“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.”
My Notes
What Does Joshua 6:20 Mean?
The fall of Jericho happens in a single verse: the people shout, the priests blow trumpets, and the wall falls down flat. Seven days of silent marching, seven priests with seven trumpets, seven circuits on the seventh day — and one shout brings the wall down. The silence that preceded the shout makes the shout devastatingly effective.
The phrase "fell down flat" (tippol ha-chomah tachteyha — the wall fell under itself, fell in its place) means the wall collapsed straight down rather than toppling outward or inward. Archaeological evidence at Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho) shows walls that collapsed outward in some sections and downward in others. The falling was comprehensive: the wall didn't partially crack. It fell.
The word "shouted" (rua — to raise a war cry, to shout in triumph, to make a noise of worship) describes the people's role: their contribution to the victory was a shout. Not battering rams. Not siege equipment. Not military engineering. A shout. And the wall that seven days of silent walking couldn't move fell at the sound of a unified voice.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What wall in your life might fall to obedience that looks ridiculous by human standards?
- 2.How does the silence before the shout model the discipline required before spiritual breakthrough?
- 3.What does the wall falling 'flat in its place' (structural collapse, not mechanical force) teach about how God defeats obstacles?
- 4.Where are you trying to breach walls with human strategy when God's plan involves marching and shouting?
Devotional
They shouted. The wall fell. Seven days of silence ended with one corporate scream, and the most fortified city in Canaan collapsed flat where it stood.
The military strategy is insane by any human standard: march silently around a walled city for seven days. On the seventh day, march seven times. Then shout. No siege equipment. No battering rams. No tunneling. Just marching and then yelling. The strategy is designed to be humanly ridiculous because the victory is supposed to be divinely obvious.
The silence before the shout is the discipline that makes the shout effective. For six days, Israel was commanded not to speak (verse 10: "ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice"). The silence was as much a part of the obedience as the marching. You hold your voice for six days so that when it's released on the seventh, it carries the accumulated force of corporate restraint.
The wall falling flat — collapsing in its place rather than toppling — means the destruction was structural, not mechanical. Nobody pushed the wall over. It collapsed from within. The foundation gave out. The structure that was designed to withstand siege failed at a shout because its real opponent wasn't the shout — it was the God behind the shout.
Jericho's fall teaches the simplest, most humbling lesson about spiritual warfare: the battle plan that sounds ridiculous to human ears works when God is behind it. The wall that human military engineering can't breach falls at a shout human military commanders would never authorize.
What wall in your life is waiting for a shout that obedience has been building toward for seven days of silence?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets,.... As Joshua had charged them, Jos 6:16,
and it came…
The people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down - There has been much learned labor spent to prove that…
The people had religiously observed the orders given them concerning the besieging of Jericho, and now at length Joshua…
the wall fell down flat No hand of man interposed to bring about this catastrophe, no merely natural causes precipitated…