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E. WALTER MAUNDER, F.R.A.S., ON 



Joshua, to the camp to Gilgal, saying. Slack not thy hand 

 from thy servants ; come up to us quickly, and save us. 

 and help us ; for all the kings of the Amorites which dwell 

 in the mountains are gathered together against us." 



Joshua responded instantly to the appeal. He and his men 

 set out at nightfall ; they went up from Gilgal all the night 

 and were at the gate of Gibeon the following day :-- 



" And the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew 

 them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them 

 along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote 

 them to Azekah and unto Makkedah. And it came to 

 pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going 

 down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones 

 upon them unto Azekah, and they died ; they were more 

 which died with hailstones than they whom the children of 

 Israel slew with the sword." 



The victory was gained at Gibeon ; what followed was the 

 " discomfiture " of the Amorites — ^that is to say, their dispersal 

 in headlong rout ; they ceased to be an ordered army. 



This brings us to a very significant feature of the geographical 

 problem. The Amorites fled by the way of the two Beth-horons. 

 A glance at the map shows what this implies. We should have 

 expected the Amorites, upon their defeat, to have retreated upon 

 Jerusalem, which was their base ; or, if this line were closed, to 

 have attempted to move north and seek shelter with the Canaan- 

 ites in the coimtry afterwards given to Ephraim. Instead, they 

 fled by a difficult and precipitous route which led them away 

 from either, and the language used about their flight is most 

 expressive ; they were " chased " along the way going up to 

 Beth-horon the Upper ; then " they fled from before Israel " 

 in the precipitous descent to Beth-horon the Lower, and while 

 in the going down a tremendous hailstorm burst upon them — 

 a storm so violent that " they were more who died from the 

 hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the 

 sword." The flight of the Amorites was continued yet further ; 

 first to Azekah, at which point the hailstorm appears to have 

 ceased . Here the remnant of the Amorites seem to have turned to 

 the south-west, as if they were hoping to reach Lachish and 

 Eglon, the cities whence many of them had come. On their 

 way hither they reached Makkedah, where the battle ended, 



