Joshua 6 - Fall of Jericho | Bible Podcast, David Alley, Peace Christian Church
The Bible by David Alley · David Alley
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Show Notes
In this video listen to Joshua 6 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.
In Joshua 6 the first siege in the conquest happens, at Jericho. Twentieth century excavations of Tell es Sultan (Tel Jericho) show us that Jericho was well fortified. Multiple cities were built on top of each other, and the city of the Joshua period is called city 4.
It had an outer wall of stone, with a wall of bricks on top of the stone wall extending its height further. The stone wall was also found to have had dwellings build into it, so that people also lived in the wall. Joshua gave instructions to march around the city daily for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day. The strange instructions that Joshua gave also made little sense.
They were in some ways also a step of faith, just as the stepping into the Jordan was while it was in flood stage. As the army marched around the city it would have produced a lot of speculation within the city as to what was happening, and no doubt a lot of anxiety. Rahab’s testimony in chapter two gives an insight into the feeling inside. Interestingly, because they marched for seven straight days, one of these days coincided with a Sabbath.
However the entire seven days seems to have happened during the week of the feast of unleavened bread. The removal of Jericho from Canaan as a devoted object seems to match the theme of removing leaven from bread, that is removing the evil from among them. The city was the firstfruits of the land, and considered devoted. They Israelites were to completely give the city and all of the spoils to the Lord by utter destruction.
This was not the pattern typical of ancient warfare where all the spoils were kept to pay the army, or for the benefit of the occupying force/nation. This would have especially been so for the grain which was a source of food. In the archaeological record there is a burn layer several feet thick, including the burning of grain. This matches the complete devotion to the city to the Lord.
In Hebrew it says the walls fell beneath themselves. Interestingly of the four major excavations in the 20th century, the most biblically sceptical of them all was Kenyon, a british archaeologist. She noted that the mud brick wall had collapsed down in front of the stone wall creating a ramp. Thus the Israelites could have easily “gone up” into the city.