Single lesson

Jericho: Listening and Following Instructions

Joshua 6:1–27

This lesson traces the instructions in Joshua 6 and helps students notice who gave them, what the people were told to do, and what happened when those instructions were followed.

12–17 years40 minutes

Before you teach

Joshua 6 begins with Jericho shut tight. Yahweh speaks to Joshua and gives a detailed plan involving marching, priests, trumpets, the ark, silence, and a final shout. The chapter then shows Joshua passing on those instructions, the people carrying them out, Rahab being spared, and the city coming under judgement.

Learning aim

Students will be able to list the main instructions in Joshua 6 and explain how the chapter shows Joshua and the people carrying them out.

Welcome: What details do instructions include?

5 min

Ask students to think about instructions they have followed, such as a recipe or game setup. Explain that Joshua 6 is very detailed. Today they will look for who speaks, what is commanded, how often actions happen, and what the people must not do. Introduce the passage as a story about listening carefully to the exact instructions given.

Joshua 6:2, Joshua 6:3, Joshua 6:4, Joshua 6:10

Read and explain: The plan for Jericho

10 min

Read Joshua 6:1-5, then 6:6-10. Point out the repeated details: marching once a day for six days, seven priests, seven trumpets, the ark, seven marches on the seventh day, and a great shout after the trumpet blast. Also notice the command to stay silent until Joshua says to shout. Explain that the chapter first gives the instructions, then shows them being passed on.

Joshua 6:1, Joshua 6:2, Joshua 6:3, Joshua 6:4, Joshua 6:5, Joshua 6:6, Joshua 6:7, Joshua 6:10

Discuss: Following the instructions in order

8 min

Read Joshua 6:11-16 and ask students to track the sequence. The ark goes around the city once, the people return to camp, and this pattern continues for six days. On the seventh day they march seven times. At the seventh time, after the priests blow the trumpets, Joshua tells the people to shout because Yahweh has given them the city. Discuss how the chapter emphasises repetition and timing.

Joshua 6:11, Joshua 6:12, Joshua 6:13, Joshua 6:14, Joshua 6:15, Joshua 6:16

Make and respond: Build the sequence wall

12 min

Students work in pairs or small groups to build a simple wall scene and place event labels in order. Include labels such as shut city, march once for six days, stay silent, seven times on the seventh day, trumpet blast, shout, wall falls, Rahab brought out, treasury items set apart. Remind students that this activity illustrates the order described in the passage, not every detail of the event.

Joshua 6:1, Joshua 6:10, Joshua 6:14, Joshua 6:15, Joshua 6:20, Joshua 6:22, Joshua 6:23, Joshua 6:24

Closing: Judgement, Rahab, and summary

5 min

Read Joshua 6:17-25 and 6:26-27. Handle the judgement in the chapter soberly, simply noting what the text says happened to the city. Also note that Rahab and those with her were spared because she hid the messengers. Finish by asking students to summarise the instructions in one or two sentences and to identify one repeated detail they noticed in the chapter.

Joshua 6:17, Joshua 6:18, Joshua 6:19, Joshua 6:21, Joshua 6:22, Joshua 6:23, Joshua 6:24, Joshua 6:25, Joshua 6:26, Joshua 6:27

Questions to explore

What exact actions were the men, priests, and people told to do before the wall fell?

Look for the repeated commands about marching, trumpets, silence, and shouting, and answer in the order the text gives them.

Joshua 6:3, Joshua 6:4, Joshua 6:5, Joshua 6:10

How does Joshua 6 show that the people followed the plan over several days rather than all at once?

Notice the return to camp after circling once, the statement that this happened for six days, and the different pattern on the seventh day.

Joshua 6:11, Joshua 6:14, Joshua 6:15

Who was spared at Jericho, and what reason does the chapter give?

Find the person named in Joshua's command and the explanation repeated after she and her family are brought out.

Joshua 6:17, Joshua 6:22, Joshua 6:23, Joshua 6:25

Make, think or respond

Jericho Sequence Wall

What you’ll need

building blocks or paper cups
small slips of paper
pens or pencils
a Bible

Try it together

Build a simple wall shape with blocks or cups on a table or floor.
Write short event labels from Joshua 6 on separate slips of paper.
Read the chapter sections and place the labels in order beside the wall.
Ask each group to explain why they placed each label where they did, using the verses.
Finish by removing or laying down the wall pieces when you reach Joshua 6:20.

This activity helps students follow the sequence of instructions and events described in Joshua 6 without adding details beyond the text.

Adapt for your group

For younger or less confident readers, pre-write the event labels and let them sort the sequence using Joshua 6:3-5, 10, 14-16, 20, 23-24.
For older students, ask them to separate instructions given before the march from actions reported afterward, using two columns with verse references.

An optional closing prayer

You may pray: "Lord God, please help us listen carefully to your word, speak truthfully about what we read, and learn from the instructions and events recorded in Joshua 6. Amen."

Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic

Joshua 6

¹ Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in.

² Yahweh said to Joshua, “Behold, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the mighty men of valor.

³ All of your men of war shall march around the city, going around the city once. You shall do this six days.

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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.”

⁶ Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh’s ark.”

⁷ They said to the people, “Advance! March around the city, and let the armed men pass on before Yahweh’s ark.”

⁸ It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of Yahweh’s covenant followed them.

⁹ The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the ark went after them. The trumpets sounded as they went.

¹⁰ Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.”

¹¹ So he caused Yahweh’s ark to go around the city, circling it once. Then they came into the camp, and stayed in the camp.

¹² Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up Yahweh’s ark.

¹³ The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of Yahweh’s ark went on continually, and blew the trumpets. The armed men went in front of them. The rear guard came after Yahweh’s ark. The trumpets sounded as they went.

¹⁴ The second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. They did this six days.

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city!

¹⁷ The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

¹⁸ But as for you, only keep yourselves from what is devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it.

¹⁹ But all the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh. They shall come into Yahweh’s treasury.”

²⁰ 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.

²¹ They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

²² Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house, and bring the woman and all that she has out from there, as you swore to her.”

²³ The young men who were spies went in, and brought out Rahab with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. They also brought out all of her relatives, and they set them outside of the camp of Israel.

²⁴ They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only they put the silver, the gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron into the treasury of Yahweh’s house.

²⁵ But Rahab the prostitute, her father’s household, and all that she had, Joshua saved alive. She lives in the middle of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

²⁶ Joshua commanded them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before Yahweh who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.”

²⁷ So Yahweh was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.

World English Bible Classic. Public domain.