Chapter Six

1. The Lord gives Jericho into the power of Joshua son of Nun and opens an extraordinary way to capture it. 5. The transmission of the divine command to the priests and the people. 7. The execution of the divine command. 14. The circuit of the city on the 7th day and the dedication of Jericho to destruction. 21. The salvation of Rahab. 25. A curse upon the one who rebuilds the walls of Jericho. 26. The glory of Joshua son of Nun.

When Joshua son of Nun, fulfilling the requirement of the One who had appeared to him, removed his sandals and in this way clearly understood that he stood in the presence of God, the Lord opened His will to him.

Joshua 6:1. Then the Lord said to Joshua: See, I give into your hand Jericho and its king and the mighty warriors in it. Joshua 6:2. March around the city, all you able to go to war, going around the city once a day; you shall do this for six days. Joshua 6:3. Seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of the jubilee before the Ark; and on the seventh day you shall go around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. Joshua 6:4. When the jubilee trumpet sounds, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a loud voice, and the wall of the city shall fall down to its foundation, and all the people shall go up, each straight before him. Joshua 6:5. And Joshua son of Nun called the priests of Israel and said to them: Carry the Ark of the Covenant; and seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of the jubilee before the Ark of the Lord. The divine revelation begins with the announcement to Joshua son of Nun of the high will’s determination to give Jericho, together with its king and mighty people, into the hands of the Hebrew leader. Then the Lord indicates the very way to carry out this determination—an extraordinary way, in which the force of arms was completely set aside and replaced by the almighty power of the Lord God of Israel. It consisted in the fact that preceded by all the Hebrews able to go to war and seven priests with jubilee trumpets the Ark was carried around for six days once, and on the 7th day 7 times, and only at this last circuit, when the sound of the sacred trumpet was heard, all the people cried out with a loud voice; at this time “the wall of the city was broken down to its foundation.” The chief thing in this way, as it is set out in the main lines by the writer of the book, is that the Ark or “the Ark of the Lord” goes around Jericho (Josh 6:10), which, serving as the throne of the Lord, signifies His direct presence among His people. The biblical writer expressed this understanding of the Ark of the Lord even in the fact that instead of the Ark he used the divine name: “the Lord” (Josh 6:7) (the same in the Hebrew text and the Greek-Slavonic translation). From the people all able to go to war under the guidance of the Lord go around the city just as in ordinary wars the enemy troops surround the conquered city. But whereas the latter in such an attack in ancient times would throw up earthen ramparts and build siege machines, the Hebrew army did nothing of the sort; instead it was to preserve complete silence while going around the city (except in the last moment), thus expressing awe before its supreme Commander, and also that the victory over the enemy would not be achieved by weapons. The presence of the Lord among the Hebrew army was signified further by the trumpet blast, which served as one of the signs of the Lord’s descent upon Sinai (Exod 19:16), and in the ritual ordinances served as a reminder to the Lord of His people (Num 10:9). The fact that persons (7 priests), objects (7 trumpets of the jubilee or horns), and actions (7 days of going around Jericho, 7 circuits on the 7th day) are determined by the sacred number 7, the number of God’s works at the creation of the world, shows that these persons, objects, and actions have not a military but a sacred character, pervaded by the thought of God as the sole cause of what is to come to pass. How small was the people’s participation in the taking of Jericho is shown by the fact that apart from marching, there was assigned to them one action: a loud cry when going around the city the 7th time of the 7th day. The fact that the writer calls the One who appeared to Joshua son of Nun the Lord is in accord with other places in the biblical text, for example with Exod 3:2 and further, where the name “Angel of the Lord” is replaced with the names: the Lord and God. The words Josh 6:1: “[and the mighty warriors in it]” are absent from the Hebrew text and a significant number of Greek manuscripts. The jubilee trumpets are trumpets of special construction, in which they blew when the jubilee year came (Lev 25:9); they differed from the silver trumpets used during the wilderness wandering for gathering the congregation and announcing the departure on the journey (Num 10:2). In Josh 6:4 the jubilee trumpet is called the jubilee horn, probably because it was made from the horns of animals. In the earliest manuscripts of the LXX translation (the Vatican and Alexandrian) Josh 6:3 or—according to other editions—Josh 6:4 is not read, despite the particular importance of its content, since it contains the command about carrying the Ark around Jericho. This verse was also absent from the ancient manuscript Slavonic translation (V. Lebedev, p. 360). But in the Ambrosian manuscript, also ancient, it is found.

