Study Desk

While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.

When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, "Are you friend or foe?"

Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in.

But the Lord said to Joshua, "I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors.

Jericho and everything in it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord . Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies.

When the people heard the sound of the rams' horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.

So Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute and her relatives who were with her in the house, because she had hidden the spies Joshua sent to Jericho. And she lives among the Israelites to this day.

At that time Joshua invoked this curse: "May the curse of the Lord fall on anyone who tries to rebuild the town of Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn son, he will lay its foundation. At the cost of his youngest son, he will set up its gates."

Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the town of Ai, east of Bethel, near Beth-aven.

You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town."

But when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard that Joshua had captured and completely destroyed Ai and killed its king, just as he had destroyed the town of Jericho and killed its king. He also learned that the Gibeonites had made peace with Israel and were now their allies.

That same day Joshua captured and destroyed the town of Makkedah. He killed everyone in it, including the king, leaving no survivors. He destroyed them all, and he killed the king of Makkedah as he had killed the king of Jericho.

There, too, the Lord gave them the town and its king. He killed everyone in it, leaving no survivors. Then Joshua killed the king of Libnah as he had killed the king of Jericho.

The king of Jericho The king of Ai, near Bethel

These are the allotments Moses had made while he was on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan River, east of Jericho.

The allotment for the descendants of Joseph extended from the Jordan River near Jericho, east of the springs of Jericho, through the wilderness and into the hill country of Bethel.

From Janoah it turned southward to Ataroth and Naarah, touched Jericho, and ended at the Jordan River.

The northern boundary of Benjamin's land began at the Jordan River, went north of the slope of Jericho, then west through the hill country and the wilderness of Beth-aven.

These were the towns given to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin. Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz,