OTHNEIL

The Force of God

Chapter Five

by Richard S. Barnett

CHAPTER FIVE

The people of Summit City, Jarmuth, opened their gates wide to Caleb and the men of Judah and Simeon when we came leading their king Shikha and his hired troops captive.
We felt pleased at making such a swift start on taking over the highlands of Canaan, and Caleb sent word back to the rest of our people to join us at Summit City. As we waited for them, we counted what we had won and we decided what to do with our prisoners. Caleb announced that he welcomed all the people of the land who wished to join us in peace and serve the God of Israel. The fate of their Amorite rulers, the Highborn, was another matter.
After my men and I chained up Shikha in his own fort, I left him under guard and walked around Summit City. It perched on a rounded hill at the very edge of the foothills and rose high enough for its defenders to see across the coastal plain to the Great Sea beyond. Inland waited the highlands with the great cities of the Amorites. The walls of the city were roughly dressed, massive blocks of limestone. To my eyes, they seemed to be as well built as the walls of Gibeon or Chatsor, and far better workmanship than the walls of Ai or Jericho.
Then I heard the noise of a man screaming in pain and others laughing at him, their voices cruel and thick with wine. I ran back into the city and saw a crowd of our soldiers. I pushed through and saw my brothers and their friend Gedawr amusing themselves by tormenting a dwarf. I had never seen one before, and I'm sure they hadn't either. They had stripped him and were jabbing at him with their spears, making fun of his attempts to protect himself. Between his screams he cursed them in Hebrew--an odd but perfectly good Hebrew that aptly described his tormentors.
My brothers had drawn blood with their light jabs, and they appeared bent on worrying the dwarf to death that way. I had endured so much petty meanness from them that I couldn't bear to see even a dog treated that way.
I disarmed my brothers with the butt of my spear and thrust the point under Gedawr's chin, ready to kill him. "Call off your curs!" I snarled at him.
Gedawr made a motion and my brothers stood back spewing curses. I ripped off Gedawr's mantle and tossed it to the dwarf to cover himself. "Why don't you save your strength for the Highborn?" I asked them.
"You first!" they sneered as they attacked me.
They were not too drunk to kill me between the three of them, so I used the butt of my spear to stun Gedawr. My brothers went sprawling at the same moment.
I turned and saw Acsah. She must have seized the first chance to join Caleb at Summit City. She had pushed through the crowd of watchers and tripped my brothers with one of their own spears. Her voice seethed with anger as she scolded us, "Haven't you brutes anything better to do than brawl?"
She laid an arm around the dwarf's shoulders and led him away without another word.
I felt so stung by her rebuke that I hid my shame by chiding the whole crowd along with my brothers and Gedawr: "What fools you have made of yourselves today. You’re no better than the Highborn! They make a sport of cruelty to slaves and children. Sons of Israel who serve the Lord should abhor such evil. Get yourselves to Caleb and the elders and cry out to them if you think I have wronged you. See for yourselves how they will judge you."
The crowd disbanded without a word and I left and went back to the fort to join my hundred. I had to find a quiet place to get over my anger and shame. An open quarrel with my brothers and Caleb's son was bad enough, but it meant nothing to me in comparison with being scolded by his daughter. I felt that my whole life had suddenly crashed in ruins. Going before Caleb to appeal for judgment would destroy all my hopes. Leaning on a wall of the fort with my head in my hands, I wondered if I should cast myself off the wall and end my misery.
It was nearly dark when someone walked up behind me and said, "My lord Othniel."
I didn't move, and the voice said again, "Othniel, my lord."
I turned with something hateful to say but I swallowed my words when I saw the dwarf. I could see in the twilight that he had washed himself and that his wounds had been treated. He wore a clean linen kilt with the mantle I had given him, a tightly fitting cap, and a broad collar of colored stones. His smile nearly hid the pain he plainly still felt.
"Sir," he said again as I slid off the wall and stood by him, "I am Rifaz, your slave."
I stopped him from kneeling. "Rifaz, my friend, you must never say that. We have no slaves in Israel--only brothers."
