Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joshua, by leading the ark around for seven days, conquers Jericho as its walls fall, and establishes the ban, and destroys it utterly, saving only Rahab with her household, and calls down God's curse upon anyone who would rebuild it.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 6:1-27
1. Now Jericho was shut up and fortified, out of fear of the children of Israel, and no one dared to go out or come in. 2. And the Lord said to Joshua: Behold, I have given into your hand Jericho, and its king, and all its mighty men. 3. Go around the city, all you warriors, once a day: thus shall you do for six days. 4. But on the seventh day the priests shall take up seven trumpets, the kind used in the jubilee, and shall go before the ark of the covenant: and you shall go around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5. And when the sound of the trumpet shall be longer and more broken, and shall resound in your ears, all the people shall shout with a very great shout, and the walls of the city shall fall to their foundations, and each one shall enter through the place opposite where he stood. 6. So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them: Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven other priests take seven trumpets of the jubilee and march before the ark of the Lord. 7. And to the people he said: Go, and march around the city, armed, going before the ark of the Lord. 8. And when Joshua had finished speaking, and the seven priests were sounding the seven trumpets before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 9. and the whole armed army was going before, the rest of the people followed the ark, and all was resounding with trumpets. 10. But Joshua had commanded the people, saying: You shall not shout, nor shall your voice be heard, nor shall any word go out from your mouth, until the day comes when I say to you: Shout and cry out! 11. So the ark of the Lord went around the city once a day, and returning to the camp, remained there. 12. Then, Joshua rising at night, the priests took up the ark of the Lord, 13. and seven of them took seven trumpets of the kind used in the jubilee: and they went before the ark of the Lord, walking and sounding, and the armed people went before them; but the rest of the common people followed the ark and kept sounding the trumpets. 14. And they went around the city on the second day once, and returned to the camp. So they did for six days. 15. But on the seventh day, rising at dawn, they went around the city, as had been arranged, seven times. 16. And when on the seventh circuit the priests sounded the trumpets, Joshua said to all Israel: Shout! For the Lord has delivered the city to you. 17. And let this city be an anathema, and all that is in it, to the Lord; only Rahab the harlot shall live, with all who are with her in the house: for she hid the messengers whom we sent. 18. But you, beware lest you touch anything of what has been commanded, and you become guilty of transgression, and all the camp of Israel be under sin and be troubled. 19. But whatever gold and silver there may be, and vessels of bronze and iron, let it be consecrated to the Lord, stored in His treasury. 20. So when all the people shouted and the trumpets sounded, after the sound and noise struck the ears of the multitude, the walls immediately fell, and each one went up through the place opposite him; and they took the city, 21. and they killed everything that was in it, from man to woman, from infant to old man. They struck also the oxen and sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword. 22. But to the two men who had been sent as spies, Joshua said: Enter the house of the harlot woman, and bring her out, and all that belong to her, as you confirmed to her by oath. 23. And the young men entered and brought out Rahab, and her parents, and her brothers also, and all her goods and her kinfolk, and they made them stay outside the camp of Israel. 24. But the city and everything that was in it they burned, except the gold and silver, and the bronze and iron vessels, which they consecrated to the treasury of the Lord. 25. But Rahab the harlot, and the house of her father, and all that she had, Joshua caused to live, and they dwelt in the midst of Israel to this day; because she had hidden the messengers whom he had sent to spy out Jericho. At that time Joshua uttered a curse, saying: 26. Cursed be the man before the Lord who shall raise up and rebuild the city of Jericho. Let him lay its foundations at the cost of his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest child. 27. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the land.
Verse 1: Jericho was shut up and fortified
1. Now Jericho was shut up and fortified. — In Hebrew sogeret umisgeret, which Masius, Vatablus, and Pagninus translate as: Jericho was shutting itself and shut, that is, it was most diligently closed, completely barred and shut up. Hence our translator and the Septuagint, explaining this, translate: "Jericho was shut up and fortified." And the Chaldean clearly states: Now Jericho was closed with iron doors and fortified with bronze bars before the children of Israel. There was none who went out from it, nor who entered into it, from it to fight, nor any who entered it to make peace.
This verse is inserted as if in a parenthesis, so that those wonderful things which the Angel next commanded the leader Joshua for the conquest of so fortified a city might be better understood. Hence Pagninus places this verse as the last of the preceding chapter.
