uilt. A second
attack was made upon Ai; the town was taken; and the road was made
clear for Israel to march into the heart of the country, in order to
hold the great religious ceremony of the reading of the law upon the
mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, which had been commanded them long
before. No note is given of the date when this ceremony took place, but
bearing in mind that the second month of the year must have begun at the
time of the first reconnaissance of Ai, and that the original giving of
the Law upon Mount Sinai had taken place upon the third day of the third
month, it seems most likely that that anniversary would be chosen for a
solemnity which was intended to recall the original promulgation in the
most effective manner. If this were so, it would account for the
circumstance, which would otherwise have seemed so strange, that Joshua
should have attacked two cities only, Jericho and Ai, and then for a
time have held his hand. It was the necessity of keeping the great
national anniversary on the proper day which compelled him to desist
from his military operations after Ai was taken.

We are not told how long the religious celebrations at Shechem lasted,
but in any case the Israelites can hardly have been back in their camp
at Gilgal before the third moon of the year was at the full. But after
their return, events must have succeeded each other with great rapidity.
The Amorites must have regarded the pilgrimage of Israel to Shechem as
an unhoped-for respite, and they took advantage of it to organize a
great confederacy. Whilst this confederacy was being formed, the rulers
of a small state of "Hivites"--by which we must understand a community
differing either in race or habits from the generality of their Amorite
neighbours--had been much exercised by the course of events. They had
indeed reason to be. Ai, the last conquest of Israel, was less than four
miles, as the crow flies, from Bireh, which is usually identified with
Beeroth, one of the four cities of the Hivite State; and the Beerothites
had, without doubt, watched the cloud of smoke go up from the burning
town when it was sacked; and the mound which now covered what had been
so recently their neighbour city, was visible almost from their gates.
That was an object-lesson which required no enforcement. The Hivites,
sure that otherwise their turn would come next, resolved to make peace
with Israel before they were attacked.

[Illustration: MAP OF SOUTHERN