Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, "Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, 'Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.'" And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men as spies secretly, saying, "Go view the land, and Jericho." And they went, and came into the house of a woman whose name was Rahab, and lay there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the land." {279}{280} [Illustration] MOUNDS MARKING THE SITE OF OLD JERICHO From the road from Jerusalem to Jericho From a photograph taken by Prof. D. G. Lyon and used by his kind permission. Jericho, "the city of palm trees," was the only important place in the Jordan valley. In Bible times it was a beautiful and prosperous city, but now it is only a waste. Its palm trees are gone and the site is desolate. It was often conquered by the armies which passed through Palestine. After its walls fell down before Joshua's hosts, "no great man was born in Jericho; no heroic deed was ever done in her. She never stood a siege and her inhabitants were always running away." --_Smith_ [End illustration] {281} And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they are come to search out all the land." And the woman took the two men, and hid them; and she said, "Yea, the men came unto me, but I knew not whence they were: and it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I know not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them."