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Joshua 6:8-21

Joshua 6:8-21 NCV

When Joshua finished speaking to the people, the seven priests began marching before the LORD. They carried the seven trumpets and blew them as they marched. The priests carrying the Ark of the Agreement with the LORD followed them. Soldiers with weapons marched in front of the priests, and armed men walked behind the Ark. The priests were blowing their trumpets. But Joshua had told the people not to give a war cry. He said, “Don’t shout. Don’t say a word until the day I tell you. Then shout.” So Joshua had the Ark of the LORD carried around the city one time. Then they went back to camp for the night. Early the next morning Joshua got up, and the priests carried the Ark of the LORD again. The seven priests carried the seven trumpets and marched in front of the Ark of the LORD, blowing their trumpets. Soldiers with weapons marched in front of them, and other soldiers walked behind the Ark of the LORD. All this time the priests were blowing their trumpets. So on the second day they marched around the city one time and then went back to camp. They did this every day for six days. On the seventh day they got up at dawn and marched around the city, just as they had on the days before. But on that day they marched around the city seven times. The seventh time around the priests blew their trumpets. Then Joshua gave the command: “Now, shout! The LORD has given you this city! The city and everything in it are to be destroyed as an offering to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone in her house should remain alive. They must not be killed, because Rahab hid the two spies we sent out. Don’t take any of the things that are to be destroyed as an offering to the LORD. If you take them and bring them into our camp, you yourselves will be destroyed, and you will bring trouble to all of Israel. All the silver and gold and things made from bronze and iron belong to the LORD and must be saved for him.” When the priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted. At the sound of the trumpets and the people’s shout, the walls fell, and everyone ran straight into the city. So the Israelites defeated that city. They completely destroyed with the sword every living thing in the city—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys.