The Book of Joshua tells us that Jericho was the first city that Joshua conquered. Certainly, it would have been at a strategic location to control entry across the River Jordan into Palestine.
However, archaeologists say that there was no city of Jericho at the time attributed to Joshua. There had been a city of Jericho some hundreds of years earlier, and its abandoned walls may have still been visible in places. Perhaps, many centuries later when the Book of Joshua was being written, the people knew of the existence of those walls and simply assumed that their destruction had occurred during the legendary conquest.
God explicitly told them to take Jericho (Joshua ch.6). It was the key to the rest of Canaan (midrash Tanchuma, Behaaloth'kha). See also:
Evidence of the conquest of Jericho
According to the biblical account, Jericho was the first city the Israelites captured.
Israel
Jericho
In the Book of Joshua, the Israelites attacked Jericho and killed every man, woman and child there, save for the prostitute, Rahab. However, archaeologists say that there was no military conquest as described in the Bible. They say that the city of Jericho had been abandoned long before 1400 BCE (when the attack should have taken place) and that there was at most just a small, unfortified mud-brick village where Jericho had once stood. The Israelites did not attack Jericho and did not kill anyone there.
The town of Jericho was taken in the military campaign led by Joshua, in the Battle of Jericho described in the Book of Joshua in the Bible. It is known for its miraculous conquest where the walls of Jericho fell down after the Israelites marched around the city seven times blowing trumpets.
According to the Bible story in the Book of Joshua, the walls of Jericho fell down after the priests blew their trumpets and the Israelites shouted. The city was then conquered and destroyed by the Israelites.
The first city in Canaan taken by the Israelites was Jericho, as described in the biblical account in the book of Joshua. The Israelites marched around the city for seven days before its walls fell down, allowing them to conquer it.
The first event in the Battle of Jericho is the Israelites crossing the Jordan River led by Joshua with the Ark of the Covenant. This marked the beginning of their military campaign to conquer the city of Jericho.
A:According to the book of Joshua, Jericho was the first city the Israelites attacked at the end of the Exodus from Egypt. The Bible tells us that the forty-year Exodus began approximately 1444 BCE, 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon's reign, so the attack on Jericho would have been approximately 1404 BCE. However, over 90 per cent of scholars say that there was no Exodus from Egypt as described in the Bible. Archaeologists say that Jericho had been abandoned around 1550 BCE and all that existed, at the time the Israelites were said to have marched around the walls of Jericho, was a small, unwalled village. The Israelites never really marched around the walls of Jericho with trumpets.
Jericho.
The biblical answer is yes: Jericho was the first city the Israelites conquered.However, archaeologists say that there was no city at Jericho between the fifteenth and eleventh centuries BCE; therefore there was no conquest of Jericho. Israel Finkelstein said, "Today more than 90% of scholars agree that there was no Exodus from Egypt, 80% feel that that the Conquest of the Land did not take place as described in the Bible ..."
According to the Bible (Joshua 6:3-4), Joshua led the Israelites to walk around the city of Jericho once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, they walked around it seven times. The circumference of Jericho's walls was estimated to be about 0.7 miles, so in total, Joshua and the Israelites walked approximately 4.9 miles around Jericho.