Chapter 40: Gilgal and Jericho

Study notes

Joshua circumcises everyone who was born in the wilderness, and then Israel keeps the Passover at Gilgal. At Jericho the wall falls when the people shout, and after the city is captured it is burned, but Joshua spares Rahab and her family.

From Joshua 5:2–9 (KoS), Joshua 5:10 (KoS), Joshua 6:20 (KoS), Joshua 6:24–25 (KoS).

These notes and questions are original study helps written for this site, not scripture. The verses shown with each question are quoted from the Kingdoms of Scripture Bible.

Notice and discuss

Read each passage, then think about the question on your own or talk it over with others. No answers are collected.

1. What do the people begin to eat after the Passover, and what comes to an end the next day?

   They ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on that very day. The man stopped on the next day, when they ate of the produce of the land, and there was no more man for the sons of Israel. They ate of the yield of the land of Canaan in that year.

   Joshua 5:11–12 (KoS)

   Note · Translation Avur is the produce of the land. Matzot is unleavened bread. Qalui is grain that has been parched.

   Note · Translation Man is the bread named in Exodus. It is not the word for a person. A later ending, “manna,” is not added.

2. What does Joshua ask the man with a drawn sword, and what is Joshua told to do next?

   When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted his eyes and looked, and Look, a man was standing opposite him, and his sword was drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us, or for our foes? He said, No, for I am the commander of Yahweh’s army. Now I have come. Joshua fell on his face to the ground and bowed, and he said to him, What does my lord speak to his servant? The commander of Yahweh’s army said to Joshua, Slip your sandal off your foot, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.

   Joshua 5:13–15 (KoS)

   Note · Translation Sar tzeva YHWH is the commander of Yahweh’s army. “My lord” here is adoni, a title for the man standing there, not the divine name.

3. What does Joshua tell the two spies to do, and who is brought out of the woman’s house?

   To the two men who had spied out the land Joshua said, Go into the house of the woman, the prostitute, and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her. The young men, the spies, went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all who belonged to her. All her families they brought out, and they set them outside the camp of Israel.

   Joshua 6:22–23 (KoS)