The conquest of Jericho
1 The inhabitants of Jericho had closed the city and had fastened their bolts so that the Israelites could not enter. No one came in and no one went out.
2 But Yah weh said to Joshua: “I will give you the city, its king and all its men of war.
3 For this, you shall have to go around the city once every day for six days.
4 Seven priests shall go before the Ark bearing the seven trumpets used in the time of the Jubilee. On the seventh day, they shall march around the city seven times,
5 and when they blow the horn, all the people shall come up to attack, shouting their battle cry. At that moment, the walls of the city will fall and ev eryone shall enter straight ahead of him.”
6 Joshua, son of Nun, called the priests and said to them: “You shall carry the Ark of the Covenant; seven priests shall go ahead with the trumpets they use for the Jubilee.”
7 Then Jo shua said to the people: “You shall march around the city and the vanguard of the army shall go before the Ark of Yahweh.”
8 When Joshua finished speaking, the priests began to blow the seven trumpets they used to blow on the Feast of the Jubilee, and they went before the Ark of Yahweh.
9 The vanguard of the people went before the priests, and the rest of the people came after the Ark.
10 The trumpets blew continually. Joshua had given this order: “Do not shout or utter anything, nor let even a single word be heard, until the day comes when I say: Shout and cry out!”
11 That day he had the Ark of Yahweh carried around the city once, then all returned to the camp where they spent the night.
12 On the following day, Joshua rose early in the morn ing
13 and the priests took the Ark and those who blew the seven trumpets again went before the Ark. The vanguard went before them and the rest followed the Ark while the trumpets blew.
14 So they did the next day, and for six days they marched once a day around the city and then returned to the camp.
15 On the seventh day, the Israelites rose early at dawn and marched around Jericho in the same way as on the previous days. But on that day, they did it seven times.
16 At the seventh time, as the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua or dered the people: “Shout your battle cry for Yahweh has given you the city!
17 The city and all that is in it shall be given in anathema to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute with all who may be with her in her house shall live, since she hid the spies we sent.
18 But for your part, be careful not to touch anything, big or small since everything shall be consecrated in anathema; do not take anything for yourself lest the curse be upon the camp of Israel and bring trouble upon it.
19 All the gold, silver, copper and iron are to be consecrated to Yahweh and shall go into the treasury of Yahweh.”
20 The people shouted and the trumpets blew. At this precise moment, the walls of the city fell. Then everyone went straight into the city to the place before him.
21 They seized Jericho. And with sword in hand, they killed all the men and women, both young and old, as well as the oxen, sheep and asses, and they gave these as anathema or, rather, sacrificed them to God.
22 Two men had been sent to explore Jericho, (and upon entering the city, were hidden by a prostitute). Then Joshua said to them: “Go into the house of the prostitute and bring her out with all her family as you had sworn to her.”
23 These young men then brought out the woman named Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers and sisters with all her relatives to safety outside the camp of Israel.
24 Afterwards, they burned the city and all that was in it. They saved only the silver, gold and the vessels of bronze and iron which they put with the precious things in the Sanctuary of Yahweh.
25 Jo shua saved the prostitute and all her family, and she lived in Israel, because she had kept the spies sent by Joshua.
26 Joshua asked the people to pronounce this curse: “May Yahweh curse the man who rebuilds Jericho. May its foundation rise on the body of his eldest son, and the gates on that of his youngest son.”
27 So Yahweh was with Joshua and made him famous in all the land.
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments Joshua, Chapter 6
• 6.1 With the capture of Jericho, the conquest begins. Jericho is made “anathema,” i.e., set apart for God. The people renounce all booty, entrust the spoils to Yahweh’s treasury and kill all living beings instead of taking possession of the animals and reducing the inhabitants to slavery. This same word “anathema” will eventually be used to refer to someone who bears the curse of God (see Rom 9:3). This was a practice among a number of peoples. By destroying everything Canaanite, Israel safeguarded itself from adopting the culture and materialism of the Canaanites.
Sometimes the modern reader is scandalized: how could God order such a war? And how could Joshua think of pleasing God by ordering the killing of all the inhabitants including babies?
One should bear in mind when this conquest took place and when the book was written.
The conquest took place in the thirteenth century B.C. It is difficult for us to understand the men tality of such ancient times. In Canaan, babies were burned as an offering to the pagan gods. In Assyria, prisoners were skinned alive. Israel conquered Palestine by force like any nomadic people in the world. God was beginning to instruct his people. To start with, he could not expect that they had already been educated. The bloody victories were a step on the way to the shaping of a national conscience. In this sense, we cannot, in the name of peace, despise heroes of past wars.
Moreover, the present book was written in the seventh century B.C., in the small kingdom of Judah, which was surrounded by powerful neighbors with whom they tried to be at peace. Hence, the accounts of past victories and massacres were amplified (compare 2 S 12:31 written by contemporaries of the events, and 1 Chr 20:2, written four centuries later). The author wanted to show his contemporaries that they had nothing to fear, since God was with them. By imaginatively amplifying the massacres of Canaanites in times past, he wanted to say to his compatriots: do not follow any pagan practices, but preserve the holy germ of Israel’s faith. Using these bloody examples, the Scripture gives us a lesson: since the people of God had a unique hope for the world, no sacrifice would be too big to keep it intact. The Gospel is no less sharp than the sword of Joshua, it is no less indulgent against our idols and our fears, even when it refuses the violence and, of course, the fanaticism of these primitive times.
In like manner then, when we read: Yahweh ordered Joshua the anathema, we should not think this was a special intervention of God (see commentary on Gen 16). These words only mean that Joshua decided to declare and implement the anathema, and in so doing preserved Israel’s faith from idolatry, a situation even more contradictory to God’s plans. But they did this as a people who did not yet know the value of human life.
It is difficult to know really what is true in this story: see footnotes on Joshua 2:1.