Joshua 6:7

And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Pass on, and compass the city.—The meaning of this proceeding becomes clearer when we remember that the centre of the procession is the written law of God. The ark is the vessel that contains it. The armed men that precede it are its executioners. The priests who blow the trumpets are its heralds. It was this law that had brought Israel over Jordan; this law that was henceforth to be established in Canaan; this law that was about to take vengeance on the transgressors. The whole law of Moses is but the expansion of the Decalogue; and the Pentateuch contains an ample statement of the transgressions which had brought the inhabitants of Canaan under the ban of the Divine law. The seven days’ march round Jericho, in absolute silence, was well calculated to impress on the inhabitants the lesson of “the forbearance of God.” “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence.” For several generations the long-suffering of God had waited, while “the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.” In the first year of the Exodus He had threatened them, bringing the sword of Israel to their borders; and then He had drawn back His hand from them, and given them forty years’ respite more. But now the long-suffering of God had waited long enough. The shout that burst from the lips of Israel was a signal that He would wait no longer.

Looked at thus, the shout of Israel at the sound of the trumpet on the seventh day becomes no inapt figure of that which is connected with it by the language of Holy Scripture—“the shout,” accompanied by “the voice of the archangel and the trump of God,” which shall notify to the world our Lord’s second coming. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence” any more (Ps. 1. 3 and 21; 1Thessalonians 4:16).

Benson Commentary

Joshua 6:7-10. Let him that is armed pass on — God would have them armed, both for the defence of themselves and the ark, in case the enemies should make a sally upon them, and for the execution of the Lord’s vengeance upon that city. The rereward — Which, being opposed to the armed men, may seem to denote the unarmed people, who were desirous to be spectators of this wonderful work. Ye shall not shout — Because shouting before the time appointed would be ineffectual, and so might give them some discouragement, and their enemies matter of insulting.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:6-16 Wherever the ark went, the people attended it. God's ministers, by the trumpet of the everlasting gospel, which proclaims liberty and victory, must encourage the followers of Christ in their spiritual warfare. As promised deliverances must be expected in God's way, so they must be expected in his time. At last the people were to shout: they did so, and the walls fell. This was a shout of faith; they believed the walls of Jericho would fall. It was a shout of prayer; they cry to Heaven for help, and help came.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He said - The reading in the Hebrew text is "they said." Joshua no doubt issued his orders through the "officers of the people" (compare Joshua 1:10).

Him that is armed - i. e. the warriors generally, not a division only. "The rereward" Joshua 6:9 was merely a detachment, and not a substantial portiere of the host; and was told off, perhaps, from the tribe of Dan (compare the marginal reference) to close the procession and guard the ark from behind. Thus the order would be

(1) the warriors,

(2) the seven priests blowing the cornets,

(3) the ark,

(4) the rear-guard.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6, 7. Joshua … called the priests—The pious leader, whatever military preparations he had made, surrendered all his own views, at once and unreservedly, to the declared will of God.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

God would have them armed, both for the defence of themselves and the ark, in case the enemies should make a sally upon them, and for the execution of the Lord’s vengeance upon that city.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he said unto the people, pass on, and compass the city,.... The women and children, the young men under twenty years of age, the unarmed part of the camp, as distinguished from the armed men:

and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord; to guard the ark, protect the priests, and defend the people, should any sally be made by the enemy upon them. These seem to design all the males that were above twenty years of age able to bear arms, and fit for war; though some restrain it to the forty thousand of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, Joshua 1:14.

Geneva Study Bible

And he said unto the people, {f} Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.

(f) This is chiefly meant by the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And he said. The text has they said. Our translators follow the Masoretic emendation. If we follow the original we must suppose that the priests, or, as with Keil and Knobel, the Shoterim (Joshua 1:10), conveyed Joshua's command to the troops. Joshua 6:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Taking of Jericho. - In the account of this we have first of all a brief statement of the announcement of the divine message by Joshua to the priests and the people (Joshua 6:6, Joshua 6:7); then the execution of the divine command (Joshua 6:8-20); and lastly the burning of Jericho and deliverance of Rahab (Joshua 6:21-27).

Joshua 6:6-7

In communicating the divine command with reference to the arrangements for taking Jericho, Joshua mentions in the first place merely the principal thing to be observed. The plural ויּאמרוּ ("they said"), in Joshua 6:7, must not be altered, but is to be explained on the ground that Joshua did not make the proclamation to the people himself, but through the medium oft he shoterim, who were appointed to issue his commands (see Joshua 1:10-11; Joshua 3:2-3). In this proclamation the more minute instructions concerning the order of march, which had been omitted in Joshua 6:3-5, are given; namely, that החלוּץ was to march in front of the ark. By החלוּץ, "the equipped (or armed) man," we are not to understand all the fighting men, as Knobel supposes; for in the description of the march which follows, the whole of the fighting men ("all the men of war," Joshua 6:3) are divided into החלוּץ and המּאסּף (Eng. Ver. "the armed men" and "the rereward," Joshua 6:9 and Joshua 6:13), so that the former can only have formed one division of the army. It is very natural therefore to suppose, as Kimchi and Rashi do, that the former were the fighting men of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh (הצּבא חלוּצי, Joshua 4:13), and the latter the fighting men of the rest of the tribes. On the meaning of מאסּף, see at Numbers 10:25. If we turn to the account of the facts themselves, we shall see at once, that in the report of the angel's message, in Joshua 6:3-5, several other points have been passed over for the purpose of avoiding too many repetitions, and have therefore to be gathered from the description of what actually occurred. First of all, in Joshua 6:8-10, we have the appointment of the order of marching, namely, that the ark, with the priests in front carrying the trumpets of jubilee, was to form the centre of the procession, and that one portion of the fighting men was to go in front of it, and the rest to follow after; that the priests were to blow the trumpets every time they marched round during the seven days (Joshua 6:8, Joshua 6:9, Joshua 6:13); and lastly, that it was not till the seventh time of going round, on the seventh day, that the people were to raise the war-cry at the command of Joshua, and then the walls of the town were to fall (Joshua 6:10, Joshua 6:16). There can be no doubt that we are right in assuming that Joshua had received from the angel the command which he issued to the people in Joshua 6:17., that the whole town, with all its inhabitants and everything in it, was to be given up as a ban to the Lord, at the time when the first announcement concerning the fall of the town was made.