THE FALL OF JERICHO.
ACHAN’S SIN.
Ai was a city not far from Jericho. Three thousand Israelites went to take it. But some were killed and the rest got frightened and ran away. Joshua felt so badly that he went and told God all about it. God said that the Israelites had been beaten because one of them had kept for his own some of the silver and gold taken from Jericho. God pointed out that Achan was the man who had stolen these things and that he had hidden them in his tent. When they looked in the tent they found them buried in the ground. Achan and all his family and all that he had were stoned and burned and a great heap of stones raised over them as a warning.
ACHAN CONFESSING HIS SIN.
THE ALTAR ON MOUNT EBAL.
After Achan had been burned, the Israelites captured Ai and hanged its king on a tree. Then Joshua built an altar to God on Mount Ebal of whole stones that had never been cut. On the altar he put burnt offerings. On the stones of the altar he wrote the laws that Moses had given to the people when he was alive. Then he got all the people together, men, women and little ones, and read to them God’s promises of the good things that would happen to them if they did right, and the bad things that would happen if they did wrong. The people listened carefully to the reading. Joshua did this because he had promised Moses that he would just before he died.
