town or village

Jericho

• Today Tell es Sultan

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Battles and sieges

1. c. 1406 BCThe fall of Jericho Josh 6:1–25
   Israel under Joshua against Jericho. The wall falls down flat; the city is taken and devoted to destruction, Rahab's house spared.

In ancient writers

• Josephus, Jewish War 4.459–464 — By Jericho, near the old city that Joshua took first in Canaan, flows a plentiful spring; once blighting, it was made wholesome and fruitful by the prophet Elisha, who threw salt into it.

History

Jericho lies in the Jordan Valley about 250 m below sea level, north of the Dead Sea, beside a strong perennial spring, today Ein es-Sultan. The spring made it an oasis of palms, and people settled at the mound of Tell es-Sultan before 9000 BC; the Neolithic stone tower found there is among the oldest known buildings. Within the map's period the mound carried a walled town in the Early Bronze Age and a larger fortified city with a sloping rampart in the Middle Bronze Age.

That Middle Bronze city was destroyed by fire in the sixteenth century BC. In the Bible, Joshua sends spies to Rahab, and the walls of Jericho fall before Israel. How the account relates to the ruins is disputed: John Garstang dated a fallen wall to about 1400 BC, Kathleen Kenyon showed it was far older and found little of a Late Bronze town, and the date of the conquest itself remains debated.

The Bible says that Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho in Ahab's days, and Elisha healed its spring. Excavation shows an Iron Age town that grew in the seventh century BC and was ruined in the Babylonian conquest early in the sixth; Zedekiah was overtaken in the plains of Jericho, and 345 men of Jericho are listed among those who returned from exile. After a small Persian-period settlement the mound was abandoned.

Life moved south to the mouth of Wadi Qelt, now Tulul Abu el-Alayiq, where the Hasmoneans built winter palaces among balsam and date groves; there the young high priest Aristobulus III was drowned in 35 BC. Herod added palaces and died at Jericho in about 4 BC. This is the Jericho of the Gospels, where Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus and stayed with Zacchaeus. By the fourth century a Byzantine town stood further east, and in 333 the Pilgrim of Bordeaux was shown Elisha's spring and the house of Rahab.

Scripture: Deut 34:3; Josh 2:1; Josh 6:1–27; 1 Kgs 16:34; 2 Kgs 2:19–22; 2 Kgs 25:5; Ezra 2:34; Mark 10:46–52; Luke 19:1–10

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (63)

Num 22:1

And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho.

Num 26:3

And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

Num 26:63

These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

Num 31:12

And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

Num 33:48

And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

Num 33:50

And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

Num 34:15

The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan near Jericho eastward, toward the sunrising.

Num 35:1

And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

Num 36:13

These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

Deut 32:49

Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:

Deut 34:1

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,

Deut 34:3

And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

Josh 2:1

And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.

Josh 2:2

And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country.

Josh 2:3

And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.

Josh 2:7

And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.

Josh 2:13

And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.

Josh 3:16

That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.

Josh 4:13

About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.

Josh 4:19

And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.

Josh 5:10

And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.

Josh 5:13

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

Josh 6:1

Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.

Josh 6:2

And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

Josh 6:17

And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

Josh 6:20

So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, 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.

Josh 6:25

And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Josh 6:26

And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.

Josh 7:2

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.

Josh 8:2

And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.

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King James Version

Tours through this place

• The Exodus →
• The conquest of Canaan →
• Elijah the prophet →
• Elisha the prophet →
• The fall of Jerusalem and the exile →