JERICHO (i∏'Ι', i∏T, “fragrant,” or perhaps, 'according to an old interpretation, “city of the moon”) was the first city west of the Jordan occupied by the Israelites. The city was destroyed, and, though it is mentioned from time to time under its usual name (2 Sam. x. 5) or by its epithet “city of palm trees” (Judg. i. 16, iii. 13; comp. Deut, xxxiv. 3), it was not rebuilt as a fortified place till the reign of Ahab (1 Kings xvi. 34), when it became the seat of a prophetical society, and appears in the history of the prophet Elisha (2 Kings ii.). The narrative of the healing of the waters by Elisha is referred by Josephus {Β. J. iv. 8, 3) to the copious fountain now called the Sultan’s Spring, which lies ori the western margin of the Jordan valley, 700 feet below the Mediterranean level, and just under the cliffs of M. Quarantania. The mounds surrounding the spring are of sun-dried brick, and show no traces of ancient building. The position of the town, in a district of great fertility, with rose gardens (Eccles, xxiv. 14), various species of date palms, and valuable cultivation of henna, opobalsamum, and myrobalan (Jos., utsupra-, Strabo, xvi. 2), secured its prosperity, while its situation at the gate of the great pass leading up from the Jordan valley to Jerusalem gave it strategical importance. Thus we find that it shared the calamities of the Babylonian exile (Ezra ii. 34), was reoccupied on the restoration (Neh. iii. 2), and was fortified by Bacchides in the Maccabee wars (1 Mac. ix. 50). In the time of Strabo there were two forts, Threx and Taurus, protecting the pass above Jericho. Antony gave the groves of Jericho as a rich gift to Cleopatra. From her they passed to Herod the Great, who made the city his winter residence, and adorned it ...with buildings, crowning the height above with a fortress named after his mother Cyprus. Here it was that the tyrant died. It appears, however, that the Jericho of Herod was not on the site of the old city (Jos., utsupra) but a mile to the south, where there are also mounds and the remains of five aqueducts conveying water from three distant springs. A great tank, of which the ruins are still traced, has been conjectured to be the same in which Herod drownedAristobulus (Jos., Ant., xv. 2, 3). In the time of Christ the pilgrims from Peraea and Galilee appear to have gathered at Jericho on their way to Jerusalem, and so the town is repeatedly mentioned in the Gospels. According to Eusebius {Onom., ed. Lagarde, p. 265) Jericho was destroyed at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, and a new town sprang up, from which he distinguishes the ruins of two earlier cities as still visible. To the third Jericho, which was an episcopal city, may be referred the Byzantine remains immediately east of Tell es Sultân. The present village of Rîhâ or Arîhâ, which stands nearly half an hour south-east of the Sultan’s Spring, is a still more modern site, with a square tower of crusading date. Yâkùt, in the beginning of the 13th century, still speaks of Jericho as producing dates, bananas, and excellent sugar, but all these have disappeared with the gradual decay of the place. The modern village is but a group of squalid huts, and the ancient groves are represented by a thicket of the Spina Christi and other trees between the village and the Sultan’s Spring.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13, p. 629 [602 words — estimated reading time: 4 minutes]
was a city of Benjamin, about seven leagues from Jerusalem, and two from the Jordan, Joshua xviii, 21. Moses calls it the city of palm trees, Deut. xxxiv, 3, because of palm trees growing in the plain of Jericho. Josephus says, that in the territory of this city were not only many palm trees, but also the balsam tree. The valley of Jericho was watered by a rivulet which had been formerly salt and bitter, but was sweetened by the Prophet Elisha, 2 Kings ii, 19. Jericho was the first city in Canaan taken by Joshua, ii, 1, 2, &c. He sent thither spies, who were received by Rahab, lodged in her house, and preserved from the king of Jericho. Joshua received orders to besiege Jericho, soon after his passage over Jordan, Joshua vi, 1–3, &c. God commanded the Hebrews to march round the city once a day for seven days together. The soldiers marched first, probably out of the reach of the enemies’ arrows, and after them the priests, the ark, &c. On the seventh day, they marched seven times round the city; and at the seventh, while the trumpets were sounding, and all the people shouting, the walls fell down. The rabbins say, that the first day was our Sunday, and the seventh the Sabbath day. During the first six days, the people continued in profound silence; but on the seventh Joshua commanded them to shout. Accordingly they all exerted their voices, and the walls being overthrown, they entered the city, every man in the place opposite to him. Jericho being devoted by God, they set fire to the city, and consecrated all the gold, silver, and brass. Then Joshua said, “Cursed be the man before the Lord who shall rebuild Jericho.” About five hundred and thirty years after this, Hiel, of Bethel, undertook to rebuild it; but he lost his eldest son, Abiram, at laying the ...foundations, and his youngest son, Segub, when he hung up the gates. However, we are not to imagine that there was no city of Jericho till the time of Hiel. There was a city of palm trees, probably the same as Jericho, under the Judges, Judges iii, 13. David’s ambassadors, who had been insulted by the Ammonites, resided at Jericho till their beards were grown, 2 Sam. x, 4. There was, therefore, a city of Jericho which stood in the neighbourhood of the original Jericho. These two places are distinguished by Josephus. After Hiel of Bethel had rebuilt old Jericho, no one scrupled to dwell there. Our Saviour wrought miracles at Jericho.
