Fall of Jericho Never Happened

According to Book of Joshua, the Battle of Jericho, the first battle fought by the Israelites in the course of the conquest of Canaan. According to biblical account, the walls of Jericho fell after the Israelites marched around the city walls once a day for six days, seven times on the seventh day, with the priests blowing their horns daily and the people shouting on the last day.

And the Ark of the Covenant made a decisive contribution to this vital victory.

According to the Book of Joshua, when the Israelites were encamped at Shittim opposite Jericho, ready to cross the river, Joshua, as a final preparation, sent out two spies to Jericho.

The spies stayed in the house of Rahab, a local prostitute. The king of Jericho sent soldiers who asked Rahab to bring out the spies. Instead (apparently, she was scared of Israelites), she hid them under bundles of flax on the roof.

After escaping, the spies promised to spare Rahab and her family after taking the city, if she would mark her house by hanging a red cord out the window. Which she promptly did.

Walls of the city look impenetrable… however, it appears that God found a way to solve this problem. He commanded Joshua to go around the walls of Jericho for six days, once every day, and seven times on the seventh day.

The assault team consisted of seven priests blowing horns, with the Ark of the Covenant in front of them and all the people behind the Ark of the Covenant. They encircled the wall of Jericho once a day for the first six days, and then encircled the city seven times on the seventh day. After the shofar (horn) sounded a great blow, the Israelites shouted, and the city walls fell beneath them.

Fortunately, this battle (and the fall of Jericho) never happened. Extensive excavations at Tell es-Sultan (the biblical Jericho) have failed to find any traces of a city at the relevant time (end of the Bronze Age), which has led to a consensus among scholars that the story has its origins in the nationalist propaganda of much later kings of Judah and their claims to the territory of the Kingdom of Israel.

Fortunately, because, according to biblical account, the Israelites killed every man and woman, the young and the old, as well as the oxen, sheep, and donkeys. Only abovementioned Rahab, her parents, brothers and all her relatives were spared. Joshua then cursed anybody who rebuilt the foundations and gates, with the deaths of their firstborn and youngest child respectively.

Joshua’s decision to kill every living soul in Jericho was based on the commandment of Herem (cherem). This term has two meanings: the religious and the military.

The religious meaning is defined as “rendering harmless, anything imperiling the religious life of the nation” and the military “the total destruction of the enemy and at the conclusion of a campaign”.

When you combine these definitions – as you should – you get “render harmless everything that imperils the religious life of your nation by total destruction of your enemy after a victorious military campaign”.

Although the Fall of Jericho is a figment of imagination of the author(s) of the Book of Joshua, the commandment of Herem was followed to a ‘t’ on a number of occasions by different nations.

In the case of Israelites, God commanded Joshua to kill every human being in Jericho (in reality, animals were obviously spared) apparently because they all were devil-worshippers (followers of Baal/Moloch cult) and God (obviously) feared that if spared they would convert the Jews back to devil worshipping.

Not an excuse for a “Holocaust in Canaan” for a modern mindset… but those times were very, very different. I personally think that there was a far more humane solution to this existential problem… but God apparently thought differently.