The Wall Fell Down Flat
15 On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawning of the day, and marched around the city in the same way seven times. On this day only they marched around the city seven times. 16 At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city! 17 The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 18 But as for you, only keep yourselves from what is devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. 19 But all the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh. They shall come into Yahweh’s treasury.” 20 So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they took the city. 21 They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword. 22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house, and bring the woman and all that she has out from there, as you swore to her.” 23 The young men who were spies went in, and brought out Rahab with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. They also brought out all of her relatives, and they set them outside of the camp of Israel. 24 They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only they put the silver, the gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron into the treasury of Yahweh’s house. 25 But Rahab the prostitute, her father’s household, and all that she had, Joshua saved alive. She lives in the middle of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 26 Joshua commanded them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before Yahweh who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.” 27 So Yahweh was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.
The city falls at a shout, the ban is total with one marked exception — and the spared household is Rahab's, set eventually in Messiah's own line.
At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city!
Seven circuits on the seventh day, the long blast, and the week's stored silence released in one shout — and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him Joshua 6:20. No ram touched the wall and no ladder was raised; each soldier simply walked forward over rubble into the sector in front of him. The tactics were designed to be no tactics, so that the fall could be credited to exactly one cause Hebrews 11:30.
The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Jericho is placed under the ban — the devoted status the front of this book must be read with: not plunder but judgment, the firstfruits city of a land whose iniquity had filled over four deferred centuries Genesis 15:16 Deuteronomy 9:4–5 Deuteronomy 20:16–18. Nothing may enrich Israel; the metals go to the treasury as holy Joshua 6:19, and everything else is destroyed Joshua 6:21. The severity is total and it is bounded — this time, this place, this docket — and the warning attached to it aims at Israel itself: touch the devoted thing and you would make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it Joshua 6:18, a sentence the next chapter will unfold name by name Joshua 7:1 Joshua 7:25.
The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
The exception is announced in the same breath as the ban. The spies keep their oath in person Joshua 6:22–23, the whole household comes out alive, and the narrator adds the note that turns a rescue into a residence: she lives in the middle of Israel to this day Joshua 6:25. Scripture then keeps enlarging her story — into the Messiah's genealogy as Boaz's mother Matthew 1:5, into the roll of faith Hebrews 11:31. In the very chapter where judgment falls entire on a city, the one believer in it is saved entire with everyone she could gather indoors. Judgment and rescue are not competing stories in this book; they are the same event, sorted by a scarlet cord.
Joshua commanded them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before Yahweh who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.”
Joshua closes the site under oath — the ruin itself to stand as a monument, at the price of a rebuilder's firstborn and youngest. Scripture remembers the curse and, centuries later, records its precise collection in the days of Ahab 1 Kings 16:34. So Yahweh was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land Joshua 6:27 — the chapter's last word placing the fame where the week's design aimed it.
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