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‘And the Walls Came Tumbling Down’ – The History and Historicity of the Biblical Account of Jericho

Khalid Elhassan May 16, 2025 16 min

Jericho - Depiction of the Old Testament's description of Jericho's walls miraculously falling down — Depiction of the Old Testament's description of Jericho's walls miraculously falling down. Pinterest

18. The Opening Up of Canaan for Ancient Israelite Settlement

Jericho - Map of the biblical conquest of Canaan — Map of the biblical conquest of Canaan. K-Pics

Per the Book of Joshua, chapter 6, the ancient city of Jericho fell to the ancient Israelites when God miraculously brought down its walls. After they captured Jericho, the Israelites attacked Ai, another key Canaanite city. The Bible narrates that they were initially defeated because one of them had kept some of Jericho’s loot for himself, in defiance of a divine directive that all booty be dedicated to the Lord. After the guilty party was stoned to death, God was appeased and Ai was captured.

The conquest continued through two more military campaigns: the southern and northern. In the southern campaign, Joshua led the Israelites to defeat a coalition of kings who opposed them, including the king of Jerusalem. In the northern campaign, another alliance of kings was defeated near the waters of Merom. Those victories broke the power of Canaanite rulers and opened the land for Israelite settlement.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.