Nisan 28, 5784; from sunset May 5, 2024, to sunset May 6, 2024
This is the name Yehoshua (Joshua); Joshua means “The LORD Saves.” The top image was written ~2,000 years ago and was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The bottom image was written ~1,000 years ago and is from the Aleppo Codex (the Crown of Aleppo). The top image was written on a scroll, possibly in Qumran, near the Dead Sea. The bottom is in a bound manuscript, written in Tiberias, near the Sea of Galilee, which later made its way to Aleppo (Syria). The Aleppo Codex is now housed in the Shrine of the Book alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Today in the Bible is the traditional date for when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. We’ve been following Joshua and the children of Israel for the last week as they march around the city as God had commanded. Today is the day they’ve been waiting for. Let’s read what happened on the seventh day.
Shout! For the LORD has given you the city!
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. – Joshua 6:15-27 (NIB)
According to 1 Kings 16:34, Joshua’s oath, “Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho” was realized.
In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun. – 1 Kings 16:34 (NIB)
To read all of our posts about Joshua, please click on the image above.
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