based on The Book of Joshua, chapters 1 through 6
In which the Promised Land is conquered by the intercession of a foreign woman, a prostitute. And the invincible walls crumble from the call of a trumpet.
Joshua repeated the teachings of Moses constantly under his breath.
How to get his people to the land of milk and honey? How to get across the delta of the Jordan?
The plain was flooded. Everywhere was water. The people waited on the banks of the overflowing river.
God would work miracles. Joshua just knew it.
The twelve tribes of Israel walked one after the other up the bank of the river as the Ark of the Covenant was carried on ahead. When the bearers stepped into the water, the river stopped.
And all the people crossed.
Each tribe took one stone from the riverbed.
And Joshua set up the twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, and they are there unto this day. Standing witness.
With the walls of Jericho there in the distance. A walled city. No one went in; no one came out.
Through the streets, two shadows flit. Spies sent by Joshua to look around a bit.
Near the ramparts lived a floozy named Rahab. She had heard word of Moses and his God.
The spies, pursued by the men of the king of Jericho, knocked on her door, and she agreed to help.
She took them up onto the roof and hid them beneath her sheets.
The king’s men questioned her: Where are the spies? They have gone with the night, she replied.
Then she let them down from the roof by a rope.
You’ve saved our lives, said the spies.
Thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window, and we’ll save you in turn.
Back at camp, the people were getting anxious. Our courage is failing, they cried.
Then a strange horseman appeared to Joshua, saying: As Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. And you’ll win.
The next day, the Hebrew warriors walked all around Jericho. And again, once a day for six days.
Seven priests with seven rams’ horn trumpets carried the Ark of the Covenant.
On the seventh day, they walked around the town seven times. The priests sounded their trumpets.
Joshua commanded: Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!
And the walls of Jericho fell.
The warriors entered the city. And massacred men, women, children, even the elderly and all the animals.
Only Rahab and her house were spared. A woman, both harlot and enemy, had helped Israel.
The city was in ashes.
It was the first of many conquests. God had made his people victorious.
All the enemy kings were hanged from a tree.
And God unleashed a hail of stones.
And cut the tendons of all the horses.
And Joshua stopped the sun.
Neither it nor the moon moved again until the massacre was done.
One by one, every city was besieged, conquered, and destroyed: Makkedah, Lachish, Libna, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, Kadesh, Gaza, Goshen, Gibeon . . .
They ran a sword through everything alive. From the plain to the mountain, nothing survived.
Then the land rested from war.
Canaan was divided among among the twelve victorious tribes.
Joshua had grown old, still repeating Moses’s teachings.
He said to the gathered people: Behold, this day I am going the way of all the Earth. But never forget that God gave you victory.
