Joshua assured them that they greatly outnumbered the warriors of the desert tribe.

If the young men bore themselves as bravely as they had done at the copper mines and at Dophkah, with God's aid the victory would be theirs.
After midnight Joshua, having taken counsel with the elders, ordered the trumpets which summoned the fighting-men to be sounded.

Under the bright starry sky he reviewed them, divided them into bands, gave to each a fitting leader, and impressed upon them the importance of the orders they were to obey.
They had assembled torpidly, half dead with thirst, but the new occupation to which their sturdy commander urged them, the hope of victory, and the great value of the prize: a piece of land at the foot of the sacred mountain, rich in springs and palm-trees, wonderfully strengthened their lost energy.
Ephraim was among them animating others by his tireless vigor.

But when the ex-chief of the Egyptians--whom the Lord had already convinced that He considered him worthy of the aid his name promised--adjured them to rely on God's omnipotence, his words produced a very different effect from those uttered by Aaron whose monitions they had heard daily since their departure.
When Joshua had spoken, many youthful lips, though parched with thirst, shouted enthusiastically: "Hail to the chief! You are our captain; we will obey no other." But he now explained gravely and resolutely that the obedience he exacted from them he intended to practise rigidly himself.

He would willingly take the last place in the ranks, if such was the command of Moses.
The stars were still shining brightly in a cloudless sky when the sound of the horns warned the people to set out on their march.