Near Jericho, Joshua saw a man standing with a drawn sword. Joshua asked whether he was for Israel or its enemies. The man answered that he had come as commander of the army of the LORD. Joshua fell facedown and asked for instruction. The commander told him to remove his sandals because the place where he stood was holy, and Joshua did so.
Jericho was shut tight because of Israel. God told Joshua that Jericho, its king, and its warriors had been given into his hand. Armed men were to march around the city once each day for six days. Seven priests carrying seven ram’s-horn trumpets were to walk before the ark. On the seventh day they would circle the city seven times and the priests would blow the trumpets.
When the long trumpet blast sounded, the people were to shout and the city wall would fall. Joshua ordered the priests to carry the ark and the armed men to go ahead, with a rear guard behind it. The priests blew the trumpets as they went. Joshua ordered the people not to shout or let a word leave their mouths until he gave the command.
On the first day the ark circled the city once and returned to camp. For six days Israel rose early and did the same. On the seventh day they rose at dawn and circled Jericho seven times. At the seventh circuit, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua commanded the people to shout because the LORD had given them the city.
The city and all within it were devoted to the LORD. Rahab and everyone in her house were to live because she had hidden the spies. Joshua warned Israel not to take what was devoted, lest the camp become liable to destruction. Silver, gold, bronze, and iron were holy to the LORD and belonged in the treasury.
The priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted, and the wall fell. Israel went straight up into the city and took it. They destroyed its people and animals with the sword. Joshua sent the two spies to bring out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought the family outside Israel’s camp.
Israel burned the city and everything in it, putting precious metals and vessels into the LORD’s treasury. Joshua spared Rahab and her household, and she lived among Israel because she had hidden the messengers. Joshua then pronounced a curse on anyone who rebuilt Jericho: that person would lose a firstborn while laying its foundation and a youngest child while setting its gates. The LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread through the land.