by Suzanne Hadley based on Joshua 6:1-27

The Israelites trudged through the hot sun, completing their seventh lap around the city of Jericho. The city’s enormous mud brick wall loomed high above them. Seven priests carrying trumpets led the way before the ark of the covenant.

For six days the Israelites and their leader, Joshua, had walked around the city. All the people knew God’s instructions: When they completed the seventh lap, the priests would sound a long blast on their trumpets and everyone would give a loud shout. Then Jericho’s walls would collapse.

The moment had come. The trumpets blasted. The people gave a mighty shout. And the great wall crashed to the ground. The Israelites rushed into the city and destroyed it with fire. Except for the sinful act of Achan, they took nothing for themselves, because God had commanded it. Only one family was spared. Rahab, who had hidden the Israelite spies in her home, had been promised safety for her household.

Fast forward about 3,400 years. Since the early 1900s, archaeologists have studied Jericho to see if it was destroyed the way the Bible says. A British archaeologist named Kathleen Kenyon did extensive work at the site from 1952 to 1958. She found evidence that supported the biblical account. But by misdating some pottery, she concluded Jericho was destroyed 150 years before Joshua’s time, which contradicted God’s Word.

Forty years later, Dr. Bryant Wood, a Canaanite pottery specialist, re-examined Jericho. What he found startled the world: proof that Jericho was destroyed exactly the way the Bible says. Check out the findings for yourself!

1. The attack happened at the time the Bible records.

   The Bible reveals the time the Israelite conquest of Jericho took place (1 Kings 6:1, Judges 11:26).

   After Kenyon’s studies, people doubted the accuracy of the Bible. But Wood’s research proved Jericho was destroyed around 1400 B.C., precisely the time when the Bible says it happened. Wood examined red and black pottery found at the site and discovered it was bi-chrome, a specific kind made only from 1450-1400 B.C. “The evidence is overwhelming,” Wood says. “This type of pottery was not in use earlier or later than that time.”

2. The city was strongly fortified.

   “Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in” (Joshua 6:1).

   Archaeologists’ findings revealed the city was built on top of a huge mound of dirt surrounded by a 15-foot retaining wall. A 20-foot outer wall was built on top of the retaining wall, and a 46-foot inner wall stood on top of the mound to protect the city. Both walls were 6 feet thick. With this defense system, it would have been humanly impossible to penetrate the city.

3. The walls collapsed outward.

   “When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted and . . . the wall collapsed” (Joshua 6:20).

   Evidence proves that Jericho’s walls fell outward, suggesting an earthquake. In a normal attack, the invaders would use a battering ram to push the walls in. The outer city wall landed at the base of the retaining wall when it fell, forming a ramp up to the city. This explains why the Bible says, “The people will go up, every man straight in” (Joshua 6:5).

4. A small section of wall was left standing.

   The Bible says Joshua spared a woman named Rahab who lived in the city “because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho” (Joshua 6:25).

   In 1907 two German archaeologists made an amazing discovery! They found a small portion of the lower wall that was still standing. Even more baffling, they found houses built against the wall.

   “I relate that to Rahab’s house,” Wood says. “Her house was not destroyed.” The spies could have easily escaped from this location because the back of these houses was the city wall.

5. The attack was swift and occurred just after harvest.

   The Bible says the city was taken in seven days just after harvest (Joshua 3:15).

   Because many large jars full of grain were found in the destroyed buildings, archaeologists concluded the attack happened shortly after harvest. Also, the grain was hardly touched, suggesting the city was conquered quickly.

6. The city was burned but not plundered.

   The Israelites “burned the whole city and everything in it” (Joshua 6:24), but they took nothing for themselves (Joshua 6:18).

   Kenyon discovered a layer of ash 3 feet thick and walls and floors blackened by fire. She also found many storage jars full of charred grain. The jars of grain were a very rare find. Because grain was so valuable, it was always taken from a conquered city.

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.” —Hebrews 11:30

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