Even as I spoke I felt the hollowness of my words because I had made enemies of my brothers and I no longer had any friends who would count me as brothers. The woman I adored despised me.
"You are a free man now, Rifaz. You are your own man and no man's slave or plaything. Yet you must go your own way, for I'm nothing."
"Bless you, sir. You mustn't think that Israel has cast you out because of what you did for me today. Caleb, your great leader, said that you did exactly what he would have done when his daughter, the Lady Acsah, pressed him to judge those men who hurt me."
The burden of misery began to lift from my shoulders. I had to take a deep breath before I could ask, "She did that?"
"For both of us, sir," Rifaz answered. "She didn't say as much or even try to plead for you, but I could tell she wanted justice for you as much as me."
I didn't know whether to shout or weep for joy, but I did sweep Rifaz off his feet in a hug.
"Bless you, my friend," I said as I put him down, "Tell me now: your speech may be that of a Hebrew but I can tell that you are no son of Judah. Where is your home and what were you doing here in Summit City?"
"Sir, I was born in Upper Egypt, where a few Hebrews live to this day. The Egyptians take all such as me to be slaves to their god Ptah, the lord of craftsmen. Later on, they sold me to please their allies. The rulers of Egypt know the vices of lesser kings and they like to keep them idle and happy because it's cheaper to give them slaves and strange beasts than to make war."
"Well, you're a free man now, Rifaz."
"Free to be mocked and tortured to death? Free to starve? No, Othniel, I want to follow you as long as I have breath."
"I need friends, Rifaz, not slaves. You know these Amorites, the Highborn. You can show me all their ways and weaknesses. Who knows, perhaps the Lord meant you to be their undoing?"
The first thing Rifaz did was to lead us to the king's hidden treasures. I took him to meet my men. Caleb had ordered two or three oxen to be butchered for a feast that night, and as we broke bread together my men grumbled about the spoils they had gathered in Summit City. They and Caleb's whole army felt bitterly disappointed with what they had gleaned--a few earrings and trinkets, but no bejeweled idols or fine vessels of gold. Even the royal house of Shikha was almost bare.
"Sir," Rifaz told us, "Shikha has hidden most of his treasures. The Highborn love to flaunt their golden armor, but Shikha and his father always kept their gods' treasures hidden from their rivals' eyes. They used to bring them out only for the three greatest feasts of the year."
"I suppose you know where Shikha hides them?" I asked.
"More or less, sir," he grinned. "I was only a slave to Shikha and his father. I've never seen their sacred treasury with my own eyes, but I know where to find it. We'll have to wait for the sun to rise and bring it to light."
My men agreed to wait only if Rifaz agreed to tell us what he knew about the treasures.
"The first of their great feasts comes this month, sir. The Highborn make sacrifices to Baal-Hadad to bring the winter rains and to Dagon to bless the seedtime. Their kings call themselves gods and children of the gods. The king arrays himself as Dagon, who is father of Baal-Hadad and the giver of grain. He comes forth from the Tent of the Sun to sacrifice a child of the people of the land. He fills a golden bowl with the blood of the child and drinks it, and he calls forth Baal-Hadad to water the earth and scatter his seed upon it. Then the king comes forth in the robes of Baal-Hadad to sing the rain song:
I sing my song for the rains:
mount your clouds, Baal-Hadad,
and water the earth!
I cast my spell for the rains;
open your clouds, Baal-Hadad,
and send forth your thunderbolts!
I chant my prayer for the rains:
plant your seed, Baal-Hadad,
and bring forth an increase!

"The king sprinkles the bowl of blood upon the standing stones to send the rains, and he plants his seed. His earth is the fairest virgin of the Highborn and she wears nothing but the plumed crown of the goddess Ashtoreth, the mother of earth. All the Highborn of the city come next to plant their own seed."
I couldn't believe a feast could be so vile. "Please stop, my friend. Now, pray tell us what such lewdness has to do with their treasure."
"Sir, you'll see that the Tent of the Sun stands next to the high altar so that it hides the entrance to the treasury. During the feast, the king enters and returns clad in the golden robes of the gods and bringing their treasures: their jewels, vessels, and signs of power. Their vessels are gold and silver, and the emblems of the gods are all made of gold set with precious stones.
"The head of Dagon's staff is wrought like the head of a goat, and the lightning of Baal--you must see it--is a gleaming spear of star metal."
"What do you mean by star metal," I asked.
"Sir, star metal is iron, which they claim the gods threw down from the sky. You see, it's not like the black iron that the Hittites forge because this iron never rusts. Star metal always stays bright and clean."
"That is indeed a treasure," I agreed.
"Would you like to hear a Canaanite story?" Rifaz asked my men. "It will show you how terrible it is to live in bondage to false gods."
Everyone begged Rifaz for a story. "Here's one about the great city of Chatsor, which you destroyed this year," he answered. They all cheered and crowded in closer like children, and this is the story he told them.
"The Canaanites say that long ago the gods of the great city of Chatsor turned against the people because of their wickedness. The gods met and decided to destroy all the people of Chatsor. They sent all the powers of heaven, spirits of earth, and demons of the underworld to march around Chatsor and curse it. They sent seven great monsters to watch the gates and stop anyone from escaping. Famine and plague ravaged the city. The king of Chatsor made his firstborn son pass through the fire and yet he and all his house perished, and the gods still wouldn't let the people crown a new leader.
"Yet there were two gods who loved the people of Chatsor because they had served them so well in their evil ways. Mot, the lord of death, and Reseph, the lord of the underworld who kills by war and murder, were loathe to let their most faithful servants die all at once. Mot and Reseph searched the underworld and the underbelly of earth for someone they could cajole into helping them save their people from the wrath of the gods. They searched everywhere, peering into every face, and they at last chose a fancy girl.
"'Aluhama shall be the queen and mother of her people,' they said.
"They took her to Chatsor's royal palace, and there the priests and magicians performed all the rites of crowning her queen. They brought wine and burned babies as offerings to beseech the gods to turn from their anger and bestow their grace once more upon Chatsor. They then led Aluhama into an inner chamber to be joined in marriage to a high and holy priest so that through them the Chatsor might have increase. No matter how much wine they poured and how many children they slaughtered, the plague raged without end and Aluhama couldn't conceive.
"Then Aluhama took herself to Reseph's shrine and craved a boon.
"'Lord Reseph,' she prayed. "Your priests have withheld no burnt offering from you, and there's no abomination that they haven't done freely in your name. Yet your people die like dogs, and no children are born to us. Bring an end to our bane, and bring our grief to a halt. Place in my hand the plant that causes births so that my people and I may be fruitful and your servants will not perish from the earth.'
Reseph heard Aluhama's pleas and he answered her.
"Reseph said to Aluhama, 'Take the road, cross over the Jordan, and you will come to a spring. In a field beside the spring you will find the magic mandrake plant.'
"Aluhama did as the god ordered. She found the spring and looked in the field for mandrakes. She began to dig them up to chose the best mandrakes, but she grew weary with her toil and her eyes became heavy with sleep. Aluhama laid herself among her mandrakes and went to sleep.
"Reseph came and laid with Aluhama, and got her with child, though she did not know it. Aluhama awakened and arose; she gathered her mandrakes, and she went back to Chatsor. There, in the fullness of time, Aluhama found she was with child, and joy came back to Chatsor. The joy of Chatsor was so great it melted the curse of the gods and drove away the plague. The people of Chatsor therefore gathered mandrakes and hung them on every door and by every marriage bed. That, my friends, is why you will find so few mandrakes in Canaan today.
"Aluhama brought forth her child at the appointed time, and the child was a boy. The people of Chatsor rejoiced at the proof that their curse was lifted, and they hastened to thank the gods. They had no more food, wine, or yearling babes because of the plague and famine, so they flung open the doors and windows of every house. They swept out their houses, and they sang with one voice,
Out of the house and through the door,
Out of the door and into the streets,
Out of the streets and out of the gates,
Out of the gates and into the graves,
Go the plague and all our dead!
