all this. It has only been my desire to bring you comfort.”
“And for that, I am grateful, Alyun. But as you can see, the gods have not done me well. My only interest in them is in protecting myself from their atrocious behavior and violations of my person. What benefit would another foreign male divinity of war be for me?”
She did not give the answer that the benefit of that divinity was that he was out to destroy all the other divinities who had violated her. And that he was in fact a loving father and shepherd that Rahab had never experienced. Just the little she memorized about Yahweh from her couple scraps of poetry brought more truth and love into her soul than anything she had ever encountered. She could not wait to meet this god on the heap of carcasses of the soldiers in this fort.
“Jebir,” said Alyun, “return Rahab to her inn.”
Chapter 37
By the sixth day of Israel’s siege of Jericho, the inhabitants had gone back to their normal daily lives, and soldier duty had reduced to minimal shifts of observation on the walls. Alyun had become convinced that these Habiru were completely ignorant of what was required for a siege. They built no siege towers, no battering rams. They did not even seem to build ladders for climbing the walls. He toyed with the possible notion that they may very well be the most ignorant foreigners he had ever encountered.
The reason for this was that the Habiru did the same thing every day without change. They marched in procession around the walls with their golden idol on poles and blew their ram’s horns. After they completed one circuit, they would remove themselves to their camp a short distance away.
The soldiers on the walls would laugh and make jokes at the Habiru, pulling up their battle skirts to flash their private parts and buttocks at the morons.
It was ridiculous. What were they doing? They must surely have no idea what to do, so they walked around in circles like a mad child chanting delusions to themselves, thinking that their repetition would be the necessary magic to make Jericho surrender to them. Or maybe it was just their silly religious ritual of waiting for the city to run out of supplies.
Let them try to wait this out, thought Alyun. We are rationing and we have enough supplies to last two years.
Alyun thought they might just pick up their weapons and go home like a little child who cannot win at a game.
• • • • •
That night, Joshua and Caleb ate their meal with the Commanders. Even they were becoming a bit impatient and embarrassed with what they were doing. Commanders had asked Joshua how long they were going to do this, and what were his plans for besieging the city. He had told them they would get an answer tonight.
Caleb took a bite of mutton and washed it down with some wine from his goatskin flask. He was sitting with Salmon and his brother Othniel at the commanders’ fires with the other commanders of thousands and of hundreds.
Salmon was in midstride detailing in hushed tone his night with the harlot Rahab to those closest to him. He had their attention—and their imaginations.
Joshua overheard him and cut him off, “Salmon, that is enough of your whispers. You should shame in your weakness, not glory in it.”
The men would not argue. They knew he was right. And he was the Commander of the armies of Israel. But everyone also knew it was the one sin that most warriors turned a blind eye toward. It was the one sin that they did not treat very harshly because so many of them were guilty of it.
Except for Joshua and Caleb.
“But sir,” replied Salmon, “I want to marry Rahab. What I experienced that night was not mere fornication. It was love. I am in love with Rahab.”
The commanders groaned teasingly.
Suddenly, Othniel who had quietly listened this whole time burst out of his silence.
“You are not in love, captain,” said Othniel. “You are in lust.”
“ What is the difference?” said Salmon, and
“And for that, I am grateful, Alyun. But as you can see, the gods have not done me well. My only interest in them is in protecting myself from their atrocious behavior and violations of my person. What benefit would another foreign male divinity of war be for me?”
She did not give the answer that the benefit of that divinity was that he was out to destroy all the other divinities who had violated her. And that he was in fact a loving father and shepherd that Rahab had never experienced. Just the little she memorized about Yahweh from her couple scraps of poetry brought more truth and love into her soul than anything she had ever encountered. She could not wait to meet this god on the heap of carcasses of the soldiers in this fort.
“Jebir,” said Alyun, “return Rahab to her inn.”
Chapter 37
By the sixth day of Israel’s siege of Jericho, the inhabitants had gone back to their normal daily lives, and soldier duty had reduced to minimal shifts of observation on the walls. Alyun had become convinced that these Habiru were completely ignorant of what was required for a siege. They built no siege towers, no battering rams. They did not even seem to build ladders for climbing the walls. He toyed with the possible notion that they may very well be the most ignorant foreigners he had ever encountered.
The reason for this was that the Habiru did the same thing every day without change. They marched in procession around the walls with their golden idol on poles and blew their ram’s horns. After they completed one circuit, they would remove themselves to their camp a short distance away.
The soldiers on the walls would laugh and make jokes at the Habiru, pulling up their battle skirts to flash their private parts and buttocks at the morons.
It was ridiculous. What were they doing? They must surely have no idea what to do, so they walked around in circles like a mad child chanting delusions to themselves, thinking that their repetition would be the necessary magic to make Jericho surrender to them. Or maybe it was just their silly religious ritual of waiting for the city to run out of supplies.
Let them try to wait this out, thought Alyun. We are rationing and we have enough supplies to last two years.
Alyun thought they might just pick up their weapons and go home like a little child who cannot win at a game.
• • • • •
That night, Joshua and Caleb ate their meal with the Commanders. Even they were becoming a bit impatient and embarrassed with what they were doing. Commanders had asked Joshua how long they were going to do this, and what were his plans for besieging the city. He had told them they would get an answer tonight.
Caleb took a bite of mutton and washed it down with some wine from his goatskin flask. He was sitting with Salmon and his brother Othniel at the commanders’ fires with the other commanders of thousands and of hundreds.
Salmon was in midstride detailing in hushed tone his night with the harlot Rahab to those closest to him. He had their attention—and their imaginations.
Joshua overheard him and cut him off, “Salmon, that is enough of your whispers. You should shame in your weakness, not glory in it.”
The men would not argue. They knew he was right. And he was the Commander of the armies of Israel. But everyone also knew it was the one sin that most warriors turned a blind eye toward. It was the one sin that they did not treat very harshly because so many of them were guilty of it.
Except for Joshua and Caleb.
“But sir,” replied Salmon, “I want to marry Rahab. What I experienced that night was not mere fornication. It was love. I am in love with Rahab.”
The commanders groaned teasingly.
Suddenly, Othniel who had quietly listened this whole time burst out of his silence.
“You are not in love, captain,” said Othniel. “You are in lust.”
“ What is the difference?” said Salmon, and
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