Judea · OT & NT
Jericho
The walled oasis city whose walls fell to Joshua and where Jesus called Zacchaeus and healed Bartimaeus.
Today: Ariha, Palestinian West Bank
Jericho lies in the Jordan Valley about 825 feet below sea level, six miles west of the Jordan River and just north of the Dead Sea. Its perennial spring (Ain es-Sultan) made it one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world. Tel es-Sultan, the Old Testament mound, is roughly a mile from New Testament Jericho, where Herod built a winter palace.
Jericho was the first Canaanite city Israel encountered west of the Jordan. Its walls fell at the seventh circuit on the seventh day, and only Rahab's household was spared. Joshua placed a curse on anyone who would rebuild it. In the New Testament, Jesus passed through Jericho on his final journey to Jerusalem, healing blind Bartimaeus on the road and calling Zacchaeus down from the sycamore tree.
Key verses
"So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that 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 before him, and they took the city."
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"But Rahab the harlot, and her father’s household, and all that she had, did Joshua save alive; and she dwelt in the midst of Israel unto this day, because she hid the messengers, whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho."
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"And he entered and was passing through Jericho. And behold, a man called by name Zacchæus; and he was a chief publican, and he was rich."
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