Out of the house and through the windows,
Go all our fears and all our woes.

"Outside each house the people placed a pole and on each pole they hung the fleece of a newborn lamb.
"That is why, my friends, the Canaanites and their neighbors never clean out their dwellings until the winter is past. They burn juniper shavings and berries, hemlock, and rue in their houses on that day. They blow their trumpets because they think their crops will fail if they don't make enough noise to keep evil spirits away. They dance around with their mandrakes, feast on roasted swine, and hang fresh fleeces on their poles.
"As for the son of Aluhama, he became king and he grew up to be a giant and a mighty sorcerer. He was the first in the line of Jabin, whom you slew at the waters of Merom."
The laughter and pleas for more stories that followed proved that everyone loves a storyteller and Rifaz had won the friendship of my men. They would keep him telling stories all night if they could. "That's enough for today, my friends," I told them and dismissed them until morning.
I asked Caleb to join us at daylight, and Acsah came with him and her brothers when Rifaz led us to the high place of the Sun at the highest point in Summit City, next to Shikha's house. It was a courtyard in the form of a half circle that lay open to the sky. Two standing stones had stood in the center until our men overturned them the day before. They still bore the crudely carved figures of the Canaanite gods, and the Canaanites had painted them to make their lewdness plain for all to see. The Amorites had paved the courtyard with stone slabs and encircled it with a wall that opened to the south. Our men had already marred the gaudy images that covered the wall's plastered surface.
"What a foul and unclean place this is," Caleb grumbled.
"It has seen great evil, sir," Rifaz agreed, "but its secrets lie here waiting for us. The shadows of these stones mark the days of their feasts."
He pointed to a hole bored into one of the stone paving blocks. "This marks the place of the Tent of the Sun. They set its tent poles in this circle of sockets. We'll have to move this great stone to uncover the others."
Caleb sent for prisoners to bring levers and rollers to move the fallen standing stone. We made them move it to the edge of the court and heave it over while Rifaz directed other prisoners to pry up the paving slabs within the circle of sockets. They grumbled and were so slow and clumsy that my men sent them away and took over the task. They had to move two layers of slabs to uncover an opening below. We saw a sloping shaft with steps that led down into the depths of the rock.
"It looks like a cave," Caleb said. "We shall need torches and a rope. You and I'll go first, my son."
Whether or not they were sons of giants, the kings of Summit City were big men who made the way into their treasury easy for us. Their shaft was wide and tall enough for us to pass through without stooping. We crept down two or three times my height and found ourselves in a space the height of a tall man and not more than twice as long. Pick marks on the walls showed that workers had hewed it out of a fairly soft bedrock. Three shrouded forms stood along the far wall behind a stone chest. We drew off the first linen shroud and found a painted wooden idol clad in golden robes and a golden helmet with goat horns.
Caleb snorted in disgust. "What fools they are! I'm glad I serve a living god who has no need of these treasures. Othniel, my son, you will stay here while I go up and send men down to carry away these trinkets."
Caleb sent Rifaz down to help me. Between us we counted everything that our men carried to the surface. We used the shrouds as sacks for the idols' trappings. Besides collars, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and rings, I saw golden helmets and other emblems of power. Rifaz showed me a golden mace, staff, and shield for Dagon, the spear of lightning and a golden battleaxe for Baal-Hadad, and a golden pitcher and basket for Ashtoreth. The chest was made of a lustrous white stone that Rifaz told me was alabaster. Carved figures of lions and bulls fighting adorned its sides, and it brimmed with golden bowls, cups, plates and other strange things.
I jabbed one of the idols with the spear to test it. The dry wood split with a ring. I set fire to the idols after we had emptied the treasury, and I followed Rifaz back to the light of day.
I gave Caleb the spear as he welcomed me to the surface with a warm hug. My men stood guard over the pile of treasure while the rest of Caleb's force gaped at it.
Caleb declared to the onlookers, "We shall send a portion of this treasure to the Tent of Meeting and divide the rest among our people. We have burned the idols with fire, and now we shall fill in this evil place."
