For Teaching

Joshua 6: What the Passage Says

105 claims across 27 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Joshua 6 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Joshua how to take Jericho: the army and seven priests with rams' horns are to march around the shut-up city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day, and then the people are to shout. They do it, the wall falls, and they capture the city and destroy everything in it with the sword, sparing only Rahab and her household because she hid the spies. The city is burned, the silver, gold, bronze, and iron go into the LORD's treasury, and Joshua puts a curse on anyone who rebuilds Jericho.

Claim by Claim

6:1
- Jericho was shut up tightly because of the children of Israel.
- No one went out of Jericho.
- No one came into Jericho.
6:2
- The LORD spoke to Joshua.
- The LORD said he had given Jericho into Joshua's hand.
- The LORD said he had given the king of Jericho into Joshua's hand.
- The LORD said he had given the mighty men of valour into Joshua's hand.
6:3
- The LORD commanded that all the men of war march around the city.
- The LORD commanded that they go around the city one time.
- The LORD commanded that this be done for six days.
6:4
- The LORD commanded that seven priests carry seven rams' horn trumpets before the ark.
- The LORD commanded that on the seventh day they march around the city seven times.
- The LORD commanded that the priests blow the trumpets.
6:5
- The LORD said that a long blast would be made with the ram's horn.
- The LORD said that when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, all the people should shout with a great shout.
- The LORD said the wall of the city would fall down flat.
- The LORD said the people would go up, each man straight ahead of him.
6:6
- Joshua was the son of Nun.
- Joshua called the priests.
- Joshua told the priests to take up the ark of the covenant.
- Joshua said seven priests should carry seven rams' horn trumpets before the ark of the LORD.
6:7
- He said to the people to pass on and march around the city.
- He said the armed men should pass on before the ark of the LORD.
6:8
- Joshua finished speaking to the people.
- The seven priests carrying the seven rams' horn trumpets before the LORD passed on.
- The priests blew the trumpets.
- The ark of the covenant of the LORD went after them.
6:9
- The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets.
- The rear guard went after the ark.
- The trumpets were blown continually as they went.
6:10
- Joshua had commanded the people.
- Joshua commanded that they not shout.
- Joshua commanded that they not let their voice be heard.
- Joshua commanded that no word come out of their mouth.
- Joshua set the limit of this silence as the day he told them to shout.
- Joshua said that on that day they should shout.
6:11
- The ark of the LORD went around the city once.
- They came into the camp.
- They spent the night in the camp.
6:12
- Joshua rose early in the morning.
- The priests took up the ark of the LORD.
6:13
- Seven priests carried seven rams' horn trumpets before the ark of the LORD.
- The priests went on continually.
- The priests blew the trumpets.
- The armed men went before them.
- The rear guard came after the ark of the LORD.
- The trumpets were blown continually as they went.
6:14
- On the second day they marched around the city once.
- They returned to the camp.
- They did this for six days.
6:15
- On the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day.
- They marched around the city in the same manner seven times.
- Only on that day did they march around the city seven times.
6:16
- At the seventh time the priests blew the trumpets.
- Joshua spoke to the people.
- Joshua told the people to shout.
- Joshua said the LORD had given them the city.
6:17
- The city and everything in it were to be devoted to the LORD for destruction.
- Rahab the harlot alone was to live.
- All who were with Rahab in the house were to live.
- The reason given was that Rahab hid the messengers that they sent.
6:18
- Joshua commanded them to keep themselves from the devoted thing.
- Joshua warned that taking of the devoted thing would make them devoted to destruction.
- Joshua warned that they would make the camp of Israel devoted to destruction.
- Joshua warned that they would bring trouble upon the camp.
6:19
- All the silver and gold are holy to the LORD.
- All the vessels of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD.
- They shall go into the treasury of the LORD.
6:20
- The people shouted.
- The priests blew the trumpets.
- The people heard the sound of the trumpet.
- The people shouted with a great shout.
- The wall fell down flat.
- The people went up into the city, each man straight ahead of him.
- They took the city.
6:21
- They utterly destroyed everything in the city with the edge of the sword.
- The destruction included both man and woman.
- The destruction included young and old.
- The destruction included ox, sheep, and donkey.
6:22
- Joshua had spoken to the two men who had spied out the land.
- Joshua told them to go into the harlot's house.
- Joshua told them to bring out the woman and all that she had.
- Joshua told them to do this as they had sworn to her.
6:23
- The young men who were spies went in.
- They brought out Rahab.
- They brought out her father.
- They brought out her mother.
- They brought out her brothers.
- They brought out all that she had.
- They brought out all her kindred.
- They set them outside the camp of Israel.
6:24
- They burned the city with fire.
- They burned everything in it.
- They put the silver, the gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron into the treasury of the house of the LORD.
6:25
- Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive.
- Joshua saved her father's household alive.
- Joshua saved all that she had alive.
- She dwells in the midst of Israel to this day.
- The reason given was that she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
6:26
- Joshua made an oath at that time.
- Joshua said cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and rebuilds the city of Jericho.
- Joshua said that man would lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn.
- Joshua said that man would set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son.
6:27
- The LORD was with Joshua.
- Joshua's fame spread throughout all the land.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

