The Fall of Jericho

The event

Jericho, a fortified city guarding the approach into the hill country, was the first obstacle Israel faced in Canaan. Rather than a conventional siege, God gave Joshua an unusual battle plan: the armed men, seven priests blowing ram's-horn trumpets, and the ark of the covenant were to march silently around the city once a day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day. On the last circuit, at the sound of a long trumpet blast, the people shouted, and the walls fell so that the army could go straight in.

The victory belonged entirely to the LORD, and Israel was commanded to devote the city to destruction as a firstfruits offering of the conquest — nothing was to be plundered for personal gain. The one exception was Rahab, the Jericho woman who had hidden Israel's spies and hung a scarlet cord from her window as a sign of faith; she and her family were spared, and she later appears in the genealogy of King David and of Christ himself (Matthew 1:5), a striking early picture of grace extended to a Gentile believer.

Joshua pronounced a curse on anyone who would rebuild Jericho's fortifications, a curse fulfilled centuries later almost exactly as spoken, when Hiel of Bethel rebuilt the city and lost two sons in the process (1 Kings 16:34). The New Testament remembers Jericho's fall as a triumph of faith rather than military skill: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after the people had encircled them for seven days" (Hebrews 11:30).

Dating

Jericho's destruction is one of the most debated dates in biblical archaeology. Kathleen Kenyon's mid-20th-century excavation dated the site's final Bronze Age destruction earlier than the biblical conquest date, a conclusion often cited by critical scholars against the historicity of Joshua 6. Evangelical archaeologist Bryant Wood re-examined Kenyon's own pottery and carbon-14 samples from burned grain and argued for a Late Bronze Age destruction consistent with c. 1400 BC. The debate continues, but the biblical account itself is treated here as reliable history, not legend.

Scripture references

• Joshua 6:1-27
• Hebrews 11:30