Joshua 6:5–15. The further narrative serves as a description of how Joshua son of Nun announced the divine command to the priests and the people (Josh 6:5-9) and how both they and the others carried it out (Josh 6:9-15). This execution, corresponding in the main to the divine command, presents certain details not clearly indicated in it. Thus, by the command of Joshua son of Nun, some of the armed men were placed before the Ark of the Covenant (Josh 6:6), in front of the priests (Josh 6:8), and the rest of the people, with the priests at the head, who blew the trumpets, were to follow after the Ark (Josh 6:8); the people during the circuit of Jericho were not to speak and make any outcries (Josh 6:9); the circuit began “early in the morning” (Josh 6:11), and on the 7th day—“early, at the appearing of dawn” (Josh 6:14) so that before the coming of night the sevenfold circuit around the city could be accomplished. Joshua 6:5. And Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them: Carry the Ark of the Covenant; and seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of the jubilee before the Ark of the Lord. Joshua 6:6. And he said to them, to tell the people: Go and march around the city; and the armed men shall go before the Ark of the Lord. Joshua 6:7. As soon as Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of the jubilee before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets, and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord went after them. The words “[to them, to tell]” are brought in from the Slavonic Bible (…to them…command), which follows the Greek translation αὐτοῖς... παραγγείλατε. What corresponds to this in the Hebrew text is written as: “vayyomeru”—“and they said”, and is read as: “vayyomer”—“and he said.” Of these readings the latter appears most suitable, according to which Joshua son of Nun himself transmitted the command to the people, and the basis for this is that in Josh 6:9 according to both the Hebrew text and the Greek-Slavonic translation Joshua himself “gave the people a command and said.”

Joshua 6:8. And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets; and those following kept behind the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, blowing the trumpets as they went. Joshua 6:9. And Joshua commanded the people and said: You shall not shout and you shall not make your voice heard, and let no word go forth from your mouth until the day I say to you “Shout!”—and then you shall shout. Joshua 6:10. Thus the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord went around the city and went around once; and they came to the camp and lodged in the camp. Joshua 6:11. And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Joshua 6:12. And the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of the jubilee before the Ark of the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went before them, and those who followed were behind the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord as they went, blowing the trumpets. Joshua 6:13. Thus on the second day also they went around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did for six days. Joshua 6:14. On the seventh day they rose early, at the breaking of dawn, and went around the city in the same manner seven times; on that day only they went around the city seven times. Joshua 6:15. And when the priests blew the trumpets the seventh time, Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city! “And those who followed were behind the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord as they went, blowing the trumpets.” These words in the Vatican, Alexandrian, and some other manuscripts, as well as in the Sixtine Bible, correspond to: καὶ οἱ ἱερεῖς οἱ οὐραγοῦντες ὀπίσω τῆς κιβωτοῦ τῆς διαθήκης Κυρίου... σαλπίζοντες—“and the priests, going behind the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, blowing.” According to this translation, the trumpet was sounded by the priests following the Ark, not the people walking with them. This peculiarity of the Greek translation deserves special attention because through it there is resolved the confusion aroused here by the words of the current Hebrew text, according to which the people walking behind the Ark blew the trumpet during the march, while in the verse that follows the people are instructed to keep complete silence. The word “priests,” preserved by the Greek translation of this passage, is here required by the context of biblical speech.

Joshua 6:16. The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to destruction for the Lord; only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house; for she hid the messengers whom we sent. Joshua 6:17. But you shall keep yourselves from the devoted thing, so that you do not become devoted to destruction, if you take any of the devoted thing; thus you would make the camp of Israel devoted to destruction and bring trouble upon it. Joshua 6:18. And all the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, shall be dedicated to the Lord and go into the treasury of the Lord. Joshua 6:19. And the people shouted, and they blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, each straight before him, and they took the city. Joshua 6:20. Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, all were destroyed. When on the 7th time of the 7th day, which was probably a sabbath, the circuit around Jericho was made and the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua son of Nun commanded the people to shout as a sign that the Lord had given him the city, and at the same time announced that this city “shall be devoted to destruction,” that is, wholly dedicated to God as an irrevocable gift. “Devoted to destruction” in Hebrew is “herem,” which means “setting apart,” “complete dedication,” according to the Greek translation ἀνάθεμα, which has the same meaning. According to the laws of devotion (Lev 27:28-33, Deut 13:15 and other places), everything alive from man to beast devoted to destruction was put to death, and all else was destroyed or given to the sanctuary. Devotion to destruction was the highest vow in Old Testament times, by which people expressed complete, self-denying dedication to God and gratitude (Num 21:2). That Joshua son of Nun imposed a curse of devotion upon Jericho before its capture testifies that he fully understood the great significance of the event about to take place. The fall of the walls of Jericho was as much a miracle of divine omnipotence as it was an invaluable gift from God to the Hebrew people, necessary for the conquest of the land of Canaan. If the Hebrews under the walls of Jericho had been left to themselves, the capture of this fortified city would surely have presented for them the greatest difficulties, as they did not have the various engines necessary for taking such cities and were unaccustomed, having grown up in the wilderness, to such military work. In the event of a prolonged siege of Jericho, help would certainly have come to its aid from other Canaanite cities, and the Hebrews would have been forced to wage war simultaneously both with these cities and with the besieged city. The falling of the walls of Jericho, accomplished through the action of God in the shortest period of time, not only freed the Hebrew people from the difficulties of besieging a fortified city, but at the same time served as a visible sign to all of God’s blessing upon their efforts to conquer the land of Canaan, and along with this, a pledge of success in achieving their goal. And just as this miracle of divine omnipotence must have raised the spirit of the Hebrews, so too it surely increased despair among the Canaanite peoples. In view of the great significance of the miraculous fall of the walls of Jericho, it becomes clear why Joshua son of Nun pronounced an extraordinary vow—to dedicate this city with everything in it to the Lord as the first fruits of the cities of the land of Canaan. The effect of this vow was not to extend only to Rahab. In the words “to the Lord [of hosts]” the latter is brought in from the Greek-Slavonic translation, which rests on the majority of Greek manuscripts, in which is read: τῷ Κυρίω Σαβαώθ (in the Vatican and other manuscripts) or: τῷ Κυρίω τῶν δυνάμεων (in the Alexandrian, Ambrosian, and other manuscripts). The “treasury of the Lord,” into which the gold, silver, and other metals found in Jericho were to be placed, was at the Tabernacle of Meeting (Num 31:54). In the words “[all] the wall” the first word is absent in some of the earliest (Alexandrian, Ambrosian) and later manuscripts, as well as in the Hebrew text, and this omission of the word “all” deserves attention in view of the fact that the part of the wall where or near which (see concerning Josh 2:15) the house of Rahab was located had to be preserved, otherwise the house of Rahab would have fallen down, which in the further words of the biblical narrative (Josh 6:21-22) appears to have been preserved together with all that were in it.