6:1: "Straitly" is not "straightly": it is the old adverb from "strait," meaning narrowly or tightly, as in a strait (a narrow channel). Jericho was a walled town near the Jordan crossing, and with an army camped outside, its gates were barred and all traffic in and out had stopped.
6:2: "Mighty men of valour" is a stock Hebrew phrase for able-bodied fighting men of standing in the community, not a special corps, but the city's capable warriors. "I have given into thine hand" is the ordinary idiom for handing something over into someone's power; the past tense states the outcome as already settled.
6:3: "Compass the city" in the King James means to go around it, to encircle it. It has nothing to do with the instrument; the word comes from the same root as "encompass."
6:4: The ark was a wooden chest overlaid with gold, carried on poles by priests, which held the stone tablets of the law and served as the visible sign of God's presence with Israel. The "trumpets of rams' horns" are shofars, hollowed animal horns that produce a few loud, carrying notes. They were signaling instruments used in war and at festivals, not melodic instruments.
6:5: The "long blast" is a single sustained note, distinct from the short blasts that had sounded on the march; it was the agreed signal. "Every man straight before him" means each man was to climb in from wherever he happened to be standing in the circle around the city, without regrouping or manoeuvring to a gate.
6:6: A covenant is a binding agreement between two parties, with sworn obligations on each side; the phrase "ark of the covenant" means the chest that held the tablets on which the terms of God's agreement with Israel were written.
6:9: The "rereward" (rear guard) is the body of troops marching last. The Hebrew word means roughly "the ones who gather up", the group bringing up the rear of a column.
6:10: Armies of the time normally advanced roaring a war cry, to steady themselves and frighten the enemy. Six days of complete silence would have been unnerving both for the marchers and for the people watching from the walls.
6:13: They did the same thing every day for six days. Doing it the same way each time was part of the plan.
6:15: Dawn is the very first light of the morning. The sun is just starting to come up.
6:16: The word translated "Shout" is the battle cry itself, the sound an army made as it charged.
6:17: "Accursed" here translates the Hebrew term *herem*: something handed over to God permanently and withdrawn from all human use, in the case of a captured city by destroying it rather than taking it as plunder. The word does not mean cursing in the sense of swearing at something. "The messengers that we sent" are the two spies Rahab sheltered and hid on her roof in chapter 2. The word rendered "harlot" is the ordinary Hebrew word for a prostitute; some ancient interpreters took it to mean an innkeeper, but the plain sense of the word is the former.
6:18: The verse turns on one Hebrew root used three ways: the plunder is under *herem*, anyone who takes it comes under *herem* himself, and the whole camp then becomes *herem*. The King James "accursed thing... make yourselves accursed... make the camp a curse" is trying to keep that single word visible in English.
6:19: "Brass" in 1611 English meant what we now call bronze, copper alloyed with tin. True brass (copper and zinc) was barely known in the ancient Near East. "Consecrated" means set aside for God's exclusive use; metal, unlike people, animals and buildings, could be melted and purified rather than destroyed, so it went to the sanctuary's stores instead.
6:20: The Hebrew says the wall fell "beneath itself" or "in its place": it collapsed straight down where it stood, rather than toppling outward, which is why the attackers could go up over the rubble from wherever they were standing.
6:21: "Utterly destroyed" is the verb formed from the same word translated "accursed" in verse 17: to put something under *herem*. "With the edge of the sword" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "to the mouth of the sword", a sword's blade was spoken of as devouring.
6:22: "Sware" is the old past tense of swear. The oath was made in chapter 2, when the spies promised Rahab that anyone inside her house would be spared if she kept quiet about them.
6:23: "Without the camp" in the King James means outside the camp, not lacking a camp. Rahab's family were not Israelites and had not undergone the rites that allowed a person to live inside the camp, so they were quartered just beyond it until they could be brought in.
6:25: "Unto this day" is a stock phrase of Hebrew narrative marking a situation that still held when the account was written down; it points to the writer's own time rather than to Joshua's lifetime.
6:26: "Adjured" means put under a binding oath, Joshua made those present swear to the terms. The curse is phrased as a price: whoever rebuilds the town will lose his eldest son by the time the foundations are laid and his youngest by the time the gates are hung. The wording may also glance at the ancient practice of burying a child beneath a new building's foundations, though this is disputed.
6:27: "Noised" is the old passive of "noise" as a verb, to be reported or spread by talk. It carries no suggestion of loudness or disturbance.

Read Joshua 6