Joshua 6

A circumstance occurs in the close of this chapter, much too important to be passed over. It was another appearance of the great Captain and prince of Israel, the angel of the everlasting Covenant, in order to encourage and direct Joshua in the arduous campaign on which he was about to enter. It should perhaps be recollected here, that Joshua was not privileged like Moses, to enter into the most holy place to inquire of the Lord, but could only do so through the medium of Eleazar the high priest. But to show how eminently he was favoured, the Lord himself here appears to him, in an angelic form, to give him encouragement and direction in the siege of Jericho, though by a most unhappy division of this chapter, infidels have represented the object of the vision as ridiculous:—as only directing him to pull off his shoes.

In the next chapter, however, we shall find the vision continued, and the Jewish leader directed how he shall proceed. Chap. VI. Ver. 1—27. The taking of Jericho, and its destruction.—Jericho had now closed its gates, and was to be surrounded by the city by a procession of priests, as much calculated to excite the ridicule of its Pagan inhabitants, as was the conduct of Noah to provoke that of the inhabitants of the old world. The ark was to be carried seven days round, with the sound of the Jubilee trumpets, and the last time to be accompanied with a shout from the whole army, at which shout the walls of Jericho, which appear to have been the whole hope and confidence of the inhabitants, fell down flat before them. The destruction which followed, is only to be justified by the command of heaven; and the authority of that command is proved by the miracle that accompanied it.

Had the earth opened and swallowed up the city, none but an atheist would have dared to murmur; as it is, the power of God being no less conspicuous, and his authority the same, we murmur at our peril. The Supreme Being owes no account of his actions to the highest of his creatures, much less to “worms of the dust,” as we are. We should not here omit to notice the good faith that was kept with Rahab, the harlot, who was saved, with all her family; and thus was her kindness to the spies rewarded; indeed, neither under the Old Testament nor the New, does the Lord suffer any kindness to his people, though it were but “a cup of cold water,” to go unremunerated. On the other hand, a curse is imprecated on those who should attempt to counteract the designs of God, by rebuilding that which he had devoted to destruction.

But the purport of this execration seems rather to have been misunderstood. Jericho was a strong fortified town; its walls and gates were destroyed by miracle, and the imprecation laid on those who should rebuild them, which had been the glory of the city, and set up its gates, in which the people at hitherto trusted. This curse fell upon Hiel, in the days of Ahab, as we shall see, (1 Kings 16:34). In the meantime, it is thought (though not certain) that the place was occupied as an open unwalled town, and called “the city of villages,” as it had been formerly. (Compare (Deuteronomy 34:2).) The inference from this important conquest was, that “the Lord was with Joshua;” and it is indeed well when our successes are of that nature as to prove that the blessing and presence of the Lord is with us.

Notes on the verses

Chap. VI. Ver. 4. Trumpets of rams’ horns.—{The words shopheroth hyyovelim, should rather be rendered jubilee trumpets, i. e. such as were used on the pice, which were probably made of horn or silver; for the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan was indeed a jubilee to them; (see note on (Leviticus 25:11):) instead of the dreadful trumpet of war, they were ordered to sound the trumpet of joy, as already conquerors.}—Bagster;

Ver. 5. Shall fall down flat.—{The words wenaphelah chomgth hair tachteyha, are literally, “and the wall of the city shall fall down under itself;” which appears simply to mean, that the wall shall fall down from its very foundation; which was probably the case, in every part, though large breaches in different places might have been amply sufficient first to admit the armed men, after whom the host might enter to destroy the city. There is no ground for the supposition, that the walls sunk into the earth.}

Ver. 9. And the armed men.—That is, a considerable detachment, probably the forty thousand mentioned ch. iv. 13.

Ver. 21. Utterly destroyed.—{In all public calamities infants are involved; and tens of thousands of infants die in great agony every year. Now, either God is not the agent in these calamities, (which opinion, though often admitted in men’s reasonings on these subjects, is not far from atheism;) or they must consist with the most perfect justice and none else.}

Ver. 23. Left them without the camp.—That is, as unclean, till the rites of proselytism were gone through, and the males circumcised.

Ver. 26. Joshua adjured them.—(This is apparently a strange execration; but it may be regarded as a prediction, that he who rebuilded this city should lose all his children in the interim between the laying of the foundation to the completion of the walls. Such execrations were not infrequent in ancient times. Strabo says, “It is believed, that those who might have afterwards wished to build Ilion, were deterred from building the city in the same place, either by what they had suffered there, or because Agamemnon had pronounced a curse against him that should rebuild it: for this was an ancient custom. Thus Croesus, after he had destroyed Sidena, into which the tyrant Glaucias had thrown himself, uttered a curse upon him who should rebuild the walls of that place.”

}—Bagster.