procession, which appeared and disappeared, and did its work, in solemn silence, only broken by the loud

shrill notes of the horns, must have been peculiar. At length came the seventh day. Its work began earlier

than on the others - "about the dawning of the day." In the same order as before, they encomp assed the

city, only now seven times. "And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the

trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for Jehovah hath given you the city." "And it came to pass,

when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall

fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the

city." As for Jericho itself, Joshua had by Divine command declared it "cherem," or "devoted" to Jehovah

(Joshua 6:17). In such cases, according to Leviticus 27:28, 29, no redemption was possible, but, as indicated

in Deuteronomy 13:16, alike the inhabitants and all the spoil of the city was to be destroyed, "only the silver,

and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron" being reserved and "put into the treasury of the house of

Jehovah" (Joshua 6:24; comp. Numbers 31:22, 23, 50-54). This was not the ordinary sentence against all the

cities of Canaan. In all other cases the inhabitants alone were "smitten with the edge of the sword" (Joshua

8:26; 10:28; comp. Deuteronomy 2:34; 3:6; 8:2; 20:16), while the cattle and the spoil were preserved. But in the

case of Jericho, for reasons to be afterwards stated, the whole city, with all that it contained, was cherem.

Only Rahab, "and her father's household, and all that she had," were saved from the general wreck.

It lies on the surface of the Scriptural narrative that "a notable miracle," unparalleled in history, had in this

case been "wrought" by Jehovah for Israel. As a German writer puts it: It would have been impossible to

show it more clearly, that Jehovah had given the city to Israel. First, the river was made to recede, to allow

them entrance into the land; and now the walls of the city were made to fall, to give them admission to its

first and strongest city. Now such proofs of the presence and help of Jehovah, so soon after Moses' death,

must have convinced the most carnal among Israel, that the same God who had cleft the Red Sea before their

fathers was still on their side. And in this light must the event also have been viewed by the people of

Canaan. But, besides, a deeper symbolical meaning attached to all that had happened. The first and

strongest fortress in the land Jehovah God bestowed upon His people, so to speak, as a free gift, without

their having to make any effort, or to run any risk in taking it.

A precious pledge this of the ease with which all His gracious promises were to be fulfilled. Similarly, the

manner in which Israel obtained possession of Jericho was deeply significant. Evidently, the walls of Jericho

fell, not before Israel, but before the Ark of Jehovah, or rather, as it is expressly said in Joshua 6:8, before

Jehovah Himself, whose presence among His people was connected with the Ark of the Covenant. And the

blast of those jubilee-horns all around the doomed city made proclamation of Jehovah, and was, so to speak,

the summons of His kingdom, proclaiming that the labor and sorrow of His people were at an end, and they

about to enter upon their inheritance. This was the symbolical and typical import of the blasts of the jubilee-

horns, whenever they were blown. Hence also alike in the visions of the prophets and in the New Testament

the final advent of the kingdom of God is heralded by the trumpet-sound of His angelic messengers (comp. 1

Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 20 and 21). But, on the other hand, the advent of the

kingdom of God always implies destruction to His enemies. Accordingly, t he walls of Jericho must fall, and

all the city be destroyed. Nor will the reader of this history fail here also to notice the significance of the

number seven - seven horns, seven priests, seven days of compassing the walls, repeated seven times on

the seventh day! The suddenness of the ruin of Jericho, which typified the kingdom of this world in its

opposition to that of God, has also its counterpart at the end of the present dispensation. For "the day of

the Lord cometh as a thief in the night; and when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction

cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."

Lastly, it was fitting that Jericho should have been entirely devoted unto the Lord; not only that Israel might

gain no immediate spoil by what the Lord had done, but also because the city, as the firstfruits of the

conquest of the land, belonged unto Jehovah, just as all the first, both in His people and in all that was

theirs, was His - in token that the whole was really God's property, Who gave everything to His people, and

at Whose hands they held their possessions. But, to indicate the state of heart and mind with which Israel

compassed the city, following the Ark in solemn silence, we recall this emphatic testimony of Scripture

(Hebrews 11:30):