Joshua · chapter 6 of 24
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Joshua 6 tells the fall of Jericho. Following the Lord's instructions, Israel marches around the city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh, with seven priests blowing trumpets and the ark. At the people's shout the walls fall and the city is devoted to destruction, but Rahab and her family are saved. Joshua pronounces an oath against anyone who rebuilds Jericho.
After crossing the Jordan and renewing the covenant at Gilgal, Israel faces its first fortified city in Canaan. Joshua 6 shows that the conquest does not depend on Israel's military strength but on obeying a plan God gives. Jericho is the first step into the promised land and a lesson in trust.
Jericho is shut up tightly because of Israel: no one goes out and no one comes in. The Lord tells Joshua that he has already given the city into his hand and gives an unusual plan. The men of war will march around the city once a day for six days, with seven priests before the ark blowing rams' horn trumpets. On the seventh day they will march around seven times, and after a long blast the whole people will shout with a great shout.
Joshua passes the instructions to the people and orders that no one speak until the day of the shout. For six days they march around the city once and return to camp. On the seventh day, at dawn, they march around seven times. At the seventh time Joshua tells them to shout, for the Lord has given them the city. He also warns that the city and everything in it will be devoted to the Lord for destruction, and that only Rahab the prostitute and those in her house will live, because she hid the messengers. He forbids them to take things devoted to destruction, lest they bring trouble on the camp. The silver, gold and vessels of bronze and iron will go into the Lord's treasury.
The people shout, the trumpets sound and the wall falls. Israel enters and destroys the inhabitants and the animals. Joshua sends the two spies to bring out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers and all her family, and they are placed outside the camp of Israel. Then the city is burned and the silver and gold go into the treasury of the Lord's house. Rahab lives in Israel to the day the account was written. Joshua swears that whoever rebuilds Jericho will be cursed, and Joshua's fame spreads through all the land.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord tells Joshua that he has already given Jericho into his hand, with its king and warriors. The victory is announced before the battle: what Israel will do is receive in obedience what God has already decided to give.
At the end of the seventh circuit on the seventh day, Joshua orders the people to shout because the Lord has given them the city. The shout is not a weapon but a response of faith to a promise already given.
With the sound of the trumpets and the people's shout, the wall of Jericho falls and Israel enters the city. No human strategy explains the result: the text presents it as the work of God.
Joshua spares Rahab, her father's household and all who belonged to her, because she hid the messengers. The Canaanite woman who trusted the God of Israel ends up inside the people of God.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Once a day; then they returned to camp. — Joshua 6:3
Answer: Seven priests with rams' horn trumpets went before the ark of the Lord. — Joshua 6:4
Answer: March around the city seven times and, at the long blast of the trumpet, shout with a great shout. — Joshua 6:4-5
Answer: That the city and all in it were devoted to the Lord for destruction; the silver, gold, bronze and iron would go into the Lord's treasury. — Joshua 6:17-19
Answer: Rahab and her family, because she hid the messengers Joshua had sent. — Joshua 6:17
Answer: That anyone who rose up and rebuilt Jericho would be cursed before the Lord. — Joshua 6:26
Joshua 6 teaches that obedience to God can look absurd from the outside. Marching silently around a city for six days makes no military sense, but the people trusted the Lord's word and waited for his signal. In a small group we can ask where God is asking for obedience we do not fully understand: forgiving, waiting, giving or following a calling without seeing the outcome.
The story also shows that God cares for those who trust him, even a Canaanite woman with a questionable past. Rahab did not deserve rescue; she received it through faith. This invites us to look with hope at people who seem far from God and to remember that God's grace does not depend on our résumé.
Joshua 6 ends with the wall fallen, Rahab safe in Israel and Joshua's fame spreading through the land. But the victory has a delicate point: the command about what is devoted to the Lord. Joshua 7 will show what happens when someone in the camp disobeys that command.
The text gives no natural explanation; it presents the fall as the work of the Lord, who had promised to give the city. The people obeyed the plan God gave, and the walls fell when they shouted. Some scholars suggest an earthquake is possible, but the biblical account does not mention one and stresses that God gives the victory.
The book presents it as God's judgment on the wickedness of the peoples of Canaan, which he had announced beforehand, and as the first city dedicated to him on entering the land. It is a difficult passage. Many Christians read it in light of God's justice and patience, and note that Rahab shows that anyone who trusted him was received.
It means the city was dedicated to the Lord for destruction, so no one could take plunder for himself. Precious metal went into the Lord's treasury. This command sets up the story of Achan in Joshua 7.