So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
So the people shouted when the priests blew. Toward the close of the seventh circuit, the signal was given by Joshua, and on the Israelites raising their loud war-cry, the walls fell down, doubtless burying multitudes of the inhabitants in the ruins, while the beseigers, rushing in, consigned everything, animate and inanimate, to indiscriminate destruction (Deuteronomy 20:16-17). This sudden demolition cannot be ascribed to any natural causes. It was clearly a miracle; and following immediately after the miraculous passage of the Jordan, the sudden opening up of so strongly a fortified border city, the key to the interior of Canaan, without exertion or loss on their part, was an encouraging pledge to the Israelites that God would, according to His promise, as easily deliver the whole land into their power. Jewish writers mention it as an immemorial tradition that the city fell on the Sabbath. It should be remembered that the Canaanites were incorrigible idolaters, addicted to the most horrible vices, and that the righteous judgment of God might sweep them away by the sword, as well as by famine or pestilence. There was mercy mingled with judgment in employing the sword as the instrument of punishing the guilty Canaanites; because while it was directed against one place, time was afforded for others to repent.