the city was empty. Then, at a given signal from Joshua—who had posted himself on the hills to the north and could be seen by both sections of his army—the ambush rose up and fired the city, the men retreating turned back to fight, and the men of Ai, caught "between two fires," became utterly demoralised.
Bethel itself is now called Beitin. The site is known but with the exception of a church of crusading date, and a tower, there are no ruins of any importance. On a hill to the east is a stone circle, consisting of large and small boulders.
After the victory at Ai a rapid march was made to Shechem, where, upon the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, the tribes assembled to hear the reading of the Law and to pronounce their "amens" after the blessings and the curses. It has been questioned whether they could hear one another at the distance apart of these two mountain tops; but they would hardly be on the mountain summits, for there is a natural recess in the hills, with natural benches in the limestone rock, an amphitheatre which might seem to have been formed for the purpose. Modern travellers have stood in the midst of that valley and heard their companions on either side reading the Law, and they assure us that those who were reading could hear one another's voices with sufficient distinctness to take up the verse, each where the other left off.
Shechem is now called Nablous—a corruption of the Roman Neapolis, by which name it was rebaptized—and is a considerable city. The Samaritans, now reduced in numbers to about one hundred and sixty individuals, all told, live in this city, and none are found elsewhere. In their synagogue they preserve several old copies of the Pentateuch, and one of them, which is kept in a silver case and jealously guarded, they declare to have been written by Abishua, the great-grandson of Aaron. On a stone
