Bible Cities : Jericho
Ancient Jericho



JERICHO was a city of Benjamin, lying about 7 miles from the Jordan, and 18 miles east-north-east from Jerusalem. It was a very ancient city, and was the first place in the Promised Land taken by the Israelites after their passage of the Jordan, the capture being accomplished by the miraculous destruction of its walls. A new" Jericho was afterwards built on a neighboring site, and became a noted place, second in importance only to Jerusalem. It contained a school of the prophets, and was. the residence of Elisha. Our Saviour visited it, and gave sight to two blind men here (Matt. 20:29-34), and forgave Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10). Tradition makes the lofty mountain, called Quarantana, to'the north-west of the city, the scene of the fasting and temptation of our Lord in the Wilderness after his baptism. The exact site of Jericho is a matter of dispute. - Ancient Geography

Ancient Jericho - Map of New Testament Israel JER`I-CHO (his moon, month, or sweet smell). An original city of Canaan in valley of Jordan seven miles from the river, and eighteen miles from Jerusalem. Due west from Gilgal and the place where the river was forded by the Israelites. Destroyed by Joshua and fell to Benjamin, Josh, 16:7 ; 18:21. A curse was pronounced on him who should rebuild it. Josh, 6:26 ; 1 Kings 16:34. Called "the city of Palm trees" in Deut. 34:3 ; Judg. 1:16. The revived Jericho probably occupied a site near to old. It came into great importance, and is frequently mentioned in after history, 2 Kings 2:1-22 ; 25:5 ; Matt, 20:30 ; Mark 10:46.

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Jericho in Easton's Bible Dictionary place of fragrance, a fenced city in the midst of a vast grove of palm trees, in the plain of Jordan, over against the place where that river was crossed by the Israelites (Josh. 3:16). Its site was near the 'Ain es-Sultan, Elisha's Fountain (2 Kings 2:19-22), about 5 miles west of Jordan. It was the most important city in the Jordan valley (Num. 22:1; 34:15), and the strongest fortress in all the land of Canaan. It was the key to Western Israel. This city was taken in a very remarkable manner by the Israelites (Josh. 6). God gave it into their hands. The city was "accursed" (Heb. herem, "devoted" to Jehovah), and accordingly (Josh. 6:17; comp. Lev. 27:28, 29; Deut. 13:16) all the inhabitants and all the spoil of the city were to be destroyed, "only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron" were reserved and "put into the treasury of the house of Jehovah" (Josh. 6:24; comp. Num. 31:22, 23, 50-54). Only Rahab "and her father's household, and all that she had," were preserved from destruction, according to the promise of the spies (Josh. 2:14). In one of the Amarna tablets Adoni-zedec (q.v.) writes to the king of Egypt informing him that the 'Abiri (Hebrews) had prevailed, and had taken the fortress of Jericho, and were plundering "all the king's lands." It would seem that the Egyptian troops had before this been withdrawn from Israel. This city was given to the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. 18:21), and it was inhabited in the time of the Judges (Judg. 3:13; 2 Sam. 10:5). It is not again mentioned...

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Jericho in Hitchcock's Bible Names his moon; his month; his sweet smell

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Jericho in Naves Topical Bible 1. A city east of Jerusalem and near the Jordan River Nu 22:1; 26:3; De 34:1 Called THE CITY OF PALM TREES De 34:3 Location of, pleasant 2Ki 2:19 Rahab the harlot lived in Jos 2; Heb 11:31 Joshua sees the "captain of the host" of the Lord near Jos 5:13-15 Besieged by Joshua for seven days; fall and destruction of Jos 6; 24:11 Situated within the territory allotted to Benjamin Jos 18:12,21 The Kenites lived at Jud 1:16 King of Moab makes conquest of, and establishes his capital at Jud 3:13 Rebuilt by Hiel 1Ki 16:34 Company of "the sons of the prophets," lived at 2Ki 2:4,5,15,18 Captives of Judah, taken by the king of Israel, released at, on account of the denunciation of the prophet Oded 2Ch 28:7-15 Inhabitants of, taken captive to Babylon, return to, with Ezra and Nehemiah Ezr 2:34; Ne 7:36 Assist in repairing the walls of Jerusalem Ne 3:2 Blind men healed at, by Jesus Mt 20:29-34; Mr 10:46; Lu 18:35 Zacchaeus lived at Lu 19:1-10 -2. Plain of 2Ki 25:5; Jer 52:8 -3. Waters of Jos 16:1 Purified by Elisha 2Ki 2:18-22

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Jericho in Smiths Bible Dictionary (place of fragrance), a city of high antiquity, situated in a plain traversed by the Jordan, and exactly over against where that river was crossed by the Israelites under Joshua. Jos 3:16 It was five miles west of the Jordan and seven miles northwest of the Dead Sea. It had a king. Its walls were so considerable that houses were built upon them. ch. Jos 2:15 The spoil that was found in it betokened its affluence. Jericho is first mentioned as the city to which the two spies were sent by Joshua from Shittim. Jos 2:1-21 It was bestowed by him upon the tribe of Benjamin, ch. Jos 18:21 and from this time a long interval elapses before Jericho appears again upon the scene. Its second foundation under Hiel the Bethelite is recorded in 1Ki 16:34 Once rebuilt, Jericho rose again slowly into consequence. In its immediate vicinity the sons of the prophets sought retirement from the world; Elisha "healed the spring of the waters;" and over against it, beyond Jordan, Elijah "went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 2Ki 2:1-22 In its plains Zedekiah fell into the hands of the Chaldeans. 2Ki 25:5; Jer 39:5 In the return under Zerubbabel the "children of Jericho," 345 in number, are comprised. Ezr 2:34; Ne 7:36 Under Herod the Great it again became an important place. He fortified it and built a number of new palaces, which he named after his friends. If he did not make Jericho his habitual residence, he at last retired thither to die, and it was in the amphitheater of Jericho that the news of his death was announced to the assembled soldiers and people by Salome. Soon afterward the palace was burnt and the town plundered by one Simon, slave to Herod; but Archelaus rebuilt the former sumptuously, and founded a new town on the plain, that bore his own name; and, most important of all, diverted water from a village called Neaera to irrigate the plain which he had planted with palms. Thus Jericho was once more "a city of palms" when our Lord visited it. Here he restored sight to the blind. Mt 20:30; Mr 10:46; Lu 18:35 Here the descendant of Rahab did not disdain the hospitality of Zaccaeus the publican. Finally, between Jerusalem and Jericho was laid the scene of his story of the good Samaritan. The city was destroyed by Vespasian. The site of ancient (the first) Jericho is placed by Dr. Robinson in the immediate neighborhood of the fountain of Elisha; and that of the second (the city of the New Testament and of Josephus) at the opening of the Wady Kelt (Cherith), half an hour from the fountain. (The village identified with jericho lies a mile and a half from the ancient site, and is called Riha. It contains probably 200 inhabitants, indolent and licentious and about 40 houses. Dr. Olin says it is the "meanest and foulest village of Israel;" yet the soil of the plain is of unsurpassed fertility. --ED.)

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Jericho in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE jer'-i-ko (the word occurs in two forms. In the Pentateuch, in 2 Ki 25:5 and in Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles it is written yerecho; yericho, elsewhere): In 1 Ki 16:34 the final Hebrew letter is he (h), instead of waw (w). The termination waw (w) thought to preserve the peculiarities of the old Canaanite. dialect. In the Septuagint we have the indeclinable form, Iericho (Swete has the form Iereicho as well), both with and without the feminine article; in the New Testament Iereicho, once with the feminine article The Arabic is er-Riha. According to Dt 32:49 it stood opposite Nebo, while in 34:3 it is called a city grove of palm trees. It was surrounded with a wall (Josh 2:15), and provided with a gate which was closed at night (Josh 2:5), an d was ruled over by a king. When captured, vessels of brass and iron, large quantities of silver and gold, and "a goodly Babylonish garment" were found in it (Josh 7:21). It was on the western side of the Jordan, not far from the camp of Israel at Shittim, before crossing the river (Josh 2:1). The city was on the "plains" (Josh 4:13), but so close to "the mountain" on the West (probably the cliffs of Quarantania, the traditional scene of Christ's temptation) that it was within easy reach of the spies, protected by Rahab. It was in the lot of Benjamin (Josh 18:21), the border of which ascended to the "slope (English versions of the Bible "side") of Jeremiah on the North" (Josh 18:12). Authorities are generally agreed in locating the ancient city at Tel es- Sultan, a mile and a half Northwest of modern Jericho. Here there is a mound 1,200 ft. long and 50 ft. in height supporting 4 smaller mounds, the highest of which is 90 ft. above the base of the main mound. The geological situation (see JORDAN VALLEY) sheds great light upon the capture of the city by Joshua (Josh 6). If the city was built as we suppose it to have been, upon the unconsolidated sedimentary deposits which accumulated to a great depth in the Jordan valley during the enlargement of the Dead Sea, which took place in Pleistocene (or glacial) times, the sudden falling of the walls becomes easily credible to anyone who believes in the personality of God and in His power either to foreknow the future or to direct at His will the secondary causes with which man has to deal in Nature. The narrative does not state that the blowing of the rams' horns of themselves effected the falling of the walls. It was simply said that at a specified juncture on the 7th day the walls would fall, and that they actually fell at that juncture. The miracle may, therefore, be regarded as either that of prophecy, in which the Creator by foretelling the course of things to Joshua, secured the junction of Divine and human activities which constitutes a true miracle, or we may regard the movements which brought down the walls to be the result of direct Divine action, such as is exerted by man when be produces an explosion of dynamite at a particular time and place. The phenomena are just such as occurred in the earthquake of San Francisco in 1906, where, according to the report of the scientific commission appointed by the state, "the most violent destruction of buildings was on the made ground. This ground seems to have behaved during the earthquake very much in the same way as jelly in a bowl, or as a semi-liquid in a tank." Santa Rosa, situated on the valley floor, "underlain to a considerable depth by loose or slightly coherent geological formations, .... 20 miles from the rift, was the most severely shaken town in the state and suffered the greatest disaster relatively to its population and extent" (Report, 13 and 15). Thus an earthquake, such as is easily...

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Jericho Scripture - 1 Chronicles 6:78 And on the other side Jordan by Jericho, on the east side of Jordan, [were given them] out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer in the wilderness with her suburbs, and Jahzah with her suburbs,

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Jericho Scripture - 1 Kings 16:34 In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest [son] Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.

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Jericho Scripture - 2 Chronicles 28:15 And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.

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Jericho Scripture - Joshua 10:1 Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;

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Jericho Scripture - Joshua 10:28 And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that [were] therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.

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Jericho Scripture - Joshua 10:30 And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that [were] therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.

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Jericho Scripture - Joshua 12:9 The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which [is] beside Bethel, one;

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Jericho Scripture - Joshua 18:12 And their border on the north side was from Jordan; and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north side, and went up through the mountains westward; and the goings out thereof were at the wilderness of Bethaven.

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Jericho Scripture - Joshua 20:8 And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

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Jericho Scripture - Joshua 8:2 And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.

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