of the sacred trumpets, which they were now to look upon as the voice of God among them; and it does not become us to speak when God is speaking. It likewise intimates their reverent expectation of the event, Zech. 2. 13, Be silent, O all flesh before the Lord. Exod. 14. 14, God shall fight, and ye shall hold your peace.
V. They were to do this once a day for six days together, and seven times the seventh day, v. 14, 15. God could have caused the walls of Jericho to fall upon the first surrounding of them, but they must go round them thirteen times before they fall, that they might be kept waiting patiently for the Lord. Though they were lately come into Canaan, and their time was very precious, (for they had a great deal of work before them,) yet they must linger so many days about Jericho, seeming to do nothing, nor to make any progress in their business. As promised deliverances must be expected in God's way, so they must be expected in his time. He that believes, does not make haste, not more haste than God would have him make. Go yet seven times before any thing hopeful appears, 1 Kings 18. 43.
VI. One of these days must needs be a sabbath-day, and the Jews say that it was the last, but that is not certain; however, if he that appointed them to rest on the other sabbath-days, appointed them to walk on this, that was sufficient to justify them in it; he never intended to bind himself by his own laws, but that when he pleased he might dispense with them. The impotent man went upon this principle when he argued, John 5. 11, He that made me whole (and therefore has a divine power,) he said unto me, Take up thy bed. And in this case here, it was an honour to the sabbath-day, by which our time is divided into weeks, that just seven days were to be spent in this work, and seven priests were employed to sound seven trumpets; that number being, on this occasion, as well as many others, made remarkable, in remembrance of the six days' work of creation, and the seventh day's rest from it. And, besides, the law of the sabbath forbids our own work, which is servile and secular, but this which they did, was a religious act. It is certainly no breach of the sabbath-rest to do the sabbath-work, for the sake of which the rest was instituted; and what is the sabbath-work but to attend the ark in all its motions?
VII. They continued to do this, during the time appointed, and seven times the seventh day, though they saw not any effect of it, believing that at the end the vision would speak and not lie, Hab. 2. 3. If we persevere in the way of duty, we shall lose nothing by it in the long run. It is probable they walked at such a distance from the walls, as to be out of the reach of the enemies' arrows, and out of the hearing of their scoffs. We may suppose the oddness of the thing did at first amuse the besieged, but by the seventh day they were grown secure, feeling no harm from that, which perhaps they looked upon as an enchantment. Probably, they bantered the besiegers, as they, Neh. 4. 2, "What do these feeble Jews? Is this the people they thought so formidable? Are these their methods of attack?" Thus they cried Peace and Safety, that the destruction might be the more terrible when it came. Wicked men (says Bishop Hall) think God in jest when he is preparing for their judgment; but they will be convinced of their mistake when it is too late.
VIII. At last they were to give a shout, and did so, and immediately the walls fell, v. 16. This was a shout for mastery, a triumphant shout, the shout of a king is among them, Numb. 23. 21. This was a shout of faith; they believed that the walls of Jericho would fall, and by that faith they were thrown down. It was a shout of prayer, an echo to the sound of the trumpets which proclaimed the promise that God would remember them; with one accord, as one man, they cry to heaven for help, and help comes in. Some allude to this to show that we must never expect a complete victory over our own corruptions till the very evening of our last day, and then we shall shout in triumph over them, when we come to the number and measure of our perfections, as Bishop Hall expresses it. A good heart (says he) groans under the sense of his infirmities, fain would be rid of them, and strives and prays, but when all is done, until the end of the seventh day it cannot be; then judgment shall be brought forth unto victory. And at the end of time, when our Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the sound of a trumpet, Satan's kingdom shall be completely ruined, and not till then, when all opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be effectually and eternally put down.
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. 18. And you, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take off the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. 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: 21. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. 22. But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. 23. And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. 24. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 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. 26. And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth
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