Battle of Jericho The Battle of Jericho is a battle in the biblical Book of Joshua , ( ) the first battle of the Israelites during their conquest of Canaan . According to the narrative , the walls of Jericho fell after Joshua ' s Israelite army marched around the city blowing their trumpets . Biblical account . Spying on Jericho . Before crossing into the land west of the River Jordan , Joshua sent two spies to look over the land . The king of Jericho heard that two Israelite spies were within his city and ordered them to be brought out to him . The spies were tasked with ascertaining where the guards were placed , whether anyone disliked the king and could help them , what weaponry and armour the guards had , when the guards changed shifts , how much food , water , and other supplies the city had , and the height and width of the walls so as to determine how to overcome the city . The woman with whom the spies were staying was named Rahab and she protected them by hiding the two men on her roof . She tells them how the citizens of Jericho had been fearful of the Israelites ever since they defeated the Egyptians via the Red Sea miracle ( some 40 years prior ) , and agrees to cover for them on condition that she and her family are spared in the upcoming battle . The spies agree provided three conditions are met : Rahab agrees to the conditions : she hangs a scarlet rope outside her window to distinguish her house from the others . Safely escaping the city , the two returned to Joshua and reported that the " whole land was melting with fear . " The battle . The biblical account describes the Israelites being led by Joshua and crossing the Jordan into Canaan where they laid siege to the city of Jericho . There , God spoke to Joshua telling him to march around the city once every day for six days with the seven priests carrying ram ' s horns in front of the ark . On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times and the priests were to blow their ram ' s horns . And Joshua ordered the people to shout . The walls of the city collapsed , and the Israelites were able to charge straight into the city . The city was completely destroyed , and every man , woman , child and animal in it was killed by Joshua ' s army as an offering to God . Only Rahab and her family were spared , because she had hidden the two spies sent by Joshua . After this , Joshua burned the remains of the city and cursed any man who would rebuild the city of Jericho would do so at the cost of his firstborn son . It is generally accepted that the biblical date for the fall of the walls is the 28th of Nisan , according to the Hebrew calendar . Historicity . The first scientific investigation of the site of Jericho was carried out by Charles Warren in 1868 , but amounted to no more than a site - survey ( Warren ' s prime interest was in establishing the modern equivalents of Biblical locales ) . In 1907 - 09 and again in 1911 digging was carried out by two German archaeologists , Carl Watzinger and Ernest Sellin . Watzinger and Sellin believed that they would be able to validate the Biblical story of Jericho ' s destruction by Joshua and the Israelites , but concluded instead that the city was unoccupied at the generally - accepted time of Joshua , ca . 1400 BC . These results were tested in 1930 - 36 by John Garstang , at the suggestion of William F . Albright , the doyen of Palestinian archaeology at the time . Garstang discovered the remains of a network of collapsed walls which he dated to about 1400 BC , the time he believed the Israelites were on their conquest , that had apparently fallen in a dramatic fashion as opposed to being ruined by abandonment or decay from natural forces . Garstang ' s work thus reversed the conclusions of the earlier diggings . By the post - war period a revolution had occurred in archaeological methodology , and Albright accordingly asked Kathleen Kenyon , one of the most respected practitioners of the new archaeology , to excavate at Jericho once more . Kenyon dug over 1952 - 1958 and traced the entire history of the city from the earliest Neolithic settlement . She did this by digging a narrow deep trench maintaining clean , squared off edges , rigorously examining the soil and recording its stratification , and thus building up a cross - section of the tell . When presented with an area that would require wider areas to be excavated - the floor plan of a house for example - she carefully dug in measured squares while leaving an untouched strip between each section to allow the stratification to remain visible . Kenyon reported that her work showed Garstang to have been wrong and the Germans right - Jericho had been deserted at the accepted Biblical date of the Conquest . In 1990 , biblical archaeologist ( with a particular focus on Canaanite pottery ) , and Research Director of the inerrantist Associates for Biblical Research Bryant G . Wood proposed that the pottery recovered during the excavations of Garstang and Kenyon pointed to a destruction date of the city ca . 1400 BC rather than 1550 BC , as concluded by Kenyon . Wood ' s main argument was that Kenyon ' s conclusion was based on the expensive , imported Cypriot pottery that was not found at the excavation site and that she ignored the vast amount of local pottery that was recovered . In addition to the ceramic data , Wood appealed to stratigraphy , a scarab series uncovered by Garstang , and a carbon - 14 sample of a single charcoal piece found in the destruction debris as further evidence in favor of the later 1400 BC destruction date . Wood ' s proposal did not settle the debate and he was forced to defend his argument against direct criticism , specifically from Piotr Bienkowski . In 1995 , Kenyon ' s result was corroborated by radiocarbon tests which dated test samples taken from the site to 1562 BC ( plus / minus 38 years ) with a certainty of 95 % . The specific charcoal sample Wood referenced in his proposition was found to be in error and corrected to 1590 or 1527 + / - 110 BC .