptly informed that Israelite spies had entered the city in the evening; he sent word to Rahab: "Bring out the men who have come to you and who are in your dwelling, for they are spies who have come to scout the land." But this woman, already instructed in the secret mission of her guests and won over to their belief, made them climb in haste to the terrace of her house, and hid them under stalks of flax that were spread out there.

She then said to the king's officers, regarding the two strangers: "It is true, I received them, but without knowing where they came from; they left around the hour when the city gates are closed, and I do not know where they have gone; but pursue them quickly, and you will overtake them." Indeed, the officers ran in their tracks along the road that led to the ford of the Jordan; moreover, the city gates were kept closed, so that the spies could not leave if they had not already escaped. It must be admitted that Rahab held neither a truthful language nor a patriotic conduct. But, undoubtedly, she acted and spoke under the empire of the fear universally spread among her compatriots and under the impression of the wonders worked by heaven in favor of the Hebrews; this is the explanation, if not the excuse, for her words and deeds. Be that as it may, she rejoined her guests and said to them: "I see that God has delivered this land to you; for you have cast terror among us, and the courage of all the inhabitants of the region has vanished. We know that upon your departure from Egypt, God dried up the waters of the Red Sea under your steps, and what things you have made the two Amorite kings, Og and Sihon, who lived beyond the Jordan and who fell under your blows, experience. These reports have frightened us, our hearts have melted, and your arrival finds us without strength; truly the Lord your God is the one who reigns above in heaven, and below on earth. Swear to me, therefore, in his name, to treat my father's house with the same compassion that I have shown you; give me a sure sign to save my father and my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that belongs to them, and to deliver our lives from death." It was the fulfillment of the words of Moses, who had promised the children of Israel that Jehovah would make dread walk before them and would deliver to their arms the enemy frozen with an unspeakable terror.

The two envoys gave the required commitment and swore on their lives that no harm would be done to Rahab or her relatives, provided that she herself remained faithful to her oath. Then she hung a rope from her window along which her guests were to slide to flee; for the countryside extended at the foot of her house, which was built on the city wall. And she said to them: "Gain the mountains, lest the emissaries meet you: remain hidden there for three days, until they return; then you will resume your journey." Charmed by this good advice, they gave her renewed assurance of their protection. Having descended to the foot of the walls of Jericho, they took refuge in the nearby mountains and waited for the space of three days for the emissaries to return to the city, weary of fruitless searches and abandoning their prey. This delay expired, they returned to the Hebrew camp and reported their mission to Joshua. "The Lord has put this whole region into our hands, and all the inhabitants are plunged into fear and stupor."

However, Joshua had made all the preparations for the invasion. The tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had obtained from Moses the lands of Jazer and Gilead, previously inhabited by the Amorites, along the eastern bank of the Jordan, but on the condition of helping their brothers in the work of conquest and even marching first against the enemy. They were therefore invited to leave their families and their flocks under a sufficiently strong guard, and to swell the expeditionary army with their most valiant men. They were to endure all the perils reserved for the other tribes, and only sit in the peace of their homes after the submission of the country and the final division of the lands. All replied to the general: "We will do what you have prescribed for us; we will go where you send us. As we obeyed Moses in everything, we will obey you; only, may God be with you as He was with Moses! Whoever resists you and wishes to contradict your ordinances, let him die! Be firm, and act with manly courage." The troops were animated, unity doubled their strength; one felt the solemn and supreme hour approaching.

