“Your word was my delight and the joy of my heart”
Jeremiah 15:16
Duns Scotus Bible Centre
Jericho
Two cities of this name have successively occupied sites in the same neighbourhood......
Two cities of this name have successively occupied sites in the same neighbourhood.
I. A city of Canaan: It taken and destroyed by Josue after the passage of the Jordan (Joshua.6). The establishment of the Israelites in the industries of the "City of Palm Trees" gave birth to the Jericho of Benjamin (Joshua.18:21), which was for some time dominated by Eglon, King of Moab (Judges.3:12), and in which David's emissaries hid themselves when they had been outraged by Hanon, King of the Ammonites (2Samuel.10:5). But when, under Achab, the Canaanite Jericho had been restored by Hiel the Bethelite (1Kings.16:34), the Israelites installed themselves there.
They were visited by Eliseus, who purified the waters of the spring (2Kings.2:18-22). Three hundred and forty-five men of Jericho, returning from captivity, repopulated their native city (Ezra.2:34; Nehemiah.7:36). Having fallen into the hands of the Syrians, it was fortified by Bacchides, to protect Judea on the eastern side (1Maccabees.9:50). This Jericho was situated at Tell-es-Sulthan, near the Fountain of Eliseus ('Ain-es-Sultan), which flows at a distance of about two miles north-west of ez-Riba, the modern Jericho.
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On the seventh day, beginning at daybreak, |
The city and everything in it is under the ban. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are in the house with her are to live, because she hid the messengers we sent.(Joshua.6:17) |
Excavations made in this tell in 1907-08 brought to light a rampart measuring some 840 yards in circuit, a citadel with double wall of the Canaanite period, Israelitish dwellings of the time of the Kings, and some post-exilic Jewish pottery (Mitteil. der deutschen Orient. Gesellschaft zu Berlin, December, 1908,no.39; "Revue Biblique",1909,270-79).
II. The ancient Jericho: It near the spring, had entirely disappeared when Herod founded a new Jericho towards the point where the brook of the Kelt and the Jerusalem road emerge from the mountains. Protected by the fort of Cypros, it possessed royal palaces, vast reservoirs, a hippodrome, and an amphitheatre (Josephus, "Bell.Jud.",I,xxi,14; xxxiii,6,8; "Antiq.Jud.",XVI,v,2).
Herod died there: his son Archelaus further embellished the palaces and caused new aqueducts to be built to bring water to the palm gardens (Antiq.Jud.,XVII,xiii,1). It was at the gates of this Jericho that Christ cured two blind men (Matthew.20:29-34), only one-Bartimeus-according to Mark (10:46) and Luke (xviii,35), and saw the publican Zacheus (Luke.19:1-5). The Khirbet Qaqun, the Birket Musa, a few artificial mounds, are the visible remains of the second Jericho, which, before being entirely destroyed, served for some days as a Roman camp (Bell.Jud.,viii,2;ix,13).
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