The Walls of Jericho

Jericho was shut up tight. The great gates were barred, and nobody went out and nobody came in, because the whole city was afraid of the people camped across the plain. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Look — I am giving Jericho into your hands, with its king and all its strong men. March your fighting men in a circle all the way around it. And when the trumpet sounds, let all the people shout together — and the walls of the city will fall down of themselves, and the people will go straight in.” So Joshua told them exactly how it was to be done. First the fighting men. Then seven priests carrying seven trumpets made of rams’ horns, blowing as they went. Then the ark of the covenant, carried on the shoulders of the priests. And then everybody else, walking behind. And Joshua gave one more order: “Do not shout. Do not let anyone hear your voice — not a word out of your mouth — until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout.”

So that is what they did. Out of the camp they came in the morning, all in order, and they walked once around the city walls — only the trumpets sounding, and thousands and thousands of feet, and not one voice. Then they walked back to the camp and slept. And on the second day they did it again. Once around, trumpets blowing, nobody speaking, and home again. And the third day. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth. Six days, one time around each day — while up on the walls the people of Jericho watched them come and watched them go, and wondered what in the world they were doing. And then came the seventh day.

On the seventh day they got up at dawn, and they went around the city the same way as before — but this time they did not stop at one. They went around twice. Three times. Four. Five. Six. And on the seventh time around, the priests blew a long blast on the trumpets, and Joshua shouted to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!” And all the people shouted together with a great, mighty shout — and the whole wall fell down flat, all the way around. And the people went straight up into the city, every one of them rushing in from the place where he stood. And so Jericho was taken. The city was given over to the Lord — which meant that everyone in it was killed, and everything in it burned, except the silver and the gold and the bronze and the iron, which were carried into the treasury of the Lord.

But one house on the wall had a scarlet cord hanging in its window. And Joshua remembered. He said to the two young men who had been the spies, “Go into that woman’s house, and bring her out — and everything that is hers.” So the two of them went and brought out Rahab, and her father and her mother and her brothers and all her family, and everything they had, and set them in a safe place. Rahab had hidden the spies, and Rahab and her whole family lived. And the Lord was with Joshua, and word about him went out through the whole land.