He ordered prisoners to be set to work at breaking down the wall around the high place and casting its rubble down the smoking shaft into the empty treasury. The Highborn among them balked when they saw we had taken their gods' treasures, but our men drove them to finish the task. We studied the spear of lightning more closely while they worked.
The so-called lightning of Baal-Hadad had a two-edged point longer than my hand. Though darker than silver, the smooth, oiled metal flashed in the sunlight. We saw no stains or blemishes on its surface. It had a shaft of a glossy black wood inlaid with strips of ivory in a criss-cross pattern for a firm grip and chased with gold. The head of the shaft bore the golden head and shoulders of a lion that seemed to strain to leap free and attack.
"You say they call this point star metal?" Caleb asked.
"Iron from the sky, even as you say, sir," Rifaz answered. "The iron that men dig from the earth, smelt and forge is black and softer; it turns red and goes back to the earth."
"Is it rare?"
"The Egyptians prize the star metal above gold, sir, for their land has no iron."
"It's fitting that this spear should serve a new master--the Lord of the heavens from whence it came," Caleb answered. "I would make use of it myself if I were younger, but the day has come to trust it to a younger and swifter hand." He paused. "I shall seek the Lord's guidance," he decided. He said nothing more but took charge of sorting and dividing the rest of the treasure while I made sure that our prisoners filled in the treasury.
When we finished, Caleb called all our leaders of hundreds to the high place to pass out the shares of the Highborn treasure.
"Men of Judah and Simeon, we have sent an offering of the first fruits of our conquest to the Tent of Meeting out. Behold, you and your men have earned the rest, and I have held nothing back for myself.
"But one thing remains. See this: the spear of the Highborn. If there is one among you who is worthy to use it in the name of the Lord, the Lord himself will show us the man."
Acsah brought him an earthenware jar of beans. "Listen, these beans are all red save for one white bean," Caleb declared. "The one who draws the white bean is the man the Lord has chosen."
He had us walk in file before him while he held the jar high enough that each man had to draw without looking into it.
Gedawr stood well ahead of me in line with Caleb's other sons. I heard him snarl when he threw away his bean. Half of the men had drawn their beans when my turn came to stand before Caleb. Acsah stood at his side. She held the spear without showing the least sign that she knew I was there.
I took a deep breath and reached in the jar. The beans felt smooth and fat. I let a handful sift through my fingers until I felt a flatter, crinkly one. I drew it out of the jar and gave it to Caleb without daring to look at it.
"The Lord has spoken, my son," he said with a smile. He raised his voice and told the gathering, "Look here and see this, men of Judah and Simeon: the spear of the Lord and Othniel, the force of God."
Acsah laid the spear in my hands without even glancing at me. She looked down and said nothing when I thanked her.
Gedawr's voice rose above the murmurs of surprise. "He cheated! No, father; don't let this worthless fellow steal the inheritance of your sons."
I heard Acsah hiss at Gedawr when Caleb raised his hand and answered, "Othniel is a son after the Lord's heart. I have seen; yes, all of you have seen that Othniel ben Kenaz serves the Lord with all his heart. There is justice in his hands; he deals honestly and fairly."

CHAPTER SIX

"He says, How dare you worms mock a son of Heaven!" Rifaz translated. "Spawn of the east wind from the desert: that's all we are to him."
Caleb had sent for Shikha, and though bound tight with leather thongs and a noose around his neck, he raged at us as if he were still the Prince of Lightning. The men guarding him kept their spears pointed at him. His size and threatening manner awed me as much as them. His shock of black hair and the glower on his brow gave the fellow the look of a bull ready to trample and gore us all.
"He says, 'I could squash any of you dogs with one hand—my father had better men than you licking up crumbs under his table,'" Rifaz added.
"Did he now?" Caleb asked. "Well, they do say the spirits of the proud come back as bees who forever hum, 'I am, I am!'"
"His father, whom you hanged after the battle of Aijalon, gave Shikha the task of collecting tribute from neighbors and rivals. Those who didn't pay, he took captive. The first thing he did to them was to cut off their thumbs and big toes and send them back to their people as a warning. If nobody came to buy their freedom before the next new moon, he would offer his captives to Dagon as fire gifts. And you know how he used women and children as he pleased, sir," Rifaz added.
