Joshua's Weight and the Steer That Carried Him

The horse's knees folded in the dust. Joshua came off its back before the animal went all the way down. Jericho's walls stood in front of the camp, and the man who had to ride toward them had just broken a mount built for war.

Click for full size

Nothing Ordinary Would Hold Him

They brought a donkey. It sank. They brought a mule, the kind that takes a load and argues with the road. Its back sagged and it would not go. Joshua was an exceedingly heavy man. The camp saw that. The walls could see a commander on foot, and a commander on foot is a rumor the first city of the land does not have to fear.

Moses was already gone. The wilderness years were behind them. Ahead stood a locked throat of stone. Men waiting in the tents could pretend courage while someone else held the line. Joshua could not. If the first assault failed, every household in Israel would hear the old question again: whether the land promised to their fathers would swallow their children.

Eyes Went Into the City First

Before any hooves, he needed eyes inside the walls. A bad spy report had once kept Israel in sand until a generation died. He would not start Jericho that way.

He sent Caleb and Phinehas, men he could trust when a report wanted to lie. Two demons came as well, the husbands of Lilith and Mahlah, offering themselves for the work. Joshua refused to let the mission rest on their first offer. He shaped their look until the people of Jericho trembled at the sight of them, and fear went through the city before a single trumpet sounded.

In the house of Rahab the king's men knocked. She moved to hide the spies. Phinehas told her to be still. "I am a priest," he said. "Priests are like angels, visible when they wish to be seen, invisible when they do not." The bailiffs searched and went away empty. The city was already losing its nerve. Joshua still needed a back that would hold him when he rode up in sight of those gates.

The Steer Took the Weight

Then the steer stepped under him.

Hooves found the dust and did not stop. The animal did not argue with the load. Its legs held. Its back did not break. Joshua rose above the camp on a creature built for plowing, and the line of Israel could move because one broad spine had accepted what horse, donkey, and mule had refused.

Soldiers could see him. Jericho could see him. The steer felt each shift of the man on its back and kept going. No wall had fallen. No ram's horn had finished its circuit. The first city would see a commander who had not been left on foot.

He Kissed the Nose

When the steer had carried him to the siege, Joshua did not drop the reins and walk away. He bent to its face and kissed it on the nose.

The hair never grew back where his mouth touched. The smooth place stayed. Every calf born after it inherited the bare patch, as if the whole line of cattle had been drawn into that one thanks at the edge of battle. A city can fall and the trumpets can go quiet. The face of an animal keeps a kiss.

What Was Taken on Shabbat

Jericho fell on Shabbat. Joshua treated the city as something set apart. What is won on a holy day cannot be handled like ordinary loot. The word was herem (חרם), devoted, placed beyond common use, given over to God.

Achan put his hand on what had been devoted. He took spoil from the first city and hid it. The next fight was at Ai, and Israel broke there. Jair son of Manasseh died in that defeat, a loss the camp counted as if most of a high court had fallen. Joshua learned why. The holy city had been touched. The steer that had carried him still wore the kiss. The man who had stolen from the devoted heap had put a different mark on the campaign, and the camp paid for it in blood.

Before Jericho, command had a weight the camp could measure on a horse's knees. After Jericho, the devoted city had a weight as well. One animal lowered its back under the first of those weights, walked toward the sealed gates, and came away with a nose cattle still wear.