Before setting out, Joshua said to the people: "Come and hear the word of Jehovah, your God. You will recognize by this sign that Jehovah, the living God, is with you, and that He will exterminate before your eyes the Canaanites, your enemies: the ark of the covenant of the Master of the universe will cross the Jordan at your head; whe n the pr Jourdain River miraculously crossed by the Hebrews. iests who carry the ark touch the waters of the river with their feet, the waters from below will flow away, leaving their bed dry; the waters from above will stop like a solid mass." The heralds-at-arms had transmitted the general's orders and fixed the place for the various tribes. The procession began. The priests advanced carrying the ark of the covenant. It was spring, in the first month of the Hebrew year. The seasonal rains and the torrents of melted snow, fallen from the mountains, had considerably swollen the Jordan, which was flowing at full capacity. However, no sooner had the priests set foot in the waves than the upper waters, piling up on themselves, retreated several leagues toward their source, while the lower waters followed the natural slope that drew them toward the Asphaltite Lake. The ark made a halt in the middle of the dried-up river, in order to give the multitude time to cross it. Indeed, the multitude, struck with astonishment, passed without obstacle from one bank to the other; the same arm that held the Jordan suspended, acting on the courage of the indigenous peoples, disconcerted all resistance: no obstacle stopped the conquerors.

Joshua had received the order to transmit to posterity the memory of this prodigious fact, by means of a simple but significant monument: he was to pile up in the plain twelve stones taken from the bed of the Jordan. He therefore chose twelve men, one from each tribe, and while the ark was stationed in the middle of the river, he commanded them to each carry away a large stone, in order to make a heap intended to remind future generations of such a great day. Then, the entire army having accomplished its marvelous passage through the dried-up current, the priests themselves withdrew, carrying the preserving ark on their shoulders. At the moment when they reached the western bank, the waters, freed from constraint, obeyed only their natural gravity and resumed their regular flow.

Between the river and Jericho lies a countryside of about two leagues. From the Jordan, it rises in very noticeable steps separated from one another by completely level plains. Today the soil is sad and arid: it is a white sand whose surface appears imprinted with the salts that the evaporations of the Dead Sea spread in the vicinity. The Hebrews advanced to within half a league of Jericho, on the heights that overlook the city, in the very place where a hamlet named Gilgal was later built. Joshua had the monum ental s Galgala Site of the first encampment in Canaan and the erection of the monument. tones that had been extracted from the Jordan gathered in this place, and he said to the people: "When your sons, one day, questioning their fathers, wish to know what these stones mean, you shall tell them to instruct them: Israel crossed the bed of the Jordan on dry ground, Jehovah our God drying up the waters before us, until we had passed, as He had done with the Red Sea, which He dried up under our feet, so that all the peoples of the earth may know His almighty arm and that you may fear the Lord your God forever." It is, in fact, to the imperishable memory of this wonder that the great poet of the Hebrew nation asked the waves of the Jordan and the Red Sea if they had not seen the face or felt the hand of Jehovah, when terror made them turn back, and if the God of Israel had not sufficiently distinguished His cause from that of the vain idols by suspending the course of nature through these inimitable bursts of sovereign power.

The crossing of the Jordan, accomplished in such an unheard-of manner, had two results: it fixed upon Joshua the universal confidence of the Hebrews, who saw the wonders once accomplished by the liberator Moses revived in the hand of their new leader; then it cast irresolution and terror among the indigenous populations, who no longer felt the strength to support a cause fought by heaven. For this double reason, the conquest was rapid and easy, whereas it could have cost the invaders dearly and held them up for a long time.

The Israelites remained for some time at Gilgal. One day, when Joshua was in the countryside, he suddenly saw a man standing before him, a drawn sword in his hand. He worshipped him. "Are you for us," he said, "or for our enemies?" "Neither," replied the stranger; "but I am the prince of the army of Jehovah, and I have come to your aid. Remove your sandal, for the ground you tread is holy." Joshua prostrated himself full of respect, and did as he was commanded. The vision continued: "I have delivered into your hands Jericho, its king, and all its defenders. Let the whole army march around the city to the sound of the trumpet, once a day, for six days in a row; on the seventh, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests, walking before the ark of the covenant, shall sound the trumpet. Then, when the voice of the instruments makes longer blasts heard to your ears, then the entire multitude shall raise a formidable collective cry; the walls of the city will fall of their own accord, and each will enter through the breach that is before him."

