The Legends of the Jews, vol 4 | Page 8

our kinsmen. Thou didst destroy our
palaces; without pity thou didst slay young and old; our fathers thou
didst mow down with the sword; and their cities thou didst turn into
desert. Know, then, that in the space of thirty days, we shall come to
thee, we, the forty-five kings, each having sixty thousand warriors
under him, all them armed with bows and arrows, girt about with
swords, all of us skilled in the ways of war, and with us the hero
Japheth. Prepare now for the combat, and say not afterward that we
took thee at unawares."
The messenger bearing the letter arrived on the day before the Feast of
Weeks. Although Joshua was greatly wrought up by the contents of the
letter, he kept his counsel until after the feast, in order not to disturb the
rejoicing of the people. Then, at the conclusion of the feast, he told the
people of the message that had reached him, so terrifying that even he,
the veteran warrior, trembled at the heralded approach of the enemy.
Nevertheless Joshua determined to accept the challenge. From the first
words his reply was framed to show the heathen how little their fear
possessed him whose trust was set in God. The introduction to his
epistle reads as follows: "In the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel,
who saps the strength of the iniquitous warrior, and slays the rebellious
sinner. He breaks up the assemblies of marauding transgressors, and He
gathers together in council the pious and the just scattered abroad, He
the God of all gods, the Lord of all lords, the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. God is the Lord of war! From me, Joshua, the servant of
God, and from the holy and chosen congregation to the impious nations,
who pay worship to images, and prostrate themselves before idols: No
peace unto you, saith my God! Know that ye acted foolishly to awaken
the slumbering lion, to rouse up the lion's whelp, to excite his wrath. I
am ready to pay you your recompense. Be ye prepared to meet me, for

within a week I shall be with you to slay your warriors to a man."
Joshua goes on to recite all the wonders God had done for Israel, who
need fear no power on earth; and he ends his missive with the words:
"If the hero Japheth is with you, we have in the midst of us the Hero of
heroes, the Highest above all the high."
The heathen were not a little alarmed at the tone of Joshua's letter.
Their terror grew when the messenger told of the exemplary discipline
maintained in the Isrealitish army, of the gigantic stature of Joshua,
who stood five ells high, of his royal apparel, of his crown graven with
the Name of God. At the end of seven days Joshua appeared with
twelve thousand troops. When the mother of King Shobach, who was a
powerful witch, espied the host, she exercised her magic art, and
enclosed the Isrealitish army in seven walls. Joshua thereupon sent
forth a carrier pigeon to communicate his plight to Nabiah, the king of
the trans-Jordanic tribes. He urged him to hasten to his help and bring
the priest Phinehas and the sacred trumpets with him. Nabiah did not
tarry. Before the relief detachment arrived, his mother reported to
Shobach that she beheld a star arise out of the East against which her
machinations were vain. Shobach threw his mother from the wall, and
he himself was soon afterward killed by Nabiah. Meantime Phinehas
arrived, and, at the sound of his trumpets, the wall toppled down. A
pitched battle ensued, and the heathen were annihilated. (45)
ALLOTMENT OF THE LAND
At the end of seven years of warfare, (46) Joshua could at last venture
to parcel out the conquered land among the tribes. This was the way he
did it. The high priest Eleazar, attended by Joshua and all the people,
and arrayed in the Urim and Thummim, stood before two urns. One of
the urns contained the names of the tribes, the other the names of the
districts into which the land was divided. The holy spirit caused him to
exclaims "Zebulon." When he put his hand into the first urn, lo, he
drew forth the word Zebulon, and from the other came the word Accho,
meaning the district of Accho. Thus it happened with each tribe in
succession. (47) In order that the boundaries might remain fixed,
Joshua had had the Hazubah (48) planted between the districts. The
rootstock of this plant once established in a spot, it can be extirpated
only with the greatest difficulty. The plough may draw deep furrows
over it, yet it puts forth new shoots, and grows up again amid