Jericho was an ancient city on the west side of the Jordan River. The name Jericho may be connected to the ancient name of the Canaanite moon god. The Hebrew words for moon, month, new moon, and Jericho are very similar. Others associate it with the word for spirit or smell. They feel that the pleasant fragrances of the fruits and spices that grew in this oasis helped to name the place. The Old Testament occasionally calls it “the city of palm trees” (for example, Deuteronomy 34:3; 2 Chronicles 28:15).
Jericho was located on the west side of the Jordan River about five miles from the southern-most fords and about ten miles northwest of the Dead Sea. Being in the broad part of the plain of the Jordan, it lies nearly 1,000 feet below sea level and about 3,500 feet below Jerusalem, which was a mere 17 miles away. This simple fact explains the words in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan, “down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:30).
PREBIBLICAL RECORD
Jericho was a large and thriving city for centuries before the Bible first mentions it in connection with the exodus from Egypt. In fact, Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. Its remains date to and before the Neolithic Age ten thousand years ago.
There are three reasons primitive people would have chosen this site, first as a settlement and eventually as a key city.
1. It has a plentiful spring, now called Elisha’s Fountain (compare 2 Kings 2:18-22).
2. It has a warm climate in the winter, although “hot” describes it in the summer.
3. It is strategically located at a Jordan ford and at the base of several routes leading westward to the foothills.
The comings and goings of various populations can be reconstructed only sketchily. The civilizations grew more complex over the years. The simple, food-gathering population gave way to a relatively complex urban society, complete with king, soldiers, and guest houses. This is the Jericho that Joshua encountered. The first certain identification of its inhabitants occurs in Numbers 13:29: “The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan” ( RSV).
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Jericho of the Old Testament is best known as the first city taken by the invading Israelites through the miracle of the falling walls. Israel had spent some time on the east bank of the Jordan in the plains of Moab (Numbers 22:1; Numbers 26:3, Numbers 63). There, they targeted Jericho as the first military objective in the conquest. Joshua sent spies to survey the land and the city. Rahab the harlot took them in and later helped them escape. For her cooperation, she and her family were spared when Israel destroyed the city (Joshua 2:1, Joshua 6:1). The fall of the city itself occurred after the Israelites had marched around it in silence, except for the continual blowing of trumpets, once a day for six days and then seven times on the seventh day. Then, as the priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted and the walls collapsed.
Joshua laid a curse on anyone who might rebuild Jericho (Joshua 6:26). The curse was fulfilled about five hundred years later when Hiel rebuilt the city at the cost of two of his sons (1 Kings 16:34).
Jericho was in the territory of Benjamin but right on the border with the territory of Ephraim to the north (Joshua 16:1, Joshua 7; Joshua 18:12, 21). It appears in scattered incidents throughout the rest of the Old Testament. In 2 Samuel 10:5 (see also 1 Chronicles 19:5) David had his humiliated ambassadors wait there until their beards grew back. It served as a kind of headquarters for Elisha and apparently was where a “company of the prophets” lived (2 Kings 2:5; compare 1 Samuel 10:5). During the time of Ahaz, a return of prisoners took place there (2 Chronicles 28:15). When Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C., the reigning king, Zedekiah, fled to near Jericho but was caught by the Babylonians. They later put out his eyes at Riblah in Syria (2 Kings 25:5; Jeremiah 39:5; Jeremiah 52:8). The last Old Testament references to Jericho are in the census lists of Ezra (Ezra 2:34) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 7:36). Men from Jericho also helped rebuild the Jerusalem wall (Nehemiah 3:2).
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Jericho of New Testament times was built by Herod more than a mile to the south of the Old Testament site. It is possible to sort out the healing of the blind men episodes in the Gospels by understanding that Jesus was passing from the site of ancient Jericho (Matthew 20:29; Mark 10:46) and approaching Herodian Jericho (Luke 18:35). The modern city of Jericho includes both these sites. As Jesus passed through Jericho (Luke 19:1) he met and ate with Zacchaeus, the wealthy chief tax collector of the new Roman Jericho. The city also figures in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).
ARCHEOLOGY AT JERICHO
Jericho was excavated first by Charles Warren in 1868, then by Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger in 1907–11, and then by John Garstang in 1930–36. Garstang thought he had found the wall that fell before the Israelites, but the more thorough, scientific, and widely accepted results of the investigations by Kathleen Kenyon in 1952–56 showed that the topmost level of ruins was already too early to tell anything of the city of Joshua’s day. To her goes the credit for uncovering and interpreting the many layers of civilizations that date back to 8000 B.C. at Jericho.
POSTBIBLICAL RECORD
While ancient Jericho was of small consequence after its destruction under Joshua, the Jericho of Herod was a city of beauty and importance. But even this city fell into decay with the decline of Roman influence in the Middle East. Most of what we know of the city until modern times comes from the writings of pilgrims to the Holy Land. They usually report seeing certain things of biblical significance, such as the tree that Zacchaeus climbed. But they also report that Jericho was a filthy, wretched Muslim village. It remained that way until relatively recent times, when it grew in size and importance as a major West Bank city.
Who?
Who controlled Jericho? Many different civilizations conquered this city, demolished it, and rebuilt over it.
What?
What happened here? The Israelites were told by God to walk around seven times and then shout. This made the walls crumble and thus the city was destroyed.
When?
When did this happen? After Moses was left to God and when Joshua was in command.
Where?
Where is Jericho? Just on the Western border of the Jordan River.
Why?
Why was Jericho destroyed? Because God told Joshua to destroy the evil nations.
How?
Deuteronomy 34
Joshua 6
Jordan River
Ram’s Horns
Ark of the Covenant
Wilderness Wandering