Joshua transmitted to the priests and soldiers the orders he had just received. The march of the people around Jericho was to remain constantly silent until the supreme hour when the cry of triumph would emerge from every chest. The general added: "Let the city be anathema, and all that it contains devoted to the Lord. Let only Rahab have her life spared with all those who are in her house, because she hid the scouts sent by us. For the rest, take care not to retain anything from the cursed city, lest you be guilty of prevarication and bring trouble and sin upon the entire army of Israel. All the gold and silver, the vessels of bronze and iron, shall be consecrated to Jehovah and set aside in his treasuries."

The siege of Jericho began, but according to the plan that the mysterious warrior had traced for Joshua. It lasted seven days. The operations began early in the morning. The men of war marched in the lead: then came the ark carried by priests, while other priests sounded the trumpet; finally, the whole multitude followed without confusion and without cries. The circuit of the city completed, they returned to the camp. This new strategy must have seemed quite harmless to the besieged. However, on the seventh day, the evolutions multiplied. At the seventh time they passed under the walls, long blasts of trumpets were heard; a formidable cry rose from the heart of the army, the ramparts fell of their own accord. The Hebrews mounted the assault, each through the breach that was before him. It is thus that the breath of God overturned all these stones where Jericho proudly placed its vain hope, in order to make all centuries understand that the true strength of peoples is not in the walls that bristle the cities, nor in the iron that arms the arms, but in the faith that fills and stirs the souls.

Masters of Jericho, the Hebrews treated it with supreme rigor. Not only the men capable of bearing arms, but the old men, the children, and the women, all perished by the sword; even the animals were slaughtered. What the sword had not reached, the fire devoured. The unfortunate city had to endure all the consequences of an absolute anathema. The gold, silver, iron, and bronze were alone reserved to serve later for the pomp of religious worship. Then Joshua pronounced imprecations upon the ruins of Jericho: "Cursed be before the Lord," said the Hebrew captain, "cursed be the man who shall rise up and rebuild the city of Jericho! When he lays its foundations, may he lose his firstborn; may he lose the last of his sons when he sets up its gates!" This imprecation was not in vain: long after, under the reign of Ahab, an Israelite from Bethel tried to rebuild the cursed city; the work was beginning when his eldest son died; it was being finished when his last son was taken from him.

In the midst of the carnage and the fire, the oath that guaranteed Rahab her life was not forgotten. She herself had displayed the agreed-upon signal. Joshua sent her the two warriors she knew to protect her and bring her out of the city with all her relatives. This family was then incorporated into the nation; Rahab married Salmon, of the tribe of Judah, and even her name was found in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Doubly happy, she was able to escape the disasters of the conquest where her compatriots perished, and above all from error and vice, the fatal principles of the death of souls.

Joshua hastened to take advantage of the incredible terror inspired from afar by the swift ruin of Jericho. He was aided in his designs by the isolation in which his enemies first placed themselves to resist him. Not only did the seven peoples who occupied the land fail to oppose the invaders with combined forces or a simultaneous effort; but each of them did not even know how to fight together, at least from the beginning of the conquest; for as many important cities as it had, so many political groups it formed, whose leader took the title of king and maintained total independence from his neighbors. However, a league was organized, but too late to save the threatened interests. Joshua marched against the city of Ai, a few leagues from Gilgal, where he had established his headquarters. After a slight setback, he mastered it and made it suffer the fate of Jericho: it was delivered to the flames, and its population put to the sword. Only the riches and the herds were reserved. Then a religious ceremony placed the victors under the protection of God, confirming them in the respect of the law. An altar was erected on Mount Ebal, according to the prescribed rite: victims were immolated there. The priests, the judges, the officers of the army, the elders of the people, the entire multitude, were ranged around the Ark of the Covenant. Joshua blessed the crowd, and recited the words of glory and misfortune pronounced by Moses upon the faithful executors and the violators of the pact solemnly concluded with God, thus recalling the conditions to which national prosperity was attached.

The redoubled blows that had just struck down Ai and Jericho frightened the inhabitants of Gibeon, the metropolis of a few villages, and henceforth the closest to the places where the storm was falling. They used ruse: some of their own came to the camp in old shoes and clothes, covered with dust, and carrying among their provisions entirely dried-out bread. They presented themselves as ambassadors from a distant country, and, thanks to this fraud, they were able to make an alliance with the Hebrews, who did not seem disposed to clemency toward the natives. Thus, when the ruse was discovered, the army wanted to treat the small kingdom of Gibeon severely and above all to plunder it; but the leaders made the given word respected, even though it had been surprised. The Gibeonites had their lives saved, on the condition, however, that they would forever provide men for the humblest tasks and the low service of the temple.

But Gibeon had not escaped all perils. By treating with the foreig Gabaon Allied city where Joshua commanded the sun to stand still. ner, it had just given a troublesome example and opened the way to Jerusalem. The king of this latter city undertook to remedy this double evil by immediately punishing those who had caused it. He did not dare to attack the Hebrews, because the forces of the national league were not yet united; but, supported by some neighboring princes, he laid siege to Gibeon. Joshua received a deputation from his new allies, who asked him for prompt help. Indeed, he set out at the head of his best soldiers, and, after a forced march, he fell upon the besiegers unexpectedly and with vigor. They, disconcerted by this sudden attack, thought only of fleeing; the sword decimated them; heaven itself declared against them, and a rain of stones struck down a great number of them. It was then that, in the enthusiasm of victory and seized by that power of religious sentiment which raises man to an unusual height and makes him enter into the familiarity of God, Joshua solicited the time to complete the defeat of the enemies on that day, and gave orders to nature: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon," he said, "and you, moon, do not advance over the valley of Aijalon." Nature heard this word pronounced with energetic faith, Jehovah deigning to obey the voice of a man and fighting for Israel.

The victory won by Joshua under the walls of Gibeon led to further successes. The entire southern part of Canaan was attacked and subdued in this first campaign. In truth, the Hebrew captain did not follow a plan suited to giving stability to his conquests: instead of occupying the defeated cities permanently, he abandoned them after having exterminated or put their inhabitants to flight; whether he feared weakening his forces and exposing scattered garrisons to enemy attacks, or whether, unable to satisfy all his troops at once—who were, moreover, difficult to lead—he feared awakening jealousies and murmurs if he immediately granted rest and land to some while others lacked them. It was therefore necessary to first march triumphant arms across the entire region where they intended to settle, to disperse the indigenous populations by striking them with terror, and, after this summary taking of possession, to proceed to the general partition of the country and settle there definitively.

Joshua had spent only one year traversing the south of Palestine as a conqueror; but it took him no less than five years to subjugate the north. The league of threatened princes gathered numerous troops near the waters of Merom, between the Sea of Galilee and the source of the Jordan; it relied heavily on its cavalry and war chariots. The Hebrews had no horses, and they were ignorant of the art of defense against these chariots armed with sharp iron blades, which were hurled into the midst of battalions to cut through and break them. Joshua compensated for the forces he lacked with activity; after religiously securing the help of God, he fell upon the confederates with such violence and suddenness that they did not have time to rally to put up a serious resistance. A great number perished; the others, fleeing the wrath of the conqueror, dispersed into the strongholds that still held out.

