He then died, at
the age of 120, B.C. 1451 and no man knew the place of his burial.

(M107) The Lord then encouraged Joshua his successor, and the conquest of
the country began--by the passage over the Jordan and the fall of Jericho.
The manna, with which the Israelites for forty years had been miraculously
fed, now was no longer to be had, and supplies of food were obtained from
the enemy's country. None of the inhabitants of Jericho were spared except
Rahab the harlot, and her father's household, in reward for her secretion
of the spy which Joshua had sent into the city. At the city of Ai, the
three thousand men sent to take it were repulsed, in punishment for the
sin of Achan, who had taken at the spoil of Jericho, a Babylonian garment
and three hundred sheckels of silver and a wedge of gold. After he had
expiated this crime, the city of Ai was taken, and all its inhabitants
were put to death. The spoil of the city was reserved for the nation.

(M108) The fall of these two cities alarmed the Hamite nations of
Palestine west of the Jordan, and five kings of the Amorites entered into
a confederation to resist the invaders. The Gibeonites made a separate
peace with the Israelites. Their lives were consequently spared, but they
were made slaves forever. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy that Canaan
should serve Shem.

Meantime the confederate kings--more incensed with the Gibeonites than with
the Israelites, since they were traitors to the general cause, marched
against Gibeon, one of the strongest cities of the land. It invoked the
aid of Joshua, who came up from Gilgal, and a great battle was fought, and
resulted in the total discomfiture of the five Canaanite kings. The cities
of Makkedah, Libnah, Gizu, Eglon, Hebron, successively fell into the hands
of Joshua, as the result of their victory.

(M109) The following year a confederation of the Northern kings, a vast
host with horses and chariots, was arrayed against the Israelites; but the
forces of the Canaanites were defeated at the "Waters of Merom," a small
lake, formerly the Upper Jordan. This victory was followed by the fall of
Hazor, and the conquest of the whole land from Mount Halak to the Valley
of Lebanon. Thirty-one kings were smitten "in the mountains, in the
plains, in the wilderness, in the south country: the Hittites, the
Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites."
There only remained the Philistines, whose power was formida