King James Version · Entering the land
Joshua 6
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Now was straitly shut up because of the : none went out, and none came in. And said unto , See, I have given into thine hand , and the king thereof, and the of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven of rams’ : and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the . And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s , and when ye hear the sound of the , all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. And the son of called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the , and let seven priests bear seven of rams’ before the . And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the . And it came to pass, when had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven of rams’ passed on before , and blew with the : and the of followed them. And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the , and the rereward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the . And had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your , until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout. 11So the compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp. And rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the . And seven priests bearing seven of rams’ before the went on continually, and blew with the : and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the , the priests going on, and blowing with the . And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the , said unto the people, Shout; for hath given you the city. And the city shall be , even it, and all that are therein, to : only the shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the that we sent. And ye, in any keep yourselves from the thing, lest ye make yourselves , when ye take of the thing, and make the camp of Israel , and trouble it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are unto : they shall come into the of . So the people shouted when the priests blew with the : and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the , 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. And they all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of . But had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the ’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out , and her , and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. And they burnt the city with , and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the of the . And the alive, and her ’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the , which sent to spy out . And adjured them at that time, saying, be the man before , that riseth up and buildeth this city : he shall lay the foundation thereof in his , and in his youngest son shall he set up the of it. So was with ; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Entering the land, 1250 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel crossing into Canaan and contending with fortified city-states, each with its own king, in a land Egypt had recently dominated and was now losing its grip on.
- The collapse
- The whole eastern Mediterranean is coming apart. Within about fifty years the Hittite empire falls, its capital burns, the Mycenaean palaces are destroyed, Ugarit is wiped out mid-correspondence, and Egypt is fighting for its life against seaborne invaders. Nobody fully knows why. Drought, earthquake, migration, and the failure of interlocking trade are all in the explanation.
- Egypt
- Still strong enough to record a victory over a people called Israel on a stone monument around 1207 BC, the earliest mention of the name outside the Bible. But Egyptian control of Canaan is slipping, and within a generation it is gone.
- Canaan
- Not a country but dozens of walled towns, each with its own king, its own god, and its own quarrel with the next valley. This is why the book of Joshua reads as a list of kings rather than a war with a nation.
- Further afield
- Iron is beginning to replace bronze across the region, partly because the tin trade that made bronze possible has broken down. The Olmec are building San Lorenzo. The Zhou are about to overthrow the Shang in China.