Joshua 6 - Genocide at Jericho

Synopsis:

Joshua commands his army and priests to march the Ark around Jericho every day for 6 days. They are not to say a word, but the priests are to blow their horns. On the 7^th day, they march around the city 7 times with the priests blowing their horns. At the end of that everyone screams and the walls come down. They army goes in and kills everyone. Every man, woman, child, and sheep. The only people spared are Rahab, the harlot who sheltered the spies, and her family. The men are told to loot the city, but everything of value they find belongs to God.

In other words:

 They marched around the city blowing horns for 7 days, screamed and the wall came down. They killed everyone, burnt the city to the ground and kept all the treasure for themselves.

Favorite bit:

Joshua 6:21  - “And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and ass with the edge of the sword.” In other words, nothing alive was spared, they were brutal.

Most annoying bit:

Joshua 6:26 – we aren’t really given a reason why the city is burnt to the ground and everyone killed aside from the fact the city existed and Joshua wanted to prove a point. Seems a bit maniacal to me to be perfectly honest. People who do these sorts of things nowadays are tried as war criminals.

Moral Lesson:

Psychotic dictators are capable of amazing brutality.