Joshua 6:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 1. Now Jericho was straitly shut up— While every necessary preparation was making in the camp of Joshua for the attack of Jericho, the king of that city, on his part, took all possible precautions for his security. Having refused the offers of peace, which were doubtless made him by the Hebrew general, (see Deuteronomy 20:10.) and resolved to defend himself to the last extremity, he had shut himself in Jericho, and set so good a guard there, that Joshua, who kept the place blocked up, could carry on no intelligence with, nor know what passed in it. The city, according to Onkelos, was shut up with gates of iron, and bars of brass; so that no one could issue out either to fight, or to talk of peace. The adventure of the spies, who had crept into Rahab's house, was a sufficient caution not to be satisfied with keeping the place shut by night only. We may further observe, that the division of the Bible into Chapter s and verses is not always very exact, and may frequently mislead readers. This chapter should not naturally have begun till the 6th verse; for the five first verses are a continuation of the discourse addressed by the Captain of the Lord's hosts to Joshua, on shewing himself to him: or the foregoing chapter should have ended at ver. 12 as the account of the appearance of the angel and of the conference begins at ver. 13. It is certain, that the words in ver. 1 in this chapter, are properly only a parenthesis of the sacred historian, prudently added to shew the necessity of the miracle.