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Joshua 6 · a question people ask

Why march around the city for seven days? Did the marching bring the wall down?

In the text

The chapter doesn't give a reason for the marching. It gives the LORD's instructions (6:3-5) and shows them kept: once around the city each day, "They did this six days" (6:14), and on the seventh day seven times, "On this day only they marched around the city seven times" (6:15) (tap march around). It tells the shout and the fall one after the other: "the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat" (6:20). And it gives the city to the LORD's giving: "the LORD has given you the city!" (6:16). The New Testament says how the walls fell: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days" (Hebrews 11:30).

The verses

“All of your men of war shall march around the city, going around the city once. You shall do this six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the city wall will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, every man straight in front of him.””
Joshua 6:3-5 · World English Bible
“The second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. They did this six days. On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawning of the day, and marched around the city in the same way seven times. On this day only they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!”
Joshua 6:14-16 · World English Bible
“So the people shouted and the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight in front of him, and they took the city.”
Joshua 6:20 · World English Bible
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.”
Hebrews 11:30 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Joshua 6

Joshua 6: The wall fell down flat

The LORD said "I have given Jericho into your hand" (6:2) before anyone marched a step, and for six days Israel walked around the city, told not to say a word (6:10). The wall fell just as he had said it would (6:5, 6:20). And Joshua's oath over the city came to pass in Ahab's day, "according to the LORD’s word, which he spoke by Joshua" (1 Kings 16:34).

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Last reviewed September 26, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions