Joshua 6:26

The Lord divided the Jordan that His people might pass through dry-shod. This miracle greatly dispirited the Canaanites, and so prepared the way for an easy triumph for the invading Israelites. You would have naturally expected that the Lord would have bid His people avail themselves immediately of this terror to strike a heavy blow at once, and press on with might and main before the enemy could take a breath and so sweep the land clear of the adversaries in a single campaign. But it was not so. Instead of immediate activity, the children of Israel pitched their tents at Gilgal and there tarried for a considerable season. For God is in no hurry. His purposes can be accomplished without haste, and though He would have us redeem the time because our days are evil, yet in His eternity He can afford to wait and by His wisdom He so orders His delays that they prove to be far better than our hurries. Why were the people to delay? That they might be obedient to commands which had been forgotten. In the desert, for many reasons, circumcision and the Passover had been neglected. They were not visited with any chastisement on account of this neglect, for the Lord considered their position and condition, and winked at their error. But before He would use them He would have them fully obedient to His will. It cannot be expected that God should tolerate disobedient servants, and therefore they must stay awhile, till they had been attentive to the two great precepts of the Mosaic Covenant. Dear Friends, let us pause and ask ourselves, as Believers, whether we have been in all respects conscientiously attentive to our Master's commands. If not, we may not expect Him to send a blessing to the Church or to the world through us, until first of all we have yielded our willing obedience to that which He has prescribed for us.

And Joshua adjured them at that time - It appears that he had received intimations from God that this idolatrous city should continue a monument of the Divine displeasure: and having convened the princes and elders of the people, he bound them by an oath that they should never rebuild it; and then, in their presence, pronounced a curse upon the person who should attempt it.

Adjured - i. e. put an oath upon them; or, perhaps, actually caused them themselves to take an oath (compare Mat 26:63). The words of the oath have in the original a rhythmical character which would tend to keep them on the lips and in the memory of the people. Buildeth this city - i. e. rebuilds the fortifications. Jericho was at once occupied by the Benjamites. Jos 18:21, and the natural advantages of the situation were such that it would not be likely to be left long desolate. Joshua speaks in the text as a warrior. He lays a ban on the re-erection of those lofty walls which had bidden defiance to God’s host, and been by God’s signal interposition overthrown. Hiel, the Bethelite, reckless of the prophecy recorded in our text, began and completed the circumvallation of the city a second time (see the marginal reference). Hiel did not found a new city but only fortified an existing one. He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born - i. e. when he begins this work his eldest son shall die, when he completes it his youngest shall die (see 1Ki 16:34 note). This chapter read in the light of the New Testament has indications of a further import and bearing than such as concerned Joshua and the Jews. As Joshua, the leader and captain of the Jewish theocracy, is a type of Christ, so is Jericho to be taken (with all Christian expositors) as a type of the powers opposed to Christ and His cause. The times which prepare for the close of God’s present dispensation are signified in the days during which the people obeyed and waited; as the number of those days, seven, the number of perfection, represents that “fullness of time,” known only to God, at which His dispensation will culminate and close. […]