Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
the Israelites and Canaanites the appearance of the Lord of the whole earth for
judgment upon Jericho, the strong bulwark of the Canaanitish power and rule, and to
foretel to them through the falling of the walls of this fortification, which followed
the blast of trumpets and the wary-cry of the soldiers of God, the overthrow of all the
strong bulwarks of an ungodly world through the omnipotence of the Lord of heaven
and earth.
Thus the fall of Jericho became the symbol and type of the overthrow of every
worldly power before the Lord, when He should come to lead His people into Canaan
and establish His kingdom upon earth. On the ground of this event, the blowing of
trumpets is frequently introduced in the writings of the prophets, as the signal and
symbolical omen of the manifestations of the Lord in great judgments, through which
He destroys one worldly power after another, and thus maintains and extends His
kingdom upon earth, and leads it on towards that completion to which it will
eventually attain when He descends from heaven in His glory at the time of the last
trump, with a great shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, to
raise the dead and change the living, to judge the world, cast the devil, death, and hell
into the lake of fire, create a new heaven and new earth, and in the new Jerusalem
erect the tabernacle of God among men for all eternity (1 Cor 15:51ff.; 1 Thess 4:16-
17; Rev 20:1 and
21).
The appointment of the march round Jericho, which was to be continued for seven
days, and to be repeated seven times on the seventh day, was equally significant. The
number seven is a symbol in the Scriptures of the work of God and of the perfection
already produced or to be eventually secured by Him; a symbol founded upon the
creation of the world in six days, and the completion of the works of creation by the
resting of God upon the seventh day. Through this arrangement, that the walls of
Jericho were not to fall till after they had been marched round for seven days, and not
till after this had been repeated seven times on the seventh day, and then amidst the
blast of the jubilee trumpets and the war-cry of the soldiers of the people of God, the
destruction of this town, the key to Canaan, was intended by God to become a type of
the final destruction at the last day of the power of this world, which exalts itself
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