Joshua — Chapter 6

Lapide: \"I have given into thy hand Jericho\" — the Lord (i.e., the Angel representing God) continues speaking from the end of ch. 5; he discloses the plan of God: Jericho is to be taken not by force of arms but by the sound of trumpets and the shout of the people — that it might be manifest this was the work of God alone, not human strategy.

Lapide: The priests circle Jericho for seven days with trumpets — a ceremonial show of siege; the Hebrews' faith was exercised and the Canaanites' terror was prolonged to give them space for repentance, as God gave Nineveh three days.

Lapide: The Jubilee trumpets — their use here signifies that the time had come for the holy land to revert to its rightful owner; in Jubilee, alienated properties returned to original heirs; Canaan was returned to the descendants of Sem, its first just possessor, dispossessed by the Canaanites.

Lapide: \"The walls shall fall flat\" — Tropologically (Origen, Hom. 7): as then the walls of Jericho fell at the trumpets of Joshua, so now in the New Law, at the sound of the Apostles' preaching and their successors, falls the pride of the world with its towers and vices. S. Chrysostomus (Hom. 91 in Eph.): the Israelites overthrew Jericho in the manner of those dancing and singing rather than of warriors.

Lapide: Seven circuits of Jericho — seven is the sacred number signifying universality (six days of creation plus sabbath rest). Ambrosiaster (In Apoc. 1): the seven circuits = seven ages of the Church and of the just: from before the flood, from Noah to Moses, under the Law, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Gentile martyrs, and those of the time of Antichrist. At the seventh circuit (end of time) the walls of the city of the devil will fall at the preaching of truth.

Lapide: \"The city shall be anathema\" — Hebrew cherem = thing devoted to God alone, consecrated to His vindictive justice. Three reasons why Jericho alone was entirely burned: first, as first-fruits of Canaan it belonged wholly to God; second, the victory was entirely God's (no human arms), so the spoils were entirely His; third, to make an example and strike terror into all other Canaanite cities.

Lapide: \"The walls fell\" — mechanism of the miracle: God withdrew His concurrence from the matter upholding the walls; just as when the sun withdraws its rays light vanishes, so God withdrawing His concurrence from the walls' standing caused them to fall. God preserved the being of the fallen stones but removed His concurrence to their upright position.

Lapide: Lyranus mystically: \"Jericho signifies the city of sin which the love of self unto contempt of God has built. This city is enclosed by a triple wall: the wall of carnal concupiscence, of temporal affluence, and of worldly eminence.\" This triple wall is overthrown by the sound of holy preaching, the cry of devout prayer, and the circuit of personal examination.

Lapide: Rahab the harlot is saved with all her household — allegorically (Rupertus, Origen, S. Augustinus, Tropologice): Rahab as type of the Church of the Gentiles and of every penitent sinner who, like Magdalene, through Jesus and the Apostolic men, is converted from luxury to chastity and so escapes the destruction of Gehenna, and moreover saves others by her word and example.