Joshua
6
- Now Jericho was tightly shut up because
of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
- Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See,
I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting
men.
- March around the city once with all the
armed men. Do this for six days.
- Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams'
horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven
times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.
- When you hear them sound a long blast on
the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the
city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."
- So Joshua son of Nun called the priests
and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have
seven priests carry trumpets in front of it."
- And he ordered the people, "Advance!
March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the
LORD."
- When Joshua had spoken to the people, the
seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing
their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD'S covenant followed them.
- The armed guard marched ahead of the priests
who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time
the trumpets were sounding.
- But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do
not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the
day I tell you to shout. Then shout !"
- So he had the ark of the LORD carried around
the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the
night there.
- Joshua got up early the next morning and
the priests took up the ark of the LORD.
- The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets
went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets.
The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the
LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding.
- So on the second day they marched around
the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
- On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak
and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on
that day they circled the city seven times.
- The seventh time around, when the priests
sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the
LORD has given you the city !
- The city and all that is in it are to be
devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in
her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent.
- But keep away from the devoted things, so
that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them.
Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring
trouble on it.
- All the silver and gold and the articles
of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury."
- When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted,
and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall
collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.
- They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed
with the sword every living thing in it -- men and women, young and old, cattle,
sheep and donkeys.
- Joshua said to the two men who had spied
out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring her out and all
who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her."
- So the young men who had done the spying
went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all
who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a
place outside the camp of Israel.
- Then they burned the whole city and everything
in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron
into the treasury of the LORD'S house.
- But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute,
with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua
had sent as spies to Jericho -- and she lives among the Israelites to this
day.
- At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn
oath: "Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this
city, Jericho: "At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations;
at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates."
- So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame
spread throughout the land.
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