The fall of Jericho
6
📚Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel. No one went out and no one came in. 6:1 Verse 1 is a parenthesis. Verse 2 connects with Josh 5:15. The commander of the LORD’s host goes on speaking to Joshua. He is Jehovah Himself.⚜
2 📚And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho and its king and valiant warriors into your hand. 3 📚And you must go around the city, all you men of war circling the city once. You must do this for six days. 4 📚And seven priests must carry seven ram’s horn trumpets before the ark. And on the seventh day you must go around the city seven times, and the priests must blow with the trumpets. 5 📚And it shall be when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a loud shout. Then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people must go up, each man straight before him”.
6:2-5 Jericho was not conquered by military might. Its defeat was a result of God’s miraculous activity, and Israel’s faith. As in the crossing of Jordan (Josh 3:14-17), the ark of the covenant went before the people. This symbolized the powerful presence of the Lord guiding His people. Marching, trumpets and shouts do not bring down great walls and conquer cities. God works on principles which are different from men’s (Isa 55:8-9; Luke 16:15; 2 Cor 10:3-5). He uses people and things which human wisdom counts totally inadequate (1 Cor 1:27-29).⚜
6 📚And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and have seven priests carry seven ram’s horn trumpets before the ark of the LORD”. 7 📚And he said to the people, “Pass on and go around the city, and have him who is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD”.
8 📚And it came about, when Joshua had spoken to the people, that the seven priests carrying the seven ram’s horn trumpets passed on before the LORD and blew with the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them. 9 📚And the armed men went before the priests who blew with the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. 10 📚And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, “You must not shout or make any noise with your voice, and do not let a word come out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you must shout”. 11 So the ark of the LORD went around the city, circling it once. Then they came into the camp and stayed in the camp.
12 📚And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 13 📚And seven priests carrying seven ram’s horn trumpets before the ark of the LORD went on continually and blew with the trumpets. And the armed men went before them, but the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. 14 📚And the second day they went around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
15 📚And this happened on the seventh day: they rose early at the dawning of the day and went around the city in the same way seven times. On that day only they went around the city seven times. 16 📚And it came about at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city. 17 📚And the city, it and all that is in it, will be accursed by the LORD 📖. Only Rahab the prostitute is to live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. 18 📚And you must keep yourselves from the accursed thing, so that you will not make yourselves accursed by taking the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it. 19 📚But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are consecrated to the LORD. They are to come into the LORD’s treasury”.
6:18-19 Everything in Jericho was for God, nothing for man. Possibly this was to safeguard Israel from the corruption that comes from lusting and looting. Self-seeking always leads to spiritual ruin (Jer 45:5; 1 Cor 10:24; Col 3:5).⚜
20 📚So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets. Then this took place: when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a loud shout, the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, each man straight before him. And they took the city,
6:20 The Bible does not tell us the means God used to bring the walls of Jericho crashing down. Whatever they were, the event was a miracle, the result of divine action working with the faith of the people (Heb 11:30).⚜
21 📚and with the edge of the sword they utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey.
6:6-21 Though the Lord’s instructions may have seemed strange to them, they obeyed their supreme commander, and obtained the very results He had described. Trust and obedience cannot be overemphasized in all our dealings with God. See Heb 11:30.⚜
Rahab saved
22 📚But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out of there the woman and all who belong to her, just as you swore to her”. 23 📚And the young men who had been the spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all that she had. They brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel.
24 📚And they burned the city with fire, and everything that was in it; only the silver and the gold and the articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. 25 📚And Joshua saved Rahab the prostitute alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had. And she lives in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
6:22-25 Rahab and her family were saved according to the promise made to her (Josh 2:14, 17-20). Rahab is an example of faith (Heb 11:31; Jam 2:25). She was a Gentile, separated from Israel, but through faith became identified with the people of God. Her faith was effective in saving her entire family. Compare Gen 6:18; 7:1; Acts 16:31.⚜
Curse on Jericho
26 📚And Joshua made them take this oath at that time, saying, “Cursed in the presence of the LORD be the man who rises up and builds this city of Jericho. He will lay its foundation on his firstborn, and set up its gates on his youngest son”.
6:26 Five hundred years later, in the time of king Ahab, Joshua’s pronouncement against Jericho was disregarded. The city was rebuilt by a man called Hiel at the cost of two of his sons (1 Kings 16:34).⚜
27 📚So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was heard of throughout the whole country.