What Does Joshua 6:5 Mean?
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.
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
And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.THE KEY
The people’s “great shout” is תְּרוּעָה (teru’ah, a cry or alarm), a word that can also name a signal blast, so the wall falls as the heard signal becomes a shared voice.
THE MEANING
A sound is heard, many voices answer as one, the wall gives way beneath itself, and each person moves straight ahead. The opening becomes a direct ascent through what had blocked the way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The wall’s height does not make it permanent: what blocks the passage falls, and the way opens.
THE ROOT
תְּרוּעָה
teru'ah
GROWS FROM
רוע
To shout, raise a cry, or sound an alarm.
The people’s cry uses a word that can name both a shout and an alarm signal, so their response is more than background noise: it answers the sound they hear. The English separates the trumpet and the shout, while this word family lets signal and collective cry resonate together.
ALSO GROWS
ruaʿ: To shout, raise a cry, or sound an alarm.
רוּעַ
This verb names the act carried out by the people when they answer the signal.
teru'ah: A shout, alarm, or signal blast.
תְּרוּעָה
The same noun can describe a cry or a trumpet signal, joining the sound that is heard with the people’s response.
וְעָלוּ
ve'alu
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, or ascend.
“climb up” in this verse is ve'alu. The Hebrew verb is simply “go up”; the KJV’s “ascend up” doubles the upward motion in English. The root makes the people’s movement more than entry through a gap: it is an ascent into the space opened by the falling wall.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: An ascent or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
This noun keeps the upward movement visible in the people’s passage through the opening.
ʿolah: An ascent offering, also called a burnt offering; a noun tied to what goes up.
עֹלָה
The branch preserves the root’s sense of rising, echoing the people’s movement after the wall falls.
THE PATTERN
Across these verses, a cry or trumpet sounds at a threshold where movement begins.
And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth roared.God rises with a shout; the LORD with the sound of a ram's horn.For the Lord himself, with a shout of command, with the voice of the chief messenger, and with the trumpet of God, will step down from heaven, and the dead in the Anointed One will rise first.THE THREAD
God rises with a shout; the LORD with the sound of a ram's horn.Psalm 47:5 uses תְּרוּעָה (teru’ah, a shout or alarm) for “shout” and the root עלה (ʿalah, go up) for “gone up”, the same word family and root active in Joshua 6:5. Joshua places the people’s ascent after the wall gives way; the psalm joins shout and ascent in one line.
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