Once the work of conquest was completed, Joshua occupied himself with the definitive partition of the lands. Already some tribes had their lot on the eastern bank of the Jordan. Skilled men were ordered to traverse the country, to map it, and to divide it into such portions that there would be less extent where there was more fertility. Then, lots decided the respective positions of the twelve children of Israel. Simeon and Judah occupied the south, having Idumea and Arabia Petraea at their borders. In the north, Asher and Naphtali had Phoenicia and Syria as their boundaries. Between these extreme points and between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, the other sons of the patriarch found their place: Joseph figured in the partition at the head of his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh; Levi did not have a separate lot like the others: cities were reserved for him at various points in Palestine. Each tribe had to repeat for itself what had been done for the whole people: to divide its lands into as many main cantons as it counted families within its bosom, then to subdivide them into portions applicable to the citizens. By this primitive operation and by the regulations that maintained its result, this small Hebrew people solved at its birth, forty centuries ago, a problem before which the genius of modern nations hesitates, tires, and is terrified: to favor agriculture and suppress the proletariat by parceling out property.

Worn out by fatigue even more than by old age, although he was indeed of a very advanced age (one hundred and ten years), Joshua died while recommending to his brethren the exact observance of the law. His final gaze could rest with some joy upon the providential role he had just fulfilled: the Canaanites were defeated beyond return; the Israelites had made a homeland for themselves; religion saw its ceremonies observed; the civil and political government, traced in advance by Moses, was in force; the nation was founded with the elements of a lasting life. It lived, despite harsh trials, until the moment when the Roman eagles clutched it in their bloody talons, and cast it, torn into shreds, upon all the slave markets that the empire possessed. VIES DES SAINTS. — TOME X. 25 The children of Israel buried Joshua at Timnath-Serah, on the mountain of Ephraim, on the northern slope of Mount Gaash. In the time of Saint Jerome, this tomb was still shown, upon saint Jérôme Father of the Church and biographical source for Amand. which the image of the sun had been engraved. Long forgotten since, it has just been rediscovered: its remains have been seen and described by Messrs. de Saulcy and Guérin.

Joshua, with Caleb, as leaders of the explorers sent by Moses to reconnoiter Palestine, usually carry the large cluster of grapes that was shown to the Israelites as a sample of the land's fertility. — He is also depicted commanding the sun to stand still over the city of Gibeon.## CULT. — WRITINGS.The memory of Joshua has always been a blessing among the people of God; Scripture declares that he succeeded Moses, not only in power, but primarily in the spirit of prophecy; that he was predestined to save the elect of God, to overthrow His enemies, and to acquire for Israel the inheritance that the Lord had prepared for him. Thus, the Jews have always honored him as a savior, and Christians as an image of the divine redeemer of our souls. The Jews celebrated his death with a public fast established on the twenty-sixth day of Nisan, which was the first month of their ecclesiastical year. Christians honor his memory on the 4th day of September, which the Greeks chose as corresponding to the beginning of the imperial indiction or Greek year.Joshua is the author of the book in our Bibles that bears his name. It is not known exactly in what year he beg livre de nos Bibles qui porte son nom Book of the Old Testament recounting the conquest of Canaan. an it; but it is certain that he did not finish it until after the holding of the assembly he had convened at Shechem (today Nablus, a city in Palestine), since he speaks of it at great length in this book. It contains the most remarkable events from the death of Moses until his own, that is to say, during the space of about seventeen years that he governed Israel. It can be divided into three parts: the first (I-XIII) is a history of the conquest of the land of Canaan; in the second (XIII-XXIII), Joshua divides the promised land; in the third (XXIII and XXIV), he recounts the manner in which he renewed the covenant between the Lord and His people.Saint Jerome, in the abridged enumeration he makes of the books of the Old and New Testaments, says of Joshua that "he mystically describes the spiritual kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem and of the Church in the villages, cities, mountains, springs, torrents, and boundaries of Palestine."The Jews still use today a formula of prayers that they usually recite upon leaving the synagogue and which they attribute to Joshua.We have drawn the substance of this biography from: Women of the Bible, by Mgr Darboy; History of the Church, by Ducros; History of Sacred and Ecclesiastical Authors, by Dom Remy Cellier; and Evenings of the Old Testament, by Balthus.