Joshua 6:4-6

6:4 Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns¹ in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns. 6:5 When you hear the signal from the ram’s horn,² have the whole army give a loud battle cry.³ Then the city wall will collapse⁴ and the warriors should charge straight ahead.”⁵

6:6 So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and instructed them, “Pick up the ark of the covenant, and seven priests must carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.”

Joshua 6:13-15

6:13 The seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord marched along blowing their horns. Armed troops marched ahead of them, while the rear guard followed along behind the ark of the Lord blowing rams’ horns. 6:14 They marched around the city one time on the second day, then returned to the camp. They did this six days in all.

6:15 On the seventh day they were up at the crack of dawn⁶ and marched around the city as before – only this time they marched around it seven times.⁷

¹tn Heb “rams’ horns, trumpets.”

²tn Heb “and it will be at the sounding of the horn, the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn.” The text of Josh 6:5 seems to be unduly repetitive, so for the sake of English style and readability, it is best to streamline the text here. The reading in the Hebrew looks like a conflation of variant readings, with the second (“when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn”) being an interpolation that assimilates the text to verse 20 (“when the army heard the sound of the horn”). Note that the words “when you hear the sound of the ram's horn” do not appear in the LXX of verse 5.

³tn Heb “all the people will shout with a loud shout.”

⁴tn Heb “fall in its place.”

⁵tn Heb “and the people will go up, each man straight ahead.”

⁶tn Heb “On the seventh day they rose early, when the dawn ascended.”

⁷tn Heb “and they went around the city according to this manner seven times, only on that day they went around the city seven times.”