Commentaria in Josue
A third reason is given by St. Ambrose on Luke chapter x, verse 30, saying: “The insignia of religion are the arms of the priest,” as if to say: The arms of priests are not the helmet of the head, but the trumpets of the Jubilee, because by these they testify their religion and priesthood, by which they overthrew Jericho.
Moreover this ceremony and pomp of going round Jericho for seven days and sounding the trumpets had the appearance of a siege and assault (but a shadowy one), namely that the faith of the Hebrews might be exercised, and they be roused from fear by the blast of the trumpets, and that it might be most manifest that the city was overcome not by human art but by the will and power of God alone. So Abulensis, Arias, Masius and others.
This is what the Apostle says, Hebrews xi, 30: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, by the going round them seven days.” “By faith,” namely by which Josue and the Hebrews believed God promising this very thing, and therefore obeyed him in going round the city and sounding.
This was the order of the whole procession. The Hebrew fighters, armed, went before, going round the city as if showing themselves to the city for its terror: soon the ark of the covenant followed them, with the priests bearing it and the leader Josue. The unwarlike crowd closed the line. The ark, therefore, was in the middle, and was hemmed in in front by the armed men, behind by the rest of the people, lest it be intercepted by the men of Jericho sallying out. Hence the ark here did not go before, nor was it two thousand paces from the armed men, as had been done at the crossing of the Jordan; but followed them immediately. On the first six days they went round the city once, sounding; but on the seventh day seven times, and at the last circuit, at the blast of the trumpets and the horrible-sounding shout of the whole people, the walls of Jericho fell; and the Hebrews surrounding it, each entering at his own place, laid it waste and burned it, and made it an anathema.
To this belongs the precept of the Emperor Leo given by him to his generals and soldiers in the Tactics, chapter xx, number 188: “When,” he says, “thou art to join battle with the enemy in line, the sun shining against them, before the fight is begun, bid the soldiers raise on high their arms, naked swords, iron and bright shields, and spear points; for if these shine brightly, they will throw the enemy into some confusion. But when thou art about to come to hand-strokes, let them charge the enemy with a great cry of voice and clash of arms, and so engage in battle with the enemy.”
Morally, let leaders and presidents learn here always to keep their subjects occupied with some labour, lest they waste away in idleness. Hence the Emperor Leo thus commands his generals in the Tactics, chapter xx, number 175: “If thou accustom thy army to labours, thou wilt always have them ready and obedient to thee, and keeping their line, and strong in body. For idleness makes bodies languid and weak, and renders minds timid and effeminate: but exercise and labours make bodies vigorous and robust, minds manly and alert. Before the time, therefore, let everything fit for action be prepared, that at the necessary times all may be at hand.”
Anagogically, “Jericho,” that is, Moon, is a type of the changeable world, which is ever changing itself, and which on the day of judgment, at the sound of the trumpet of the Archangel, will be overthrown and burned with the fire of conflagration. So Origen here, homily 7.
Tropologically, as then at the sound of the trumpets the walls of Jericho fell, so now in the new law, at the sounding of the preaching of the Apostles and their successors, the pride of the world falls with its towers and vices. Hence St. Chrysostom, homily 21 on the Epistle to the Ephesians: The Israelites, he says, overthrew Jericho rather in the manner of those who dance and sing than of warriors. Hear Origen: “At the coming of JESUS (Josue),” he says, “the walls of Jericho were overthrown; at the coming of my Lord Jesus the world is conquered: if thou hearest the trumpet of his preaching and followest, the world is destroyed for thee.” And he adds that Jesus destroyed the walls of the world, that is, the bulwarks, namely the worship of idols, the divination of demons, the inventions of augurs, soothsayers and magicians, and the eloquence of Orators, and the wisdom, reasonings and arguments of Philosophers. Christ sounded, moreover, with the trumpets of the four Gospels, and the Epistles of Sts. Peter, Paul, James, John and Jude.
