What Does Joshua Mean in the Bible Read through 2 lenses

Jericho is shut tight, terrified of Israel. God tells Joshua the city is already given to him, and lays out a strange plan. March around the walls once a day for six days, with seven priests blowing ram's horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around seven times, then the priests blow a long blast, the people shout, and the wall falls flat.

• Joshua adds one rule: no shouting, no talking, not a word until I tell you. Day after day the army circles the city in silence. Big walls do not come down by rage or one heroic charge. They come down by patient, repeated, disciplined action, done the same way day after day, with your mouth shut until the right moment. Then on the seventh day, after the seventh lap, Joshua gives the word, the horns sound, the people shout, and the wall collapses. They go straight up into the city.

The story does not hide its darkness. Everything in Jericho is set apart for God, and the city is destroyed, people and animals alike, with the silver, gold, bronze and iron put into God's treasury. Joshua warns them to take nothing for themselves, or they will bring ruin on the whole camp. Only one household is spared: Rahab, the prostitute who hid Israel's spies. The two spies bring her out with her father, mother, brothers and all her family. An outsider at the bottom of society chose the right side when it counted, and she lives among Israel from then on. Joshua puts a curse on any man who rebuilds Jericho. God is with Joshua, and his name spreads through the land.