The fall of Jericho JOS 6:20

According to Joshua 6, the Israelite army marched silently around Jericho's walls once a day for six days, carrying the ark and seven ram's-horn trumpets. On the seventh day they circled the city seven times, and when the priests sounded a long blast the people shouted and the wall collapsed. The army then took the city, sparing only Rahab and her household.

The instructions given to Joshua don't resemble any conventional military tactic of the ancient world. Marching silently for days and relying on a shout and trumpets rather than battering rams points the credit for the victory away from Israel's own strength. Many readers see this as the text's way of showing that the conquest depended on obedience and divine action rather than military skill.

The text ties the collapse to the long trumpet blast and the people's shout together, not to the shout as an isolated cause. It's easy to assume a crowd yelling loud enough could break stone, but the narrative presents the whole sequence, obedience, the ark, the trumpets, and the shout, as the moment of divine intervention. Some readers also note that this account sits within a wider historical and archaeological discussion about Jericho's ruins, which the passage itself does not address.

Rahab had hidden Israelite spies earlier in the story, and in return safety was promised to her and her household, marked by the scarlet cord hung from her window. When the city falls, her household is the one exception noted in the account. Her story is often read as an example of faith or loyalty rewarded, placed deliberately inside the record of the city's destruction.