According to Pococke, the mountains to which the absurd name of Quarantania has been arbitrarily given, are the highest in all Judea; and he is probably correct; they form part of a chain extending from Scythopolis into Idumea. The fountain of Elisha he states to be a soft water, rather warm; he found in it some small shell fish of the turbinated kind. Close by the ruined aqueduct are the remains of a fine paved way, with a fallen column, supposed to be a Roman milestone. The hills nearest to Jerusalem consist, according to Hasselquist, of a very hard limestone; and different sorts of plants are found on them, in particular the myrtle, the carob tree, and the turpentine tree; but farther toward Jericho they are bare and barren, the hard limestone giving way to a looser kind, sometimes white and sometimes grayish, with interjacent layers of a reddish micaceous stone, _saxum purum micaceum_. The vales, though now bare and uncultivated, and full of pebbles, contain good red mould, which would amply reward the husbandman’s toil. Nothing can be more savage than the present aspect of these wild and gloomy solitudes, through which runs the very road where is laid the scene of that exquisite parable, the good Samaritan, and from that time to the present, it has been the haunt of the most desperatebandits, being one of the most dangerous in Palestine. Sometimes the track leads along the edges of cliffs and precipices, which threaten destruction on the slightest false step; at other times it winds through craggy passes, overshadowed by projecting or perpendicular rocks. At one place the road has been cut through the very apex of a hill, the rocks overhanging it on either side. Here, in 1820, an English traveller, Sir Frederick Henniker, was attacked by the Arabs with fire-arms, who stripped him naked, and left him severely wounded: “It was past mid-day, and burning hot,” says Sir Frederick; “I bledprofusely; and two vultures, whose business it is to consume corpses, were hovering over me. I should scarcely have had strength to resist, had they chosen to attack me.”
The modern village of Jericho is described by Mr. Buckingham as a settlement of about fifty dwellings, all very mean in their appearance, and fenced in front with thorny bushes, while a barrier of the same kind, the most effectual that could be raised against mounted Arabs, encircles the town. A fine brook flows by it, which empties itself into the Jordan; the nearest point of that river is about three miles distant. The grounds in the immediate vicinity of the village, being fertilized by this stream, bear crops of dourra, Indian corn, rice, and onions. The population is entirely Mohammedan, and is governed by a sheikh: their habits are those of Bedouins, and robbery and plunder form their chief and most gainful occupation. The whole of the road from Jerusalem to the Jordan, is held to be the most dangerous in Palestine; and indeed, in this portion of it, the very aspect of the scenery is sufficient, on the one hand, to tempt to robbery and murder, and, on the other, to occasion a dread of it in those who pass that way. One must be amid these wild and gloomy solitudes, surrounded by an armed band, and feel the impatience of the traveller who rushes on to catch a new view at every pass and turn; one must be alarmed at the very tramp of the horses’ hoofs rebounding through the caverned rocks, and at the savage shouts of the footmen, scarcely less loud than the echoingthunder produced by the discharge of their pieces in the valleys; one must witness all this upon the spot, before the full force and beauty of the admirable story of the good Samaritan can be perceived. Here, pillage, wounds, and death would be accompanied with double terror, from the frightful aspect of every thing around. Here, the unfeeling act of passing by a fellow creature in distress, as the priest and Levite are said to have done, strikes one with horror, as an act almost more than inhuman. And here, too, the compassion of the good Samaritan is doublyvirtuous, from the purity of the motive which must have led to it, in a spot where no eyes were fixed on him to draw forth the performance of any duty, and from the bravery which was necessary to admit of a man’s exposing himself, by such delay, to the risk of a similar fate to that from which he was endeavouring to rescue his fellow creature.
These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
These were the ones numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.
And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
They brought the captives, spoils, and plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.
Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:
“Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their own possession.
And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead as far as Dan,
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.
So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.”
That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.
the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?”
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