The Walls of Jericho

WHAT’S making these walls of Jerʹi·cho fall? It looks as if a big bomb has hit them. But in those days they didn’t have bombs; they didn’t even have guns. It is another miracle of Jehovah! Let’s learn how it happened.

Listen to what Jehovah tells Joshua: ‘You and your fighting men are to march around the city. March around it once each day for six days. Carry the ark of the covenant with you. Seven priests should walk ahead of it and blow their horns.

‘On the seventh day you should march around the city seven times. Then give a long sound on the horns, and have everyone shout with a great war cry. And the walls will fall down flat!’

Joshua and the people do what Jehovah says. While they march, everyone is silent. No one speaks a word. All that can be heard is the sound of the horns and the marching feet. The enemies of God’s people in Jerʹi·cho must have been afraid. Can you see that red cord hanging from a window? Whose window is that? Yes, Raʹhab has done what the two spies told her to do. All her family are inside watching with her.

Finally, on the seventh day, after marching around the city seven times, the horns sound, the fighting men shout, and the walls fall. Then Joshua says: ‘Kill everyone in the city and burn it. Burn everything. Save only the silver, gold, copper and iron, and give them to the treasury of Jehovah’s tent.’

To the two spies, Joshua says: ‘Go into the house of Raʹhab, and bring her and all her family out.’ Raʹhab and her family are saved, just as the spies had promised her.