Most of us associate the sound of the Shofar - the ram’s horn - with religious rituals that recall atonement and piety so it’s jarring to realize that in the ancient world and in today’s chapter the Shofar was used as a battle cry.
Joshua’s first conquest in Canaan will be remembered as the miracle by which the walled city of Jericho succumbed to sound. What’s incredible about this literary design/depiction of destruction is that it ecoes in precise detail the original creation of the world. In Genesis it takes the divine seven days to create the world and end with Eden, all constructed through divine speech. Jericho ‘the paradise of the middle east’ and one of the oldest cities in the world, crumbles after seven days of ritualized resolve with an eerie focus on the force of sound, perhaps as psychological warfare or the power of noise to topple down even concrete walls of resistance.
Joshua instructs the people to circle around the walled city - led by seven priests, carrying seven shofars, followed by the ark of the covenant, and then the warriors. All in complete silence.
This ominous parade happens daily for six days. On the seventh day - some Talmudic sources claim it was a Saturday - perhaps to complete the Genesis echo - they circle the city seven times. When the seventh circle is complete the cue is given - the shofars are blasted and the people join in, a battle cry so fierce - the walls come down. The rest is bloody carnage. All the people are killed, with the exception of Rahab, the collaborating Cananite sex-worker who is evacuated to a safe place along with her household. It all begins with a battle cry:
“When the people heard the sound of the horns, the people raised a mighty shout and the wall collapsed. The people rushed into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they captured the city.”
Why is the power of sound so central to the fall of Jericho? How is vocal violence so visceral to demolish our defenses, even our solid walls?
In The Joshua Generation, Dr. Rachel Havrelock unpacks some of the connection to the Creation story and the role that the ram’s horns and human voices add to this mystery:
“Creation imagery resonates in descriptions of the conquest that dramatize displacement and extermeination as a divine reordering of the world..
Along with the reanimation of creation motifs, the mythic opposition between silence and noise characterizes the defeat of Jericho. Joshua instructs the priests and People alike to move in total silence as they leave camp and encircle Jericho...silence displays the discipline of the army and the degree to which the people have seemingly overcome the subversive tendencies of the previous generation. With contesting voices muffled, the modulation of sound attests to unified purpose and reconstitution as a nation. Silence holds until the specified moment on the seventh day when “all the nation” hears the shofar blasts and raises its collective war cry. The breaking of silence functions as a sign as Joshua tells the People, “God has given you the city”.. Their defenses shattered, the population of Jericho—with the exception of one woman and her household—falls to the sword.”
The final note on the fall of Jericho is a curse - Joshua warns anyone from building the city again. This too is an echo of the Creation story - where the Divine blessed the seventh day for eternrity. Words can carry curse or blessing, sound can carry multiple meanings, and the Shofar, a cultural tool taken from nature’s bounty, echoes the enormous potential for cruelty, and what happens when we wage wars. The chapter ends with one more emphasis on the power of sound: All who hear of Jericho’s demise is terrified, the word is out - Joshua and his people mean business. Fortified by this first victory, the people march on. Except there is a problem among them - someone did not hear or chose to disobey Joshua’s command.
Coming up next.
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