Commentary - Joshua 6:15-21

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we arrive at the climax of the strange siege of Jericho. The seven days of silent marching culminate in a final, seventh day of seven circuits, followed by a great shout. This is not a military strategy in any human sense; it is a liturgical act of faith. God commands the shout not to cause the victory, but because the victory has already been granted. The walls fall, and the city is taken. The central theme here is God's absolute sovereignty in warfare and the corresponding necessity of absolute obedience from His people. This obedience extends to the difficult command of placing the city under the ban, or devoting it to destruction (herem), with the notable exception of Rahab the harlot, who is saved by her faith. The passage sets a crucial precedent for the conquest of Canaan: victory belongs to Yahweh, the spoils of the firstfruits belong to Yahweh, and salvation is available to all, even Canaanite prostitutes, who turn to Yahweh in faith.

Outline

Context In Joshua

Having crossed the Jordan on dry ground and celebrated the Passover as a consecrated army, Israel now faces their first military obstacle: the fortified city of Jericho. The previous verses (6:1-14) laid out God's bizarre and seemingly nonsensical battle plan of marching and trumpet blowing. This section, verses 15-21, describes the execution of the final phase of that plan and its immediate, miraculous results. The fall of Jericho serves as the firstfruits of the entire conquest. How this first battle is conducted, and how the spoils are handled, will set the spiritual trajectory for everything that follows. The absolute devotion of the city to God (apart from the precious metals for the treasury) establishes that this is a holy war, not a campaign for personal enrichment. This principle is immediately tested in the following chapter with the sin of Achan.

Key Issues

Commentary

15 Then it happened that on the seventh day they rose early at the breaking of dawn and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times.

The number seven is the number of completion and perfection throughout Scripture. Here, the seventh day is capped by seven circuits. This is a crescendo of obedience. For six days, they had performed a strange, silent, and repetitive task. It must have been a severe test of their patience and a spectacle of ridicule for the men on Jericho's walls. But faith is not concerned with looking respectable to the world; faith is concerned with doing what God says. They rose early, showing their zeal and readiness. They did it "in the same manner," which is to say, precisely according to the instructions God had given. The only difference was the frequency. This final day was an intensification of all that had come before, bringing the week of patient faith to its appointed conclusion.

16 Now it happened that on the seventh time, the priests blew the trumpets, and Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For Yahweh has given you the city.”

At the end of the final lap, the signal is given. The priests, who had been blowing the trumpets all along, give a particular blast, and Joshua issues the command. Notice the logic of the command. He does not say, "Shout, so that Yahweh will give you the city." He says, "Shout! For Yahweh has given you the city." The shout is not the cause of the victory; it is the celebration of a victory already accomplished in the decree of God. Faith lays hold of the promise as a present reality and acts accordingly. The people are to shout because the deed is as good as done. This is the logic of the gospel. We do not obey in order to be saved; we obey because we have been saved. Our works are the result of God's grace, not the cause of it.

17 And the city shall be devoted to destruction, it and all that is in it belongs to Yahweh; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

Here we have the command of herem, or the ban. The city and everything in it are to be "devoted to destruction." This is not simple warfare; it is a sacrificial act. Jericho, as the firstfruits of Canaan, is being offered up entirely to God as a thing consecrated for judgment. The Canaanite civilization had reached the fullness of its iniquity (Gen. 15:16), and God was now executing His long-delayed justice, using Israel as His sword. But in the midst of this sweeping judgment, there is a remarkable island of grace. Rahab the harlot is to be spared. Why? "Because she hid the messengers." Her act of hiding the spies was an act of faith. She had heard what God did at the Red Sea and had cast her lot with the God of Israel (Josh. 2:9-11). She, a Gentile and a prostitute, is grafted into the people of God through faith, a beautiful foreshadowing of the gospel that saves sinners from every tribe and tongue who abandon their idols and trust in God.

18 But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest as you are devoting them to destruction, you also take some of the things devoted to destruction and make the camp of Israel devoted to destruction and bring trouble on it.

This is a severe and necessary warning. When you are an instrument of God's judgment, you must be careful not to partake of the very thing being judged. The devoted things are contagious. To take what belongs to God under the ban is to place yourself under that same ban. Joshua warns that if one person disobeys, the entire camp of Israel could become herem and have "trouble" brought on it. The word for trouble here is the root of Achan's name, who is the central figure of the next chapter. His sin will do precisely what Joshua warns against. This highlights the principle of corporate solidarity. The sin of one man can bring disaster upon the entire community. Therefore, holiness is a corporate responsibility.

19 But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh; they shall go into the treasury of Yahweh.

Not everything is destroyed. The imperishable things of value are not for plunder but are consecrated to God. They are "holy to Yahweh." As the firstfruits, the wealth of Jericho belongs in God's house, the treasury associated with the Tabernacle. This reinforces the central point: this is God's victory, and the spoils are His. The soldiers were not to enrich themselves. This act of dedicating the first spoils to God sanctified the rest of the campaign. Later on, they would be permitted to take spoil from other cities, but only after this foundational act of acknowledging that everything ultimately belongs to God.

20 So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down beneath itself, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

Here is the miracle. In response to the obedience of the people, God acts in a spectacular way. The shout of faith is met with the power of God. The text says the wall "fell down beneath itself," or "in its place." The picture is not of the walls exploding outward or inward, but of them collapsing straight down, creating a ramp of rubble into the city. This allowed the army to go up "every man straight ahead." There was no need to funnel through a single breach. The way was opened up on all sides for a swift and decisive assault. The sheer impossibility of this event underscores that this was God's doing. No sonic weapon or secret sapping operation can account for this. It was a direct, supernatural intervention, a validation of the people's faith and a terrifying demonstration of God's power to the remaining Canaanites.

21 And they devoted to destruction everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

The execution of the ban is described in stark and unflinching terms. This is difficult for modern, sentimental readers, but it is the necessary consequence of holy war. The judgment is total, encompassing all life within the city. This was not an act of racial hatred or bloodthirsty rage. It was an act of obedience to a divine command. It was the solemn task of executing God's judicial sentence upon a culture given over to depravity, idolatry, and child sacrifice. To be squeamish here is to question the justice of God Himself. Israel was performing a divinely mandated act of social and spiritual cleansing in the land God was giving them for a holy habitation. It was a terrible task, but a necessary one for the establishment of God's covenant people in a land free from the cancerous evils that had previously defined it.

Key Words

Herem, "Devoted to Destruction"

Herem refers to the irrevocable consecration of something or someone to God for destruction. It is not simply about destroying things; it is a religious act, a form of sacrifice. Things placed under the ban were considered holy to God in a negative sense; they were removed from common use and given over to His judgment. In the context of the conquest, it represented the judicial execution of a culture that had filled up the measure of its sin. To violate the ban, as Achan did, was to commit sacrilege, to steal from God Himself.

Application

The Christian life is a spiritual warfare, and our Jericho is the world system, with its high walls of rebellion, unbelief, and pride. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4). Like Israel, we are often called to a long obedience in the same direction, a patient marching that looks foolish to the world. Our great weapon is the "shout" of the gospel, the proclamation of the victory that Christ has already won at the cross. We declare that "Jesus is Lord" not to make it so, but because it is already so.

We too must keep ourselves from the "devoted things" of the world's idolatry, lest we bring trouble upon the house of God. We are to consecrate the firstfruits of all our endeavors, our wealth, our time, to God, acknowledging that it all belongs to Him. And we must remember that in the midst of God's righteous judgment against sin, there is always a scarlet cord of grace for the Rahabs of this world, for any sinner who will hear the report of God's power and turn to Him in faith.