Verse 2: The Lord said to Joshua
2. And the Lord said to Joshua: Behold, I have given into your hand Jericho. — "The Lord," that is, the Angel sent as legate of God and representing His person.
Hence in Hebrew He is called Jehovah, which is a name proper to God. For God speaks through an Angel, just as a king speaks through an ambassador. Thus the Angel, acting in God's place in promulgating His law on Sinai, is called Jehovah, Exodus 19:20. For here the Angel continues speaking, who at the end of the preceding chapter had commanded Joshua to remove his sandals and, unshod, hear the commands of God; here therefore he unfolds and brings forth those commands, and teaches the manner in which God wishes Jericho to be conquered, namely not by the crash of arms, but by the blast of trumpets.
Verse 3: Go around the city, all you warriors
3. Go around the city (at such a distance from it that you are beyond the range of missiles, lest anyone from it hurl one at you) all you warriors, once a day: thus shall you do for six days. — The Hebrew adds: "And the priests shall take up trumpets of the kind used in the Jubilee, and go before the ark of the covenant;" which our translator deferred to the following verse. From this it is clear that in the first six days also the priests sounded the trumpets, but only once each day, whereas on the seventh day, seven times.
Verse 4: Seven trumpets of the Jubilee
4. But on the seventh day the priests shall take seven trumpets of the kind used in the Jubilee — namely in the fiftieth year, which was entirely festive and joyful. These trumpets were made of horn, not of rams, as the Chaldean has it, but of oxen, as I showed from St. Jerome and others at Leviticus 25:20.
You shall go around the city seven times, and the priests shall sound the trumpets — namely seven times, since on the other six days they went around only once, and therefore sounded only once, as I said at verse 1; and that this was indeed done is clear from the very execution of this command, which is narrated at verse 13. So Abulensis.
But why does God command the priests to sound the trumpets of the Jubilee and to conquer Jericho with them? I answer: to signify that the time was at hand when the Holy Land would be reclaimed from the Canaanites, as unjust and unlawful possessors, to God as its true and common Lord and Prince, and delivered to other, just and faithful settlers, namely the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham, to whom it had been assigned by God. For in the Jubilee, farms and possessions that had been sold or alienated in any way returned to their original owners and masters, Leviticus 25. Now the Jews in their father Shem, son of Noah, had possessed Palestine, but his descendants had been expelled from it by the Canaanites. Rightly therefore, as in a Jubilee, God here led their posterity, namely the Hebrews, as the first and original masters, back into it; and therefore He commanded them to sound the trumpets of the Jubilee.
Procopius gives another reason: "Why, he asks, did He command them to sound the battle call with horned trumpets and jubilee instruments? Because for horned animals, horns serve in place of walls, and so the Lord must be for us in place of a horn, according to that text: My protector and the horn of my salvation," Psalm 17:3.
St. Ambrose gives a third reason in his commentary on Luke chapter 10, verse 30, saying: "The insignia of religion are the weapons of the priest," that is to say: The weapons of the priests are not helmets for the head, but the trumpets of the Jubilee, because by these they attest their religion and priesthood, by which they overthrew Jericho.
Moreover, this ceremony and procession of going around Jericho for seven days and sounding the trumpets had the appearance of a siege and assault (but only in shadow, namely so that the faith of the Hebrews might be exercised, and fear might be aroused in them by the blast of the trumpets, and so that it might be most manifest that the city was being conquered not by human skill, but by the will and power of God alone). So Abulensis, Arias, Masius, and others.
This is what the Apostle says, Hebrews 11:30: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being encircled for seven days." "By faith," namely that faith by which Joshua and the Hebrews believed God who was promising this very thing, and therefore they obeyed Him by going around the city and sounding the trumpets.
Now this was the order of the whole procession. The Hebrew warriors, armed, went first going around the city, as if displaying themselves to the city to intimidate it: immediately after them followed the ark of the covenant with the priest-bearers and the leader Joshua. The unarmed common people closed the column. The ark therefore was in the middle, flanked on the front by the armed men and on the rear by the rest of the people, lest it be intercepted by the Jericho inhabitants making a sortie. Hence the ark did not go first here, nor was it two thousand paces distant from the armed men, as had been done in the crossing of the Jordan; but it immediately followed them. On the first six days they went around the city once, sounding the trumpets; but on the seventh day seven times, and on the last circuit, with the blast and terrifying shout of the entire people, the walls of Jericho fell, and the Hebrews surrounding it, each at his own place, entered and laid it waste and burned it, and made it an anathema.
Morally, let commanders and governors learn here to keep their subordinates always occupied with some work, lest they grow soft in idleness. Hence Emperor Leo thus commands his generals in the Tactics, chapter 20, number 175: "If you accustom your army to labors, you will always have them ready and obedient to you, maintaining formation and robust in body. For idleness makes bodies sluggish and weak, and renders minds timid and effeminate: but exercise and labors make bodies vigorous and strong, and minds manly and eager. Therefore let all things suitable for action be prepared ahead of time, so that at the necessary moments everything is at hand."
Anagogically, "Jericho," that is, the Moon, is a type of the changeable world that is perpetually changing itself, which on the day of judgment, when the trumpet of the Archangel sounds, will be overthrown and consumed by the fire of the conflagration. So Origen here, homily 7.
Tropologically, just as then, when the trumpets sounded, the walls of Jericho fell, so now in the new law, when the preaching of the Apostles and their successors resounds, the pride of the world falls with its towers and vices. Hence St. Chrysostom, homily 21 on the Epistle to the Ephesians: The Israelites, he says, overthrew Jericho more in the manner of dancers and singers than of warriors. Hear Origen: "At the coming of Jesus (Joshua), he says, the walls of Jericho were overthrown; at the coming of my Lord Jesus, the world is conquered: if you hear the trumpet of His preaching and follow it, the world is destroyed for you." And he adds that Jesus destroyed the walls of the world, that is, its strongholds, namely the worship of idols, the divination of demons, the inventions of augurs, soothsayers, and magicians, and the eloquence of Orators, and the wisdom, reasoning, and arguments of Philosophers. And Christ sounded the trumpets of the four Gospels, and of the Epistles of Saints Peter, Paul, James, John, and Jude.
Hear St. Augustine, sermon 106 On the Times: "Just as then, when the trumpets sounded, the walls fell, so also now it is fitting that the city of the world, that is, pride with its towers — namely avarice, envy, and lust — together with its peoples, that is, all evil desires, be destroyed and perish by the constant preaching of priests. Therefore priests ought not to be silent in the Church, but should hear the Lord saying: Cry out, do not cease; like a trumpet lift up your voice and announce to my people their sins," Isaiah 58. And after a few remarks: "The trumpet therefore is necessary for sinners, one that not only penetrates their ears but also strikes their heart, and does not delight with its song but chastises with its sound, and exhorts all the vigorous in good things, and terrifies the slack for their offenses. For just as in battle the trumpet casts down the mind of the cowardly soldier and kindles the spirit of the brave one: so also the priestly trumpet humbles the mind of the sinner, strengthens the spirit of the holy man, and does not spare its voice in order to spare salvation, and with one and the same sound gives to the one encouragement as to how he may be stronger to conquer; and strikes terror into the other as to how he may be slower to sin." He adds the reason below: "For what else do we believe the priestly trumpets of that time prefigured, than the preaching of the priests of this time, through which they do not cease to announce to sinners with terrible sound the stern judgment, to proclaim the sorrowful destruction of hell, and to beat the ears of offenders with a certain tumult of threatening? For just as then the blast of the trumpets, having destroyed the walls of masonry, reached the interior of the people: so now the preaching of priests, having destroyed evil thoughts, passes through to the naked soul. And just as the sound of the sacred voice destroyed and captivated the stubborn people, so also now priestly preaching subjugates the sinful people."
But why did Jericho fall with the sevenfold circuit and blast? I answer, because the number seven is sacred in Scripture on account of the feast of the seventh day, or sabbath, and signifies universality, because in six days God created the world, and on the seventh He rested. Hence here there were seven trumpets, seven priests, seven blasts, seven days of circuit and sounding. See what was said at Leviticus 23:24 and Numbers 11:3.
Hear St. Augustine at the cited place: "By the sevenfold number, now through the priests of God, not merely one city is destroyed, but the iniquity of the whole world is scattered. For just as in the naming of a single city the condition of the entire world is figured: so by the circle of seven days the spans of the whole world are distinguished, through which the trumpets of priestly preaching announce destruction to the age itself and threaten judgment, as it is written: For the world will perish, and all that is in the world. But he who does the will of God abides forever, just as Christ also abides forever." I shall assign the mystical signification and reason for the sevenfold circuit at verse 15.
Finally, St. Chrysostom, homily 5 On Penance, and Procopius here note that God commanded the seven-day circuit in order to strike terror into the inhabitants of Jericho and lead them to repentance of their sins. For from His clemency He had given them this space for repenting, so they might escape destruction, just as He gave three days to the Ninevites when Jonah preached, chapter 4, who also through that preaching escaped destruction.
Verse 5: The sound of the trumpet longer and more broken
5. And when the sound of the trumpet shall be longer and more broken. — In Hebrew, when they shall draw on the horn of the jubilee. Masius: when they shall blow the jubilee horn with a more drawn-out sound, and therefore more broken, as our translator rightly adds, both because to draw out the voice is to break and interrupt it: for thus when you drag earth, you cut into it by sawing; and because the said breath of a man cannot blow a trumpet without drawing back, breaking, and interrupting this blowing, in order to breathe and resume the breath and spirit for blowing.
Verse 7: Armed, going before the ark
7. Armed, going before the ark of the Lord. — St. Chrysostom on Psalm 43 asks: If the walls were going to fall, why are they equipped with arms? And he answers: so that the Hebrews might more easily believe that the city was to be conquered by them; therefore they are armed as if they were truly going to fight. More plainly you may say that God wishes us to cooperate with Him in miracles, and to do what is on our part; for then God will do what is on His part. For God is absent from the idle, present with the busy, and the one who tries helps the one who tries, as if to say: Arm yourselves, O Hebrews, and go around the city with your weapons; then I will be with you, and I will cast down the walls, so that entering the city armed, you may slay all the citizens with your weapons and overthrow the city.
Moreover, Joshua here carefully observes the military precepts which Vegetius assigns in book 3 of On Military Matters, last chapter, saying: "An army improves by labor, grows old by idleness. Never lead out a soldier to public combat unless you see him hoping for victory. Sudden things terrify the enemy; familiar things lose their power. No plans are better than those which the adversary does not know before you act. Whatever you intend to do, discuss it with very few and most faithful men, or rather with yourself alone."
Verse 8: The trumpets sounded
8. Sounded the trumpets. — By the blast of these then, without catapults, without battering rams, the walls of Jericho fell.
Learn here tropologically how weak, paltry, and vain is Jericho, that is, the glory of the world, since it falls and vanishes by the mere blasts of trumpets. Hear St. Gregory, book 20 of the Moralia, chapter 24: "The glory of the present life is seen as if on high, but is consolidated by no stability." And hear St. Chrysostom, homily 1 on the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Do you not see children, when at play they have formed a battle line and arranged soldiers; and lictors go before them, and heralds, and a boy walks in the middle in the place of the Emperor — how childish are the things they do? Such are human affairs, and even more worthless and contemptible, since what exists today will not exist tomorrow."
Verse 9: The rest of the common people followed the ark
9. The rest of the common people followed the ark. — The Hebrew is meassaph, which properly means the same as gathering or collecting, namely the preceding crowd, that is, closing the column, as Masius, Vatablus, Pagninus, and others translate. The Septuagint has: the rear guard, namely of the elderly, servants, proselytes, boys, women, and the remaining unarmed common people who followed the ark. For in the first line the warriors went ahead, in the middle were the priests with the ark and trumpets, and in the last was this remaining common people.
And all was resounding with trumpets. — From this gather that not only the priests, but also the rest of the people were blowing their trumpets; but these were different from the trumpets of the priests, which were jubilee trumpets; those of the people were ordinary and common. For God wished the people not to be idle, but to join and cooperate with God and the priests in sounding, so that the inhabitants of Jericho might be terrified by the dreadful blasting of all. Masius, Lyranus, and others deny this; but it is stated more clearly at verse 13, where it says: "The rest of the common people followed and kept sounding with trumpets;" which words are so plain that they cannot be twisted to refer to the priests without violence. Therefore when in the following verse Joshua commands the people to be silent, this was a silence of voice and shouting, not of trumpets and blasting. For he says:
Verse 10: You shall not shout
10. You shall not shout, nor shall your voice be heard, nor shall any word go out from your mouth. — See, here no mention or prohibition is made of blasting and trumpets. Procopius and Chrysostom, in the homily On Penance, give the reason: He commanded, he says, the common people to follow in the rear, to teach that no one ought to desert God's battle line, but to resist the enemy forces with all their might, whether they stand in the same line or follow those fighting.
Until the day comes (the seventh) on which I say to you: Shout and cry out! — The Hebrew and the Septuagint have: shout, and then you shall shout; Masius: howl, and you shall howl; which our translator more expressively renders in the same sense: "Shout and cry out," as if by the common voice of all, encouraging one another for battle, and as if about to assault Jericho with united spirits and arms. In Hebrew it is tariu, which our translator and others render in the Psalms as "Shout for joy." Hence Vatablus here translates: Shout, then raise a shout of triumph, that is, sing a triumph, as certain of victory and the conquest of the city. And Origen here, homily 7, translates: "Shout for joy." "Blessed is the people, he says, that knows the shout of jubilation. Wherefore the united and unanimous shout of the people was a certain jubilation, and an acclamation of victory in the manner of a hymn or thanksgiving, so that this people may rightly be called blessed, since they know how to shout for joy."
So the ark went around. — The Hebrew is jasseb in the Hiphil, that is, caused to go around. But the Hiphil is often taken for the Qal; hence all here translate: went around.
Verse 12: Joshua rising at night
12. So Joshua rising at night. — The Hebrew is babboker, that is, at dawn, in the morning, or at the morning twilight when it began to grow light, when night ends and light begins with the day.
Verse 15: On the seventh day
15. But on the seventh day. — The Hebrews report from the Babylonian Talmud, treatise On the Sabbath, chapter 1, that this seventh day was a Sabbath, and that the walls of Jericho fell on it (to persuade the people of the reverence and worship of the Sabbath) on the seventh circuit and seventh blast of the city; so that the first day of circling was Sunday. So also Lyranus, Serarius, and others. Hence Marcion blasphemed that the God of the Old Testament was contradictory to Himself, since He had commanded Sabbath rest for the Jews, and yet ordered them to march around the city on the Sabbath. But Tertullian responds, book 2 Against Marcion, chapter 21, that God on the Sabbath prohibited merely human works, not divine ones, or those done at God's command, such as here the circling of the city; for God was Lord of the Sabbath, and could not only dispense from it but also abolish it, just as He had previously established it. Therefore God fixed the law of the Sabbath for the Jews, not for Himself, because He Himself always works even on the Sabbath in heaven and on earth all things whatsoever that are generated and done.
Moreover, Josephus writes that the first day of the circuit of Jericho was the day of Passover, that is, the fifteenth of Nisan. The Seder Olam Rabbah, that is, the Great Chronicle of the Hebrews, and Serarius judge it to have been the first day after the octave of Passover, which was the twenty-second of Nisan. But nothing can be determined with certainty here, since Scripture says nothing about it.
Mystically, Ambrosiaster (for it is clear that St. Ambrose is not the author, from the fact that he mentions the Lombards invading Italy, an invasion which occurred long after St. Ambrose's death) in his commentary on Apocalypse chapter 1, refers these seven circuits of Jericho to the seven ages of the Church and of the just: "For Jericho, he says, signifies the whole body of the reprobate, which is the city of the devil; by the children of Israel the elect are signified; by the priests, the preachers; by the trumpets, the doctrine of preaching; by the people who followed them, all the just are designated, who followed their doctrine and imitated their deeds; and by the ark which they carried, Christ is understood, who dwelling in their holy hearts was carried."
And a little later: "The first circuit therefore pertains to those just men who lived before the flood, who were also called sons of God; they therefore went around the city of Jericho as long as they separated themselves from the company of the reprobate. The circuit of the second day pertains to those who lived from after the flood up to Moses: who themselves also went around the city of Jericho, because they separated themselves from the iniquities of the reprobate. The third circuit pertains to those who lived under the law: the law itself shows with how great solicitude they ought to separate themselves from the society of the wicked. The prophets, to whom the fourth circuit pertains, so greatly despised and reproved the sins of princes and impious men that for this some of them were stoned, some killed, and some died by the stroke of the sword. The Apostles and those Jews who believed, to whom the fifth circuit pertains — with what zeal they separated themselves from the counsel and works of the unbelieving Jews, Luke narrates in the Acts of the Apostles. As for the Gentiles, to whom the sixth circuit pertains — with what ardor they separated themselves from the company of the impious, let the martyrs, when called upon, declare. The seventh circuit pertains to those who will live in the times of the Antichrist; but how they too will refute the perfidy of the Antichrist and his ministers, this book makes manifest.
"On the seventh day, therefore, when the priests with the ark went around Jericho, and raised their shout, the walls of Jericho fell, and all the people with their king were killed: because when the preachers of truth preach at the end of the world, announcing the end of the world, suddenly the end of the world will come, and every city of the devil will be destroyed, and together with its head, the devil himself, will be condemned to eternal death."
Verse 16: Joshua said to all Israel: Shout!
16. Joshua said to all Israel: Shout! — The voice of Joshua could not be heard by the entire people, since they comprised three million persons. Therefore he "said" it to those near him, and they said the same to their neighbors, and these to the next, and so on in succession to the very last. Or certainly "he said," that is, he proclaimed through heralds, as is customary in military camps. Or finally "he said" it to the twelve leaders of the twelve tribes, each of them said the same to the individual heads of families in their tribe, and these in turn to individual fathers, and these to all their sons and servants.
Verse 17: Let this city be an anathema
17. And let this city be an anathema. — In Hebrew cherem, that is, a thing devoted solely to God, and devoted in His honor (so that just vengeance might be taken upon the wicked who had offended Him, and thus through it this sin-offering might be paid to divine justice, by which the honor of God that had been taken away might be, as it were, restored) to death and destruction, either real or civil. For both those things are cherem and anathema which are dedicated to God in perpetuity and cannot return to profane use, as here were gold, silver, bronze, iron, etc., and those things which are burned as a holocaust to God, or destroyed by sword and fire. See what was said at Leviticus 27:28 and Numbers 21:2 and 3.
Now the reasons why, beyond the law of Deuteronomy 20, verse 1, which merely commands that they spare none of the Canaanites but kill them all, here it is additionally commanded that the city of Jericho itself be burned — which we do not read was done in the other cities of the Canaanites subsequently conquered by Joshua — were three.
First, because God claimed for Himself Jericho, the first enemy city, as the firstfruits of Canaan, so to speak: and the firstfruits had to be paid to God in full. So Josephus, Theodoret, Question 6, and the Hebrews.
Second, because the victory had been won and Jericho conquered here by the power of God alone, whereas in subduing the other cities the Hebrews fought fiercely and overcame them by military assault.
Third, because God wished to set an example of severe punishment for the other cities of Canaan in the first city, Jericho, and to strike terror into them, and at the same time to provoke them to repentance from their most wicked life.
Moreover, that Joshua did these things by God's inspiration, or at the Angel's prompting, although Scripture does not expressly say so, is right to believe from what was said at chapter 1 and chapter 5, at the end, and chapter 6, verse 2. Thus the Romans used to devote enemy cities to cursing and anathema with a fixed formula of words. Livy, book 8, chapter 9, reports that the consul Decius in the war against the Latins devoted himself together with the enemy to the anathema, with this prayer: "Janus, Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, I beseech you to grant might and victory to the Roman people; and to visit the enemies of the Roman people with terror and death; just as I have declared in words, so for the Republic and people of Rome I devote the legions and auxiliaries of the enemy, together with myself, to the gods of the underworld and to Earth."
Verse 18: Beware lest you touch anything
18. But you, beware lest you touch anything of what has been commanded, and you become guilty of transgression. — In Hebrew: Only keep yourselves from the anathema, lest you anathematize yourselves (impose upon yourselves the guilt and punishment of the anathema) and take from the anathema, and bring the camp of Israel under anathema, so that because of the anathema taken from God by sacrilege, the camps themselves become anathema, that is, are devoted to destruction by God through just vengeance; which our translator renders: "And all the camp of Israel be under sin and be troubled," namely lest one person who steals something from Jericho, by the contagion and communion of his sin and anathema, involve and contaminate the whole camp with sin, as well as with the punishment of his sin and theft. For the camps were considered to be one political body, or one people; therefore whatever one of them sinned, God had determined by hidden judgment to punish in all, and to subject all to the anathema, that is, to destruction. The sense is, as if to say: Beware lest you steal anything from Jericho, which is devoted to the anathema, lest you be the cause of anathema and destruction, not only your own, but of the entire camp of Israel. A similar phrase is found at the next chapter, verses 1 and 11; Matthew 26:8; John 12:4; Deuteronomy 21:8. For this reason also Scripture so often repeats: "Remove the evil from your midst," on which more at the next chapter.
