The Bible Story Vol 2_w.pdf - Herbert W. Armstrong

east wall. When he saw the growing columns of people marching toward
his city, he nervously barked out orders for all soldiers to take their battle
stations, and for all civilians to get off the walls and streets and out of the
shops and into their homes or shelters.
As the Canaanites continued watching, they became discouraged,
confused and relieved in turns. The foremost of their approaching enemies
marched just close enough for discerning that they were soldiers.
Then they veered to the left and moved along to the south of the city.
"Why should they give us such a wide berth if they intend to
attack?" one officer asked.
"Perhaps they don't intend to attack," another observed. "Possibly
they're just moving on to the west."
"That hardly seems possible," the king muttered. "They've taken
every city from the Arnon River to Mt. Hermon!"
Rising hope that Israel was moving out and by-passing Jericho was
abruptly downed when the foremost Israelite soldiers turned north to
parallel the west wall of the city . A little later they turned back eastward
to distantly flank Jericho's north wall.
The city was being surrounded by thousands upon thousands of
Israelites!
Why they remained at such a distance baffled the Canaanites.
Another mystery was the presence of seven long-robed horn blowers
marching behind the first large segment of the moving column. As they
marched, they held up carved trumpets called shopharim which were
made of rams' horns, and emitted shrill blasts that echoed from the hills
to the west. Behind the horn blowers marched four more robed men
carrying what appeared to be a large box. The Canaanites had no way of
knowing that this object was the ark of the covenant, and that the other
seven robed men were priests who had been instructed to blow special
horns. This was the only sound that came from the Israelites. It was
frightfully puzzling to their watchers, because it was the usual habit of
soldiers on the march to shout or sing. In this case, the Israelites had been
told not to utter a word during the marching around Jericho.
For well over an hour the Canaanites uneasily watched the enemy
parade. It required somewhat more than that for any part of the marchers
to pass around Jericho and return to the Israelite camp. Jericho's
ruler remained on the wall, gravely puzzled as to the meaning of such a
weird demonstration. (Joshua 6:8-11.)
"Didn't anyone here think to try counting them?" he impatiently
asked.
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