Law of God — Joshua 6

First, a few reminders are in order. Jericho is one of the most ancient sites of human occupation one can find on the earth, all the way back to Neolithic times, at least. It was a fairly high mound already before Israel invaded Canaan Land. And so far as anyone can tell, the Amorites occupied this mound at the time. Keep in mind that the Amorites are best understood as a class of people, not exactly an ethnic nation. The name comes from one of the Sons of Canaan, but at the time of the Exodus, that name came to represent a group of opportunists, often dwelling in tents, always cheating, stealing and raiding. They would have justly been regarded rather like today’s Gypsies. If they built much at all, it would have been mud or mud bricks. Archaeology indicates they hadn’t been there long enough to do much building, only a decade or less.

Their use of the Jericho mound would not have left much archaeological evidence. However, Jericho was a shrine city, or Israel would not have bothered with them — this is a religious war. Whatever else we might know about the Amorites, their pagan idolatry was loaded with depraved practices. Jericho was the ancient version of a tourist trap, a place that was warm and dry most of the year, yet highly favored with very generous flowing natural springs. It was a tropical paradise with lush growth and year round fruit. The Jericho shrine was most likely one that featured prostitutes of various types, and the place was decorated with lurid images of what one could have for a price. Calling Rahab a prostitute is nothing more than saying she was an Amorite; it was just part of their culture. They used the shrine to sanctify their predatory greed and low morals.

This explains the austere commands Joshua gave his troops. Please don’t envision brass instruments; the priests blew hollow ram’s horns. These would make a high-pitched, almost squealing noise that anyone was likely to hear over the normal buzz of human activity. In this case, it was the only noise anyone heard from the procession during the six days of preliminary marching, perhaps with taunting from the walls. The symbolism was unmistakable to anyone in those ancient times: This massive army of infantry with their sacred totem could quietly march around the city walls without any opposition. They controlled all the land outside the walls. In the pagan minds in the city, the trumpets were summoning spirits to battle, quite nerve wracking to those trapped inside.

The procession came every morning just after daybreak. While the Hebrew text is typically vague on some details, we can get a sort of picture of this event. Only the full time professional warriors were involved, without any of the lightly armed conscripts that made up the bulk of the army. Most of those professional troops led the march, with the priests and Ark of the Covenant at the rear, followed only by the standard rear guard (something like one fifth of the armed men bearing a heavier defensive armament in this context).

On the seventh day, the same procession repeated seven times. Sometime during that last circuit, something caused the mud wall to dissolve and it collapsed into sand piles that poured down the slopes of the mound. It was a simple matter to charge up the rather gentle slopes of the ancient hill. Whatever shook the wall down would have dissolved the rest of the mud brick structures. All that was left standing were tents and wood structures, all of which were torched in the attack. The people and livestock were slaughtered except for Rahab and her household, according to the promise made by the spies. The only plunder was items of gold, silver, bronze and iron, all dedicated to the Tabernacle treasury. It was for sure everything they found was stolen from somewhere else; Amorites rarely even made their own pottery.

This tested the discipline of the troops who would lead the rest of the army in future battles. Considering what happens next, we can safely say Israel’s troops played by the rules this time. Joshua laid a public curse on the city mound. We find out later that it comes true.