Verse 19: Gold and silver consecrated to the Lord
19. But whatever gold and silver there may be, and vessels of bronze and iron, let it be consecrated to the Lord. — In Hebrew: it is holiness to the Lord Himself, that is, let it be consecrated as a holy and sacred thing to God; hence, as such, let it be "stored in His treasury." The Chaldean: let it be brought into the treasury of the house of the Lord's sanctuary, namely into the tabernacle, which was like the mobile temple of the Hebrews, for its use and adornment. For Jericho had been made cherem, that is, anathema: therefore it all had to be ceded to God alone, namely the city through burning, but the gold, silver, and bronze (under which understand tin, steel, lead, and other metals, which were of rarer use in the tabernacle) through offering in the tabernacle: and nothing from it could be converted to private or profane use.
Tropologically, Procopius says: Men of God ought not to be desirous of riches, nor of glory, nor of power, nor of worldly wisdom. For gold is the figure or image of riches, silver represents glory, bronze the talkativeness of wisdom, iron strength and power. God destroyed together with Achan his relatives, because they had been accomplices in his crime. He himself indeed pays the penalty: but the people is made more instructed in piety, as a caution against sacrilege, as against something pestilential, comes over them.
Verse 20: The walls fell
20. So when all the people shouted and the trumpets sounded. — In Hebrew it reads: and the people shouted, and they sounded the trumpets. First the priests sounded the trumpets, then the people, stirred by this blast, joined their shout to the blast. Hence Vatablus translates: So the people shouted together after they sounded the horns. And the Septuagint clearly in the Roman edition: And the priests sounded the trumpets; and when the people heard the trumpets, all the people raised a great shout of jubilation.
The walls fell. — In Hebrew: the walls fell beneath themselves. The Chaldean: the wall of the city collapsed and was swallowed beneath itself. Hear Cajetan: "By saying beneath it, he shows that either into a ditch surrounding it, or by a greater miracle the wall was going to fall under the earth, so that the Israelites would not be impeded by the ruins of the wall, but would have free entrance all around into the city." The Septuagint: the wall fell all around, the Angels pushing the wall at this signal and sound, or God withdrawing His concourse from the standing wall for standing.
For just as when the sun withdraws its rays, light vanishes, so when God withdraws His concourse, a thing collapses and vanishes. Moreover, God can withdraw His concourse from a thing for standing erect, and thus cause an erect thing not to stand but to collapse, while not withdrawing His concourse for existing, but preserving the thing in its existence. So He did here: by withdrawing His concourse for the wall's erection He caused it to slip and fall; but by preserving the same concourse for the wall's existence, He caused the stones of the falling wall to remain in their being and not pass into nothingness.
For every thing, just as in its creation, so also in its preservation, intimately depends on God; for preservation is like a continuous creation. Thus the voice of Christ cast down the armed cohort on the Mount of Olives, and Paul on the plain of Damascus: the voice of the Lord broke the cedars of Lebanon, the voice of Peter struck down Ananias and Sapphira, and the heretical Britons were defeated by the singing of the Alleluia at the command of St. Germanus, as Bede testifies in book 1 of his History, chapter 20.
Indeed, Robert king of France, singing psalms with the priests, cast down the walls of the city of Avallon which he was besieging, and opened entry into it for his men, as Lipsius narrates in his Political Examples, chapter 2.
Verse 21: They killed everything
21. And they killed everything that was in it. — In Hebrew iacherimu, that is, they anathematized, destroyed, cut off. For Jericho was cherem, that is, devoted to anathema and destruction.
Mystically, Lyranus says: "Jericho signifies the city of guilt, which the love of self built up to the contempt of God. This city is enclosed by a triple wall, namely the wall of carnal concupiscence, temporal abundance, and worldly preeminence." And shortly after: "This triple wall is overthrown by the sound of holy preaching, the cry of devout prayer, the circuit of self-examination; which circuit must be made seven times, that is, perfectly, because perfection is designated by the number seven. For whoever is converted from guilt to grace must diligently and perfectly examine his own conscience. Whatever is found in this city that is contrary to salvation must be destroyed. But what is found there of the gold of philosophical wisdom, the silver of eloquence, bronze vessels, that is, natural industry which avails for many things, as also vessels of iron, that is, bodily and temporal power — these must be consecrated to the Lord, that is, henceforth applied to good works. Rahab with her household is saved for the work of mercy, because according to the word of the Savior, Matthew chapter 5: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Verse 22: Bring out Rahab
22. Bring her (Rahab) out and all that belong to her. — In Hebrew hotsiu, that is, lead her out, namely from her house. For this burned along with the entire city when it was set ablaze. For all of Jericho was devoted to anathema and fire. Some, however, from verse 25, think that Rahab's house was preserved from the common fire, and that Rahab was led out beyond the camp, about which see the next verse. Let the military commander note here to keep faith given to the enemy by his men, just as Joshua kept the faith given to Rahab by the spies. Hence St. Ambrose commenting on Luke chapter 10, verse 30: "He (Joshua), he says, more concerned to keep faith than to conquer, orders the harlot's safety before the city's destruction."