Joshua 6:21. And he said to the two men who had spied out the land: Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, since you have sworn to her. Joshua 6:22. So the young men who had spied went in and brought out Rahab the prostitute, along with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all who belonged to her—they brought out all her kindred and set them outside the camp of Israel. Rahab was preserved alive together with all her kinsmen because of the oath sworn to her by the spies, who had been sent to her house to bring out all who were in it. As they did not belong to the Hebrew people, they were placed outside the Hebrew camp. Later Rahab became part of the Hebrew people and lived among them, having of course abandoned her pagan beliefs and openly come to confess the God of Israel. What is said about Rahab: “And she lives in Israel even to this day” (Josh 6:24)—shows that the writer of the book made use of monuments written some time after the very events. According to Josephus Antiquities (V:1, 7), Joshua son of Nun gave her a portion of land and treated her with honor. Living among the Hebrews, she became so close to them that she became the wife of Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah (Ruth 4:20), and the mother of Boaz (Matt 1:5), who were ancestors of David and likewise ancestors of Christ the Savior. The apostles reckoned Rahab among the Old Testament righteous who were saved from destruction by faith (Heb 11:31) and received justification through the works united with faith (Jas 2:25), and the fathers and teachers of the Church in the person of the Canaanite woman Rahab, who believed in the true God and abandoned her former shameful life, perceived a prefiguration of the Church of Christ from the nations (from the works of Blessed Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, vol. I, 272).

Joshua 6:25. At that time Joshua made an oath and said: Cursed before the Lord be anyone who tries to rebuild this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest shall he set up its gates. [Thus Azan of Bethel did: he laid the foundation of Jericho at the cost of Aviron, his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest, who was saved.] In order that the walls of Jericho, destroyed by God, might remain as an eternal memorial of the extraordinary event that had taken place, Joshua son of Nun pronounced a curse on anyone who would wish to rebuild them. The words “rebuild and build the city of Jericho” refer to the building not of houses, but specifically of city walls, which make a settled place a fortified place or city; the Hebrew verb “to build” (“bana”) is used in this sense, for example, in 1 Kgs 15:17: “Baasha began to build Ramah”; 2 Chr 11:6: “built” (Slavonic Bible) or “fortified” (Russian Synodal translation) “Bethlehem.” And since the curse was directed precisely at the one who would restore the city walls, not dwelling houses, therefore in the immediate time after this event Jericho did not cease to be a settled place of the tribe of Benjamin or a city in the general sense, as is evident from Josh 18:21, Judg 3:13, 2 Sam 10:5. The words “[Thus Azan… set up its gates]” are absent from the Hebrew text and the translation of Blessed Jerome, but are found in the earliest and many later Greek manuscripts and editions. They are found in 1 Kgs 16:34, where they are read in somewhat altered form (instead of “Azan” it reads “Ahiel,” instead of “saved”—“Segub”); from there they were transferred to the book of Joshua as a fulfillment of the prophetic curse. In the Hexapla of Origen at Josh 6:25 there is no indication of these words as extra against the Hebrew text: from this with probability one may conclude that in the Greek translation of his time these additional words had not yet been read. * * * And in the final words Josh 6:8 according to the Greek translation the word οἱ ἱερεῖς—“the priests” precedes the words “as they went, blowing the trumpets.” This addition from the Greek translation is so necessary here that it appears even in translations from the Hebrew, such as the revised English translation of the Bible.