Joshua 6:1-27--The Fall of Jericho

Joshua 6
English Standard Version

The Fall of Jericho
6 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.” 6 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD.” 7 And he said to the people, “Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD.”

8 And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them. 9 The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. 10 But Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” 11 So he caused the ark of the LORD to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

12 Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 13 And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. 14 And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.

15 On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city. 17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. 18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.” 20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. 21 Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

22 But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” 23 So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. 24 And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. 25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

26 Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the LORD be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.

“At the cost of his firstborn shall he
    lay its foundation,
and at the cost of his youngest son
    shall he set up its gates.”

27 So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.

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Now the occupants of Jericho have shut themselves up tight inside their city hoping that their fortifications will protect them, but it is these very fortifications that will fall on their heads and crush them.  The LORD has told Joshua that even though the task looks impossible, that the victory is secure, Joshua and the people must only be careful to do all the LORD has commanded of them so that He gets all the victory.

I think it's fair to say that no one will be borrowing military tactics from this chapter of the book of Joshua.  Nothing about this would make sense to a military leader if this was a battle of military force against military force (but in that kind of fight, Israel would most certainly lose, if we are removing God from the equation).  No, this is a divine battle where God is proving Himself stronger than the false gods of Canaan and He is judging the Canaanites by His own hand for their wickedness.

The details of the "battle" here are probably well known to most of us who learned them in Sunday school, but don't miss that this is essentially a worship service being lead by the priests--they are there playing the ram's horn trumpets continually while everyone else is just marching around silently.  It is on the seventh day that the LORD tells them to shout with a joyous shout after they had marched around the city seven times as the people joined in the worship of the LORD for the victory that He alone had provided.  Not only did He alone provide the defeat of their enemies, but He alone provided salvation for Rahab and her family.  No one can explain how the city of Jericho was destroyed and even if they could try no one would be able to explain how every part of city was destroyed except the part where Rahab and her family were gathered, trusting in the promise of the LORD's people that they would be safe as long as they stayed in the house and hung the scarlet rope out of the window and told no one else that they had been there.

Rahab kept her word and by faith followed all the instructions given, and the LORD protected her and her family and not only protected her, but He highly exalted her so that from her would come the kings of Israel including the one who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lord, Jesus, the Messiah.  Look at the genealogy of Jesus in the book of Matthew (I'll quote verses 5 and 6 here), "5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king."  We know that Jesus is the Son of David and Matthew makes a point that God has used redeemed women like Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth as well as men of questionable character and reputation to accomplish His purposes that were greater than any one man or woman, for through Jesus salvation would come to not just the Jews, but to the Gentiles, and Jesus is a form of the name Joshua that we see here which means "the LORD is our Salvation" or "the LORD is our Deliverer."  There is no more fitting name for Jesus because as the angel told Mary, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

Now back to today's text.  The people of Israel were to go forward and destroy everything that still lived.  No man, woman, child, or even animal was to escape the judgment that the LORD had declared on that city.  The items of silver, gold and bronze would become holy and they would go into the treasury of the LORD (the Tabernacle had many items made of gold, silver and bronze, so I would imagine they had to keep supplies in reserve for when replacements or repairs needed to be made).  The people were to take nothing that was under the ban back to the camp with them or the whole camp would come under a curse (if you know the rest of the story, you know that God is telling them exactly what one of the men is going to do and what is going to happen because of his sin).  Only Rahab and her father's household were saved because of the pledge the spies made to her and her family.

Then Joshua placed a curse on the city so that no one should rebuild it (it gets rebuilt anyways, but that part of the story comes later in the Bible in the book of 1 Kings 16:34, "34 In his days [the days of King Ahab] Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun."

However, the LORD was gracious and would reverse the curse on Jericho's water and soil when the people if Jericho asked the prophet Elisha to intervene for them in 2 Kings 2:18-22, and we will see Jesus visit Jericho and heal two blind men on the Jericho Road, it is here He would encounter Zacchaeus, and Jesus would also use this Jericho Road as the setting for one of the most famous parables--the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  For now though, Jericho is a place that we should associate with this curse and it was supposed to be left desolate and as a place of utter destruction both as reminder for the Jews and the Gentiles in the area that this is what happens to any people who oppose the LORD and put their trust in false gods and military strength and the fortifications of walled cities.  Their pride that cause them to depend on their walled cities to protect them was their ruin for those very walls fell upon them.

Now the LORD caused news of this to spread throughout the entire land of Canaan so that the people of Canaan became even more terrified of the LORD's people and what the LORD would do to the remaining clans and city-states, for Jericho was probably one the strongest and most developed of these peoples.   The Canaanites have some options now--they know they can repent, they can surrender, they can flee and abandon their land (hoping to save their lives this way), or they can stand in rebellion and surely die.  We'll see that most will try to choose this last option trying to gather themselves together to make a stronger, more unified enemy for the Israelites to fight, but there will be one clan that will seek covenant by means of deception for they know that the only way for their lives to be saved is to surrender (we'll get there in chapter 9).  So it is with the LORD today that all of His enemies that wish to save their lives must give up everything and become slaves of righteousness.  The Gibeonites that we will learn of in Chapter 9 give us a picture of how God saves a remnant from among all the peoples of the world--even the Canaanites.