"Those evil days have passed," Caleb declared. "Israel shall let it be known that the Lord gave us this land and that he has sworn that justice and mercy shall dwell in it."
Shikha spat when Rifaz told him what Caleb said. Rifaz told us how Shikha had defied us and our God. He promised that our base-born blood would soon flow to avenge the death of his father, the god-king Piram. A thousand of us would pay for each hair on Piram's head. Shikha took a holy oath that we would have no peace in this land as long as he drew breath.
"This dog shall henceforth be a sign for all to see that the Lord has spoken. He shall never again lift up his hands against the Lord's people," Caleb replied. "As he has done to others, so shall the Lord do to him. A thumb for a thumb and a toe for a toe!"
Much as Shikha had earned whatever happened to him, Caleb's plan disturbed me. The way he had escaped from us at Aijalon and Merom warned me that Shikha was far too crafty and evil to be turned loose, maimed or not.
"Sir, couldn't we hang him just as we hung his father at the cave? This fellow will make too much trouble. Don’t they say once you strike a serpent, you’ll regret it if you stop before it’s dead?"
"Othniel, what you say makes good sense, but our task is great. The very sight of one like this fellow, fallen from heaven and quite helpless, will attack the proud spirits of the Highborn. It'll give them spirits of fear and awaken doubts in the power of their gods."
"Yes, sir, but wouldn't hanging him do the same?"
"Othniel, I want them to see with their own eyes what will befall all those who stand in our way. They must know that the Lord rules and that evildoers will perish."
"Couldn't we send them his head as a sign, sir?"
Caleb laughed. "No, my son. Remember this; any warrior can kill, but a good leader knows when to spare lives. If we spare this one, the Highborn will see how the Lord deals with the wicked."
I couldn't think of any other reasons to argue with Caleb, and the others agreed with him.
Rifaz told his former master what Caleb had said, and Shikha cursed us with an ugly laugh as they led him away. He had bragged about maiming seventy men and now his own turn had come. I could see a grim humor in maiming the one who called himself the Adonai Bezek, Prince of Lightning. Nevertheless, I still felt that no good could come of it.
I saw Shikha a few days later as a boy led him on a donkey toward the highlands. Rifaz and a few men had come with me to scout the country east of Summit City, and we watched him from a ridge above the trail. I wanted to learn the paths into the highlands where Jerusalem, the city of the Yevusites awaited us. Our people had come from their camp at Gilgal, ready to move into Summit City and the land nearby, and Caleb was eager to march into the highlands.
Someone had bound Shikha's maimed feet and hands with linen and he wore dirty rags instead of purple, but he still seemed as huge and fierce as ever, dwarfing the donkey. Rifaz laughed because Shikha had to clasp his long legs around the donkey to keep his feet from dragging.
"Your prince doesn't look like a beaten man to me, my friend," I told Rifaz. "Can't you feel the hate and evil at work in him?"
I saw a large body of men coming towards us on the trail from the highlands. We soon recognized them as Hebrews by the leather caps and jerkins we wear for fighting. I knew them for men of Benjamin because most of them carried bows and arrows, and I wondered why they should be coming our way.
They forced Shikha and his donkey to move out of their way when they passed him, jeering at his curses and threats.
Rifaz and I hurried down to greet the Benjaminites, and the first man I saw was my old friend Gera.
"I have come to fight at your side again, my brother. See, I come with my father and a hundred men," Gera told me. Matri, his father, was one of the elders of Benjamin. He was about forty, looked better fed than Gera, and was an old friend of Caleb. We started walking together back to Summit City while Gera began telling me why they had come.
"We of Benjamin have fought against Jerusalem, the city of the Yevusites, and shut them up inside its walls. Yet they've built the walls of their city so high and strong that blind men could keep us at bay, and we haven't the numbers to force our way inside. My father has come to seek Caleb and ask him and the men of Judah to make a covenant with us. We'll fight for you if you'll fight for us. We heard from those who fled before you how the men of Judah and Simeon took Summit City, and our elders now agree that it was not the better part of wisdom for each tribe to go its own way."
