The Book of Joshua

Word Study

"trumpets of rams' horns," Hebrew shofar (שׁוֹפָר). The shofar is the ram's-horn trumpet, and in Israel it was not a weapon but a sacred instrument: it announced the presence and acts of God. The shofar sounded at Sinai when God descended (Exodus 19:16, 19); it proclaimed the year of jubilee and liberty (Leviticus 25:9); it called Israel to worship and to war under God. Here, seven priests bear "seven trumpets of rams' horns" before the ark, and the taking of Jericho is centered not on siege engines but on the ark of God's presence and the sound of the sacred trumpets. This tells us how the victory would be won: by God, not by human might. The instruments of Jericho's fall were a symbol of God's presence (the ark) and a herald of God's acting (the shofar), not the swords of the men of war. The lesson runs through Scripture: "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). And the trumpet points forward: at the last day "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised" (1 Corinthians 15:52), and "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven... with the trump of God" (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The shofar heralds the acts of God. So the ram's horn preaches that God's victories come by God's presence and God's power, announced and won by heaven, not by the strength of men. Israel had only to march in faith while the trumpets declared that the LORD was fighting for them.

Explanation

The strategy God gives is, by every military standard, absurd: no siege engines, no assault — just march. Once around the city each day for six days, in silence, the armed men before and behind, seven priests bearing seven ram's-horn trumpets, and the ark of God in the midst. Then home again, and repeat. For six days nothing visible happens; the wall stands untouched. It is a deliberate schooling in faith and patience — obeying a command that makes no earthly sense, day after day, simply because God gave it. The victory would come by God's word and God's timing, not by human strength or strategy.

Gospel Focus

Jericho was "straitly shut up," an impregnable fortress with none going in or out, humanly unconquerable. Yet God's first word is not a challenge but an accomplished fact: "See, I have given into thine hand Jericho." The victory is announced as already won before a single march begins. This is the language of faith: God speaks of what He will do as though it were done, and calls His people to act on His word. The plan He gives would seem absurd to any commander: march around the city once a day for six days, in silence, with priests and trumpets and the ark, and seven times on the seventh day, and then shout. There is no strategy here that man could take credit for; the whole design forces Israel to trust God rather than themselves. The ark of the covenant, the sign of God's presence, is at the center of the procession, for the real conqueror of Jericho is the LORD who dwells above the mercy seat. And the people are commanded to keep silence, "neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout." Their obedience is tested by silence and repetition; for six days nothing visible happens, and they must keep marching in quiet faith with no result to show. This is the walk of faith: obeying God's word day after day, even when nothing seems to change, trusting that He will act in His time. For the Apostolic reader Jericho teaches how God's victories come. Not by our strength or our clever plans, but by His presence and His power; not by carnal weapons, but by faith and obedience to His word; and often only after a season of patient, silent, unrewarded marching, until the appointed day of the shout. Hebrews sums it up: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days" (Hebrews 11:30). The march looked like nothing, but it was faith, and faith brought down the wall.

Word Study

"shout," Hebrew teruah (תְּרוּעָה). The word means a great shout, a battle-cry, a blast of triumph or acclamation. "Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city." Notice when the shout comes: not after the wall falls, but before. Joshua does not say, "the wall has fallen, now rejoice"; he says, "Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city," and then "the wall fell down flat." This is the shout of faith, the triumphant cry raised on the strength of God's promise, before the promise is seen. Faith shouts the victory while the walls are still standing, because God has said the city is given. The teruah is a sound of confident worship and expectation: Israel had marched in silence for six days, holding their peace in patient obedience, and now, at God's command, they lift a great shout of faith, and the impossible wall collapses. Scripture often joins this shout to God's reign and salvation: the "shout" of "God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet" (Psalm 47:5) is this same teruah. So teruah teaches the power of the shout of faith. There is a time to march in silence, waiting on God, and there is a time to shout the victory before it is seen, on the bare word of God. When His people lift the shout of faith on His promise, the walls that no army could breach fall flat. Our victory is won by trusting His word, and confessing it with a great shout before ever the wall comes down.

"shout," the verb rua (רוּעַ). This is the verb that stands behind the noun teruah, the act of raising the great cry itself. It is not a word confined to the battlefield; Scripture puts it in the mouth of worshippers, for the "joyful noise" of "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD" (Psalm 100:1) is the verb rua. The same sound that brought down the wall of Jericho is the sound God's people are commanded to lift in praise, and it is lifted for the same reason in both places: because the LORD reigns, and the victory is already His.

Explanation

On the seventh day the pattern breaks: seven circuits instead of one, then the long blast and the great shout, "and the wall fell down flat." Amid the ruin two promises are kept to the letter. Rahab and all in her house are brought out safe — the scarlet line honored, the harlot spared and grafted into Israel — while the city is burned and its silver, gold, and bronze devoted to the treasury of the LORD. And Joshua lays a curse on any who would rebuild Jericho, a word that stood until it fell, centuries later, on Hiel of Bethel (1 Kings 16:34). God keeps every promise — of mercy and of judgment alike.

Gospel Focus

On the seventh day they march seven times, and then Joshua gives the word: "Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city." The people shout, and "the wall fell down flat," and Israel takes Jericho. The fortress that no siege could breach falls at the shout of faith, exactly as God had promised. Two things follow that carry deep meaning. First, Jericho is placed under the "accursed thing" (Hebrew cherem), devoted wholly to the LORD in judgment; its people are destroyed and its treasures set apart "consecrated unto the LORD... into the treasury." Jericho, the firstfruits of the conquest, belongs entirely to God, and Israel is sternly warned to "keep yourselves from the accursed thing," a warning that will be tragically ignored by Achan in the next chapter. God's judgments are real, and His people must not lay hold of what He has condemned. Second, and shining against this dark backdrop, Rahab is saved: "only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers." The spies keep their oath, bring her and all her kindred out, and "Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive... and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day." In the very city under God's curse, one house is spared, the house marked by the scarlet cord and filled with those who believed. Here is the gospel in miniature: in a world under judgment, all who take refuge by faith, under the sign of the scarlet, are saved, even a Gentile harlot and her whole household. Rahab passes from a doomed city into the people of God, and, as the New Testament reveals, into the very line of the Messiah (Matthew 1:5) and the roll of faith (Hebrews 11:31). So the fall of Jericho preaches both truths of the gospel together: the certainty of God's judgment on sin, and the certainty of His salvation for all who believe. The walls fall by faith; the sinner is saved by faith; and grace reaches into the most hopeless place to rescue whosoever will trust the LORD.