Did Joshua Fit The Battle?
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Though not part of the Hymnals known to most of us, there are few who have not heard the old spiritual titled "Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho." Though severely lacking in theological detail, the song recounts the taking of the fortified city which was to be the firstfruits of Israel's conquest of Canaan, the Promised Land. In the song, the word "Fit" is meant as a past-tense form of the word "fought," thus "Joshua Fought The Battle." However, a recent question from a reader asked how, in the modern sense, the company of the Israelites could have "fit" both the time and distance demands of the thirteen marches around the perimeter of the city. In the process of answering that question, however, it came to light, though not surprisingly, that Scripture's entire Jericho account had for a century been dismissed by most archeologists and historians -- and even by some professed Christians -- as fiction.

The Biblical account (Joshua Chapters 2 through 6) is clear and quite detailed -- commentator Matthew Henry notes that "The inspired historian seems to be so well pleased with his subject here that he is loth to quit it." We read of the spies sent by Joshua to ""Go, view the land, especially Jericho" (Joshua 2:1) and God's protection of them by Rahab. We read their report to Joshua -- so different from that of the ten faithless spies of a generation before! The miraculous crossing of the Jordan is recounted, including the note (Joshua 4:13) that "About forty thousand prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho." Careful, patient, and faithful preparations, not for war but for worship, are made, and for the first time Passover is celebrated in the land. And then, in the 27 verses of Chapter 6, the spiritual battle is won and the military conquest of Canaan begun. For six days the army, along with seven priests bearing ram's horn trumpets and four who bore the Ark silently (except for the trumpets) circled the city once and returned to camp. On the seventh -- some say the Sabbath but this is unknown -- the company circled the city seven times, and then, with a shout of triumph, saw the wall of the city, except for a portion where Rahab lived, fall flat (Joshua 6:20). Except for metal objects, we read, and of course Rahab and her family, everything in the city was then destroyed by fire.

Commentators differ on actual the number of Israelites who made those thirteen marches around Jericho. A census taken not much earlier (Numbers 1:45-46) gave a total of over 600,000 "able to go to war in Israel." The 40,000 figure of Joshua 4:13 may refer specifically to the three tribes mentioned in the previous verse (Joshua 4:12) but Calvin notes this would account for only a portion of even those tribes' potential soldiers. Despite the area's appearance today, in Joshua's time Jericho was called "the city of palms," and was surrounded, some accounts say, by a seven-mile forest of palm trees. There can be little doubt the city was surrounded as well by farms, and archeologists have found the inner wall itself protected an area of at least nine acres. Further, the walled city was built atop a hill, so the marchers would at the very minimum have had to circle an area significantly larger than the wall itself enclosed, probably at least the base of the hill but possibly the farms as well. In the end, all we really have to guide us is Scripture, and on both the size of the city and the number of marchers, Scripture is silent. We may be sure the events occurred as described, but not precisely how.

From the beginnings of modern archeology, Jericho has been considered a particularly interesting study. Sadly, most of the interest was not in verifying the Bible, but in disproving it, and for many years Archeologists confidently asserted that the undeniable destruction of the city could not have occurred at the time of Israel's entry into Canaan. Even some Christian books adopted the chronology of those who denied Scripture. And then, primarily within the past thirty years, the unbiblical assumptions were overturned. Many -- though not all -- Archeologists today can point with confidence to the once-buried ruins of a Jericho which fits both the time and descriptions given in Scripture. The walls of this city did indeed "fall flat" in a manner which can only be called catastrophic and sudden -- except for a portion of the North wall, the side facing the Judean wilderness where Joshua's spies hid for a time after leaving Rahab, which somehow escaped the calamity. Within the walls, everything is in readiness for an extended seige, with large, unused stores of grain and evidence of other valuable items, all left behind by the attackers and burned (Joshua 6:24). Yet in all the excavated ruins, after carefully sifting through a meter of ash, no significant metal could be found (Joshua 6:19). In every verifiable detail, Scripture has once again been proved historically accurate.

"We believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it." (Belgic Confession, Art. 7)

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Gary Fisher

12 March 2008