Jericho: In God's Word and in the Ground

Introduction

Joshua 6
Kathleen Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho, p. 262-262
- In her timeline, no trace of the town walls of Jericho could be found.
Joshua 6:1-3, 20-27

Deuteronomy 9:1
Kathleen Kenyon doesn’t deny that Jericho was a mighty, fortified city.
The city was built on a hill with a 30-40 foot other wall six fee thick. There was an inner wall that topped out at 70-75 feet above ground level.
The area inside the inner wall was about six acres. The total area inside the outer wall was about nine acres.
There were possibly 1200 people inside the inner walls.
People also lived between the inner and outer walls, but this was likely slums. Rahab would have lived here.

Joshua 3:15 – a time of harvest
Jericho had a spring inside the city, along with massive food storage. They were well prepared for a long siege.
The walls fell in such a way to provide a siege ramp for the Israelites.
Joshua 6:20 – Each man went straight ahead because the fallen walls made a siege ramp for him.

Joshua 2:15, 12-21
Joshua 6:17, 22-23
There was an area of the wall on the north side with a couple of homes attached that did not fall down. This is possibly Rahab’s house. Outside the wall on that side was a convenient place where the spies could have escaped to.

The city was heavily burnt, but the outer walls fell first.
Much burned grain in ports was found, which is very unusual. Normally, attackers would steal the grain first because it was very valuable and then burn the city. But God told Israel to turn the city without taking the grain, so that is what they did.
Joshua 6:18-19
Hebrews 11:30