As then at the sound of the trumpets the walls fell, so now it is fitting that the city of the world, that is, pride with its towers, namely avarice, envy and lust, together with its peoples, that is, all evil concupiscences, be destroyed and perish by the constant preaching of the priests. Priests in the Church ought not, therefore, to be silent, but hear the Lord saying: “Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings,” Isaias lviii. And after some words: “A trumpet is therefore necessary for sinners, which may not only pierce their ears but shake their heart, and not delight with song but chastise by hearing, and exhort the strong to good things, and terrify the slack for their faults. For as in battle the trumpet casts down the mind of the fearful soldier, and fires the spirit of the brave: so the priestly trumpet humbles the mind of the sinner, strengthens the spirits of the holy man, and spares not its voice, that it may spare salvation, and with one and the same sound gives exhortation to the one, that he may be stronger to conquer; strikes terror into the other, that he may be slower to sin.” Lower down he adds the reason: “For what else do we believe the priestly trumpets of that time prefigured, but the preachings of the priests of this time, by which they cease not to announce to sinners with a terrible sound the stern judgment, to preach the sad destruction of gehenna, and with a kind of din of threatening to beat the ears of offenders? For as then the blast of the trumpets, the walls of the foundations being destroyed, reached the interior of the people: so now the preaching of the priests, evil thoughts being destroyed, passes through to the naked soul, and as the sound of the sacred voice destroyed and made captive the stubborn people; so now the priestly preaching subdues the sinful people.”
But why did Jericho fall by a sevenfold circuit and blast? I answer: because seven in Scripture is sacred on account of the festival of the seventh day, or the sabbath, and signifies universality, because in six days God created the world, and on the seventh rested. Hence there were here seven trumpets, seven priests, seven blasts, seven days of circuit and blast. See what was said on Leviticus xxi, 24, and Numbers x, 3. Hear St. Augustine in the place cited: “By the number seven, through the priests of God, not so much one city is now destroyed, as the iniquity of the whole world is scattered. For as in the naming of a single city the condition of the whole world is figured, so by the cycle of seven days the spaces of the whole world are marked out, through which the trumpets of the priestly preachings announce destruction to the age itself, and threaten judgment, as it is written: For the world passeth away, and all that is in the world. But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever, as Christ also abideth for ever.” The mystical signification and reason of the sevenfold circuit I shall assign at verse 15.
Finally St. Chrysostom, homily 5 On Penance, and Procopius here note that God commanded the circuit of seven days to strike the men of Jericho and lead them to penance for their sins. For this space for repenting he gave them out of his clemency, that they might escape destruction, as he gave three days to the Ninivites when Jonas preached, chapter iii, who by it escaped destruction.
5. AND WHEN THE VOICE OF THE TRUMPET SHALL GIVE A LONGER AND BROKEN TONE.—In Hebrew, when they draw out the horn of the jubilee. Masius, when they blow the horn of the jubilee with a prolonged and therefore broken sound, as our Vulgate rightly adds, both because to draw out the voice is to cut and break the voice: for so, when you draw the saw through the ground, you cut it by sawing; and because the breath of a man cannot blow a trumpet without drawing back, breaking and cutting this blowing, that he may breathe again and resume breath and spirit for blowing.
7. ARMED, MARCHING BEFORE THE ARK OF THE LORD.—St. Chrysostom on Psalm xliii asks: If the walls were to fall, why are they clothed in arms? And he answers, that the Hebrews might the more easily believe that the city was to be taken by them; they are armed, therefore, as if truly about to fight. More plainly you may say that God wills that we co-operate with him in miracles, and do what is on our part; then God will do what is his. For God is absent from the idle, present with the busy, and helps him who strives, as if to say: Arm yourselves, O Hebrews, and with arms go round the city; then I will be with you, and throw down the walls, that entering the city armed you may slay all the citizens with your arms, and overthrow the city.