Matri told Caleb the same story that evening when we gathered to break bread in the courtyard that had once been the high place of the Sun. Acsah came with Caleb and her brothers, and I saw how warmly she greeted Gera and his father and made them welcome. Although I sat near Gera, she never once looked at me.
Caleb told us why we should help the Benjaminites. "Did not the last king of the Yevusites bring the armies of the five kings against us at Gibeon? No, we dare not leave such a stronghold in the hands of enemies." he said.
"Moreover, my brothers, I rejoice to have the men of Benjamin at our side in battle. Truly, our foes will know that the hand of the Lord is against them."
Everyone shouted in agreement. Although the Benjaminites had too few fighters to make an army on their own, we all knew the bowmen and slingers of Benjamin had no equal for leading surprise attacks that never failed to shock our enemies.
"So you two will fight together again!" Caleb said with a smile as Gera and I welcomed this outcome.
Matri laughed. "It's a wonder the ravens don't follow this pair the way they follow wolves in winter."
"They do say that ravens are the wisest of birds," Caleb laughed.
"To wisdom they add cunning," Matri added. "May these two learn from the fowl of the air!"
The talk then turned to Jerusalem and how to take the city.
"See here, my friends," Matri explained, "the walls of the city of the Yevusites rise from the southern tip of a mountain ridge, and deep valleys guard its walls on the east and west until they meet at the south. Within their walls they have a good spring, while beyond the walls springs are few. We have camped by En Rogel, the Well of the Fuller, the only well close to the south end of the city. Other wells lie far out of sight of the city. Yes, weaklings could keep us out of Jerusalem for years."
"How many fighting men do they have?" Caleb asked
"They outnumber us; that much I know," Matri answered, "but their new king has not yet dared to come out against us."
"Do you know what manner of man he is?" Caleb asked.
"They say that his name is Ravisu, but now he calls himself the Adonai Tsedek, Prince of Justice, like his brother, whom you hanged after the battle of Aijalon. He is just as wicked although not as cunning."
"What about the north end of the city?" Caleb asked.
"Another wall crosses the ridge. It's not as high as the others, but shorter and far stronger. The men who guard it are watchful and brave. Yes, my friend, the Yevusites have set their city in a choice spot, for the slopes of the hills nearby also bear fine olives and grapes."
"There must be secret ways into the city?" Caleb asked.
"I wouldn't know."
"Rifaz, my friend, what do you know of this place?"
"Sir, wherever you find springs in the hill country, you also find caves and secret tunnels through the rock that feeds the springs. The rain that comes down from heaven seeps into the limestone and makes unseen passages until water gushes forth in springs."
Caleb pondered before deciding, “We must see if the Lord has made a way into the city for us. Othniel, you will take Rifaz and see what you can find. If you can't find a secret way to get into the city, we shall have to find some way to draw out the Yevusites. We'll follow you in a day or two."
"We keep watch on their southern gateway, but people can come and go unseen from the north and east," Gera said. "We send out scouts to stop them, but anyone who knows the land can slip past our guards like foxes in the night."
"Shikha, that big fellow you saw on the donkey--could he get in?" I asked.
"I don't doubt you'll find him breaking bread with the king as we speak," Gera answered. "Our people don't know the fellow and they had no reason to stop him. As far as they know, my brother, he's just one more mouth for the Yevusites to feed."
"Sir, Shikha's mouth speaks with guile," Rifaz pointed out. "You may be sure that he's warned the Yevusites about you and that he'll harden their king's heart against Israel."
"Sir," I said to Caleb, "This means that Jerusalem has become a nest of serpents. It won't fall into our hands without a fight. If my plan seems good to you, we'll go and lie in wait for all who come and go from Jerusalem and pry out its secrets from them."
"Well said, Othniel. I'm sorry now for letting that fellow Shikha go. Even so, we shall prevail, even though our way seems long and hard. Remember that the Lord is with Israel."