TEXT [Commentary]

E.   God’s Conquest of Jericho (6:1-27)

1.   God’s siege instructions to Joshua (6:1-7)

1 Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. 2 But the LORD said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. 3 You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

6 So Joshua called together the priests and said, “Take up the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant, and assign seven priests to walk in front of it, each carrying a ram’s horn.” 7 Then he gave orders to the people: “March around the town, and the armed men will lead the way in front of the Ark of the LORD.”

NOTES

6:1 Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut. Lit., “Now Jericho was closed up and tightly closed up”—a very strong and somewhat unusual verbal construction.

6:3 march around the town. Jericho’s walls were about three-fifths of a mile in circumference. Staying out of reach of the arrows and sling stones of Jericho’s defenders on the walls would have meant a route of about 1.25 miles for each circuit.

6:4 Seven priests. Seven is a biblical number of perfection; “seven” or “seventh” occur 14 times (twice seven, or double perfection/completeness) in the Hebrew text of 6:4-16, leading up to the actual charge of Israel’s warriors into the city after its walls fell.

ram’s horn. Two different Hebrew terms occur in this account; both refer to the signal horn used in worship and in battle contexts. Israel’s part in the fall of Jericho was primarily the worship of God, who “gave” Jericho into their hand (6:2).

6:5 will collapse. Lit., “will fall down in its place.” Woudstra says, “the wall will fall flat, not outward or inward, but downward” (1981:111). See commentary on 6:20 below.

6:7 the armed men. Not all of Israel’s warriors, as 6:9 makes clear. Those in front of the Ark were the vanguard; those behind, the rear guard. They marched ahead and behind, not to protect, but to honor it, as the Ark represented the presence of God with Israel’s army.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Jericho lies at the western edge of the plain of the Jordan, just beside the first outcroppings of the central hill country. One well might ask, Why not just bypass Jericho, since Israel’s objective was the hill country itself? The answer lies in Jericho’s strategic position. Jericho guarded the lower entrances to two important passes into the very heart of the hill country. Bypassing it would have left a well-armed enemy at Israel’s back; Jericho had to be conquered.

Joshua 6:1 is a parenthesis in the story of Joshua’s encounter with the commander of the Lord’s army (5:15). For God’s instructions to Joshua to make sense, the reader must be confirmed in what he or she already suspects; Jericho was “tightly shut” (6:1, see note). All of Jericho’s defenses were in place to withstand a lengthy siege. Several factors combined to ensure that, speaking in human terms, Israel could not expect to conquer Jericho.

First, Jericho was well defended, with two strong walls, one partway down the slope of the mound on which the city sat, and one at the crest of the mound. Between the two walls was a sloping rampart with various buildings whose walls added to the city’s defensive strength. Both walls would have been strengthened with towers, strong gate complexes, and other defensive works. If the Israelites managed to penetrate the outer, lower wall, they would have to attack the upper wall, too, from much more cramped, exposed, and dangerous positions (Wood 1990a:54-56). Second, Israel possessed none of the sophisticated equipment required for a siege: battering rams, fire arrows, scaling ladders, etc. Without these, a successful assault on any city was virtually impossible. Third, Jericho’s soldiers could man their walls adequately, and everyone inside, soldier and civilian alike, was well supplied—excavations at Jericho have revealed ample food in the city when Israel captured it (Wood 1990a:56). Fourth, Jericho was well watered. It sits beside one of the most abundant springs in the land (later called Elisha’s Spring; cf. 2 Kgs 2:19-22). Jericho’s preparations certainly included provision for protecting the spring during a time of siege.

Jericho’s king had every reason to believe his city was secure; he merely had to sit tight and wait Israel out. But God gave Joshua a unique siege plan, beginning with the reassurance that God indeed had delivered this strongly fortified city into his hands (6:2). Joshua knew what he faced; God’s words must have boosted his confidence enormously. All Joshua had to do was obey God, and he had a lifetime of practice at that.

God told Joshua to “march around the town” (6:3). The plan was straightforward and easily carried out, at least for the first six days. Readers long have puzzled over what such a strategy could have accomplished. But framing the question this way assumes Israel’s marching caused the destruction of the walls, while God’s instructions are clear that this was to be God’s battle and God’s victory. Some have suggested Israel’s marching set vibrations going in the earth, weakening the walls, so the shouting of the seventh day caused them to fall. That is doubtful. If God used any natural force to bring down Jericho’s walls, it most likely was an earthquake, as the archaeological evidence suggests.

Seven priests with seven rams’ horns were to precede the Ark of the Covenant; the Ark always signaled God’s presence. Thus, Israel knew (and Jericho came to know) that God was leading this military action against Jericho. God himself was fighting against the city. This, then, was the beginning of God’s judgment on the iniquity of the Amorites, a judgment God had promised Abraham centuries before (Gen 15:16). Israel had only to march and observe, then shout and observe, and finally to mop up after God had delivered the city into their hands. In their march, Israel would have Jericho surrounded. When the walls fell, no warrior would have to run to some other place to find an entrance into the city. Each man simply would “charge straight into the town” (6:5).