Moreover, Masius wrongly judges this Rahab to be different from the Rahab who is placed in the genealogy of Christ, Matthew chapter 1; Theophylactus also inclines to the same view there. For St. Jerome and others everywhere teach that she is the same.
23. And the young men entered. — In Hebrew, the young men who were spies. Hence it is clear that they were not old men, but young men, as most suited to such an undertaking. Therefore the Rabbis wrongly judge these spies to have been Caleb and Phinehas, who (they say), although old in age, were nevertheless young in strength and vigor.
Outside the camp of Israel — because the camp was holy through circumcision, through the public worship of the true God, through the ark of the covenant, through Joshua, the priests, etc.; but Rahab was from an infidel and impious nation, and had not yet publicly professed Judaism: her relatives and kinfolk were still infidels and idolaters; but shortly afterward they were converted by Joshua and the Hebrews to the faith and worship of the one God, and to Judaism, and therefore were admitted into the camp of Israel. So Abulensis, Masius, Salianus, and others.
Verse 25: The house of her father
25. And the house of her father. — By "house" understand not the material building, but the family, namely the brothers, relatives, and kinfolk of Rahab. Hence Rabbi Simeon says: Rahab, by her faith, obtained such great grace with God that even if she had had two hundred relatives joined to her, and they had contracted affinity with two hundred other families, all would have been saved through her grace.
Moreover, Rahab afterward married Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah, if not as his primary wife, certainly as a secondary one; for polygamy was then lawful. Torniellus and Salmeron think Rahab married Salmon at the age of fourteen, the Hebrews at fifty; more plausibly Salianus judges Rahab to have been twenty-five or twenty years old (for she had been a harlot), while Salmon was about forty years old.
Joshua caused to live — that is, he kept her safe and sound with all her household, preserved her in life; for this is what the Hebrew hecheie signifies. Therefore the Hebrews explain less correctly: he supplied her with the food necessary for life, although there is no doubt that Joshua did this too.
Verse 26: Cursed be the man who rebuilds Jericho
26. Joshua uttered a curse, saying: Cursed be the man, etc., who shall build Jericho. — This terrible curse of Joshua was made at God's inspiration, as is right to believe, and for the purpose that in the ruins of Jericho there might stand forever a monument of divine power and of His vengeance upon the impious citizens; and of His kindness, truth, and faithfulness toward the pious Israelites, which would strike terror in all ages and provoke all to the fear and worship of God. So Masius, Arias, and the rest.
At the cost of his firstborn. — Masius: Let him lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest, as if in casting stones for the foundation of Jericho, he were casting them at his own children, and stoning and killing them. The sense is, as Masius says: Whoever in any future age dares to rebuild Jericho, which God has established as anathema, when he lays the first foundations of the city, let him lose the eldest of his sons, then during the building all the rest in order, and finally the youngest of all, when having completed the work he comes to the installation of the doors. So Rupert here, chapter 16, who also shows that this was a fitting punishment for the crime, saying: "So that by seeking the name of founder, he would completely lose the honor of father," as if to say: It is just that the builder of the forbidden city should cease to be the parent of offspring. And indeed the disobedient Hiel actually incurred these curses, losing his sons while rebuilding Jericho, as is evident from 3 Kings 16:34, where it says: "In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundations at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of Segub his youngest: according to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun."
Tropologically, he who renounces Satan and the pomps of the world destroys Jericho; but he who turns back to vices rebuilds it: such a person loses the firstborn in the foundation and the youngest in the setting up of the gates, because he loses both the foundations of faith, from which the good buildings of virtue are begun, and the enclosures of good action. So Bede, and from him Angelomus, and Eucherius on 3 Kings 16:34.