Deker followed Salmon to the Tent of Meeting, where a line of Gadites snaked outside with Achan at the end. Salmon and Deker walked past them inside the tent where Deker saw General Bin-Nun in the front with a priest beside him at the altar. The troops were lined up as though they were about to receive Communion, but it was no cup that Bin-Nun held in his hand.
"It's a flint knife," Salmon explained from the back corner of the tent where they stood.
"I see the knife, Salmon. Who is the priest?"
"Phineas' father, Eleazer. His name is almost the same as the good angel."
The good angel.
Deker watched as a soldier dropped his field kilt and knelt before Bin-Nun, his back toward the line, and looked up at his leader. Bin-Nun fixed his gaze on his soldier and brought down his knife. Deker himself tensed at the sound of the blade scraping the stone. There was a pause, and then Bin-Nun used his blade to flick a piece of foreskin to a pile at the end of the altar.
"Holy God," he said under his breath. "He's circumcising them, Salmon. But why? They're adults."
"Our fathers who came out of Egypt were circumcised, but we who were born in the wilderness were not," Salmon explained. "Today Yahweh has rolled away the reproach of Egypt from us. The sons of Israel can finally take the place of their fathers. That is why General Bin-Nun is calling this place Gilgal."
A hot fury quickly succeeded Deker's revulsion. His efforts to save Bin-Nun's army when they were most vulnerable, crossing the Jordan in a single day, were all for naught. This stupid mutilation of the troops would set back the attack on Jericho by days if not weeks. Rahab would remain at risk, and Hamas would have an incalculable reprieve to regroup and draw help from neighboring cities. Worse, it left the Israelite troops at less than half strength. Hamas could attack them at any moment.
"This is insane," he said, trying to keep his voice low, but aware that his raspy words and snarling tone had turned several soldiers' heads. "You can't sack a city after you chop off the tips of your men's dicks."
Salmon moved closer to Deker, trying to shield his anger from the others. His eyes were still bright with hope, his voice imploring. "But this is the sign of faith in Yahweh from Bin-Nun we've been looking for," Salmon said. "Don't you see? Bin-Nun has surrendered his war plans to Yahweh and seeks a new directive. Yahweh will lead the way in battle now. Bin-Nun is announcing it was Yahweh and not Moses who led us through the desert for forty years to test our hearts. And it will be by the hand of Yahweh and not the edges of our swords that we take the Promised Land."
Deker asked, "How long will the healing take?"
"They say about fourteen days for the healing to be complete," Salmon said. "But the men can fight after seven, which is the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which begins tomorrow."
Seven days!Deker thought. Rahab could be dead by then. She could be dead already if Hamas suspected that she gave the Hebrew spies the intel on his ambush plans. Meanwhile, they were all sitting ducks in this Gilgal place, with troops operating at less than half capacity.
What Bin-Nun was doing, Deker now concluded, was cleverly securing single-minded devotion from his troops ahead of the impending attack on Jericho. Circumcision and the Feast of Unleavened Bread during the healing would keep the men from feasting on sex with their wives and food from the new land. There would be no repeat of the mistake Moses had allowed when the Israelites first pitched camp at Shittim in Moab.
Deker knew then and there he had to grab the rest of his explosives from Kane and break for Jericho that very night. He had done Bin-Nun's dirty work twice now. He could wait no longer.
"I'm up soon," Salmon told him stoically. "You'll stay to watch?"
Watch? Deker knew Salmon considered this bizarre mutilation of male adults a holy ritual. But Deker had seen enough. "I'll skip the butcher shop, Salmon. I'm already cut and ready for action."
As Deker left the tent, he sensed Bin-Nun's eyes follow him on his way out. But Deker didn't look back, only heard the sound of the flint knife strike the stone and the scrape of the blade behind him.