What Does Joshua 6:20 Mean?
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell beneath itself, so that the people climbed up into the city, every man straight ahead of his face, and they seized the city.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats one shout-root as both verb and noun, so the wall gives way as the heard signal becomes the people’s shared cry.
THE MEANING
A wall can look like the final boundary to the person facing it, yet it is not unbreakable: the trumpet is heard, the people answer with one great shout, and the wall falls flat. The opening is physical and consequential, the people enter the city and take it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A boundary that looks solid must be permanent and impossible to cross.
THE ROOT
וַיָּרִיעוּ
wayyāriʿû
GROWS FROM
רוע
r-w-ʿ
To raise a cry or shout aloud.
“shouted ... with a great shout” in this verse is wayyāriʿû. The verb וַיָּרִיעוּ (wayyāriʿû, “they shouted”) and noun תְּרוּעָה (teruʿah, “a shout”) come from the same root. תְּרוּעָה (teruʿah, “a shout or alarm cry”) can also name an alarm blast, so the people’s answer belongs to the same sound-world as the trumpet’s signal.
ALSO GROWS
rûaʿ: To raise a cry or shout aloud.
רוּעַ
This is the verbal seed behind “they shouted,” so the people’s action carries the root itself.
teruʿah: A shout, cry, or acclamation; in some settings, an alarm blast.
תְּרוּעָה
This noun follows the same-root verb in the verse: they “shouted a great shout.” Its alarm sense echoes the trumpet’s signal.
כִּשְׁמֹעַ
kišmoaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
š-m-ʿ
To hear or listen, and to heed when the context carries a response.
English can make “heard” sound like a passive sensation, but this word-family also carries listening that heeds and answers. Here the hearing is immediately followed by the people’s shared shout, so receiving the signal is already part of the response.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear, listen, or heed; hear and respond when response is implied.
שְׁמַע
The people’s hearing is followed at once by their answering cry.
shemuʿah: A report or news, something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the link between receiving a sound and what becomes known through hearing.
THE PATTERN
A public cry marks a threshold: what is closed gives way, and movement begins.
And it shall come to pass, that when they draw out a long blast on the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall beneath itself, and the people shall climb up, every man straight ahead of his face.God rises with a shout; the LORD with the sound of a ram's horn.In the middle of the night Paul and Silas prayed and sang praise to God, and the prisoners listened to them. And suddenly there came a great shaking, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and at once all the doors were opened, and every one's bonds were untied.THE THREAD
God rises with a shout; the LORD with the sound of a ram's horn.Psalm 47 uses the same Hebrew noun תְּרוּעָה (teruʿah, “a shout or acclamation”) and pairs it with the trumpet’s sound. It joins that cry to ascent, linking the sound here with movement upward as the wall gives way.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us