118 TRANSFER OF THE 



CHAP. III. 



gold, and one hundred talents and one thousand 

 seven hundred and seventy -five shekels of silver, 

 or, in our money, to nearly two hundred thou- 

 sand pounds. 



In their wav to Canaan, the Israelites plun- 



. 



dered the people who opposed them ; and the 

 tribes who were exterminated in that country 

 must have possessed some gold and silver ; 

 and though in most instances the inhabitants, 

 and in some their cattle, were destroyed, yet 

 the precious metals found among them would 

 be carefully preserved. From the nature of 

 the society which existed among those people 

 whom the Jews overcame, their gold and silver 

 would be for the most part in the hands of their 

 chiefs, and be easily discovered and appropriated 

 by the invaders. 



We find that at Jericho l the gold and silver, 

 as well as the vessels of brass and iron, were put 

 into the public treasury ; and though the wedge 

 of gold, with the addition of the silver which 

 Achan 2 had concealed, was but of small value, 

 yet the circumstance of one of the private men 

 having appropriated to his individual use these 

 metals, to the amount of five hundred pounds of 

 our money, creates a fair presumption that they 

 were to be found in some quantities among this 

 and the other tribes who were subdued. On 



1 Joshua, cap. vi. v. 19. 



2 Idem, cap. vii, v. 21. 



