Joshua 6:1

THE CAPTURE OF JERICHO

Crucial to the entire conquest of Canaan was the capture of the strategically-important bastion of Jericho which controlled the approaches to the highlands. Enemies of the Word of God have probably wasted more ink in trying to discredit or destroy the record of this wonderful chapter than they have wasted on any other project except a denial of the resurrection of Christ. That Israel's capture of Jericho was by Divine and miraculous assistance is the unqualified declaration of this chapter, but nothing stops the mouths of the unbelievers who simply will not have it so! Note the following:

"The Rahab clan in the city would open the gates or find some other way to let the invaders in.[1] A mine (of explosives) was planted under the walls while the men of Jericho were distracted by the Israelites marching around the city.[2] The marchers served to distract the attention of the watchers from Israelite sappers at work undermining the walls![3] It has been thought that perhaps the resounding shout of the Israelites on the seventh day, operating upon a principle of vibration, such as that by which, "an opera singer can break a glass by hitting the right note,"[4] could have caused the walls to fall down."

To all such unbelieving "explanations" of the wonder that is recorded in this chapter, Keil has this appropriate reply:

"The different attempts that have been made to explain the MIRACULOUS overthrow of the walls of Jericho as a natural occurrence, whether by earthquake, or storming, or mining, for which the inhabitants had been thrown into a false security by the marvelous procession repeated day after day, were quite unprepared, really deserve no serious refutation, being, all of them arbitrarily forced upon the text."[5]

Keil's words in the above quotation strike us as being entirely true, and yet we do not think it may fairly be denied that God's frequent use of the NATURAL world in the achievement of His purpose might also, in ways unknown to us, have been a feature of this wonder here. "It is possible to suppose, without minimizing the Divine guidance of events, that the physical cause was an earthquake, as in the case of the damming up of the Jordan."[6] Something of the geographical and archeological information bearing upon this part of the Divine record should be observed. The expedition of John Garstang (1930-1936) resulted in the conclusion that the site of ancient Jericho had been discovered, and, that, according to the archeological evidence it had been destroyed between 1400 B.C. and 1385 B.C., which is close enough to the probable date of the conquest that this writer is not willing, simply upon the basis of Kathleen Kenyon's expedition (1952-1958) with her conclusion that Garstang's Jericho fell 300 years earlier, to accept the assurance in which some deny Garstang's conclusion. There is too much uncertainty about that. As Morton put it, "This is inconclusive."[7] Indeed it it is! Furthermore, archeologists have simply NOT demonstrated their ability to arrive at trustworthy estimates of ancient dates. The comment of J. A. Thompson on this subject do not in any way destroy the general opinion about Jericho as outlined by Garstang.[8] About the fall of Jericho, he said, "The town was burned several times, and the features noted by Garstang could have been found also in other cities."[9] Archeology, at best, is an INEXACT SCIENCE, and the problems are too complicated to allow any attempt to unravel all of them here, but we may summarize Thompson's view, in his own words: "There can be no doubt that archeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition."[10]

As regards the size of Jericho, it was by no means a large city by modern standards, nevertheless a very powerful and important city. Woudstra gave the dimensions of a number of ancient cities thus: (1) Jericho was 225 10:80 meters, about 600 meters in circumference. (2) Jerusalem at the time of David's capture of it was 400 10:100 meters. (3) Shechem was 230 10:150 meters.[11] "Most of the remains in that area from the times of Joshua have been eroded and washed away."[12]

With these preliminary considerations, we now turn our attention to the text itself, assured that it has already successfully weathered the attacks of over 3,000 years by those who have sought in vain to discredit it.

Right here begins the second major division of Joshua. (See the outline.)

"Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in."

"This verse is merely an explanatory clause inserted before the message which the Prince of the Hosts of Jehovah had come to communicate."[13] "If there is any place in the Bible where the division into chapters and verses is unsuitable, it is here."[14] Jericho was a strongly fortified and walled city, and this verse strongly suggests that heavenly intervention was necessary if Israel was to capture it.

"Straitly shut up ..." A glance at the margin reveals that this is also rendered, "did shut up, and was shut up." This, in Hebrew, is an emphatic form such as, "dying thou shalt die" (Genesis 2:17).[15]