Joshua 6:9 — The Order of the March around Jericho
Joshua 6:9 records the precise order of the marching formation as Israel circles Jericho: armed vanguard, seven trumpeting priests, the ark, and the rearguard.
Scripture
9And the armed men went before the priests that blew the trumpets, and the rearward went after the ark, the priests blowing the trumpets as they went.
What this passage means
Joshua 6:9 fixes the marching formation that the previous verses assembled. The verse names four units in sequence: the armed men (the vanguard), the seven priests blowing the trumpets, the ark of the covenant, and the rearward (the 'gathered host,' elsewhere spelled 'rear guard'). By spelling out who walks ahead of whom, the verse turns the general command of Joshua 6:6–7 into a concrete arrangement on the ground.
The detail that 'the priests blowing the trumpets as they went' is repeated in the verse emphasizes continuous sound. The trumpets are not sounded once as a signal but kept up throughout the march, so that the procession is defined as much by audible worship as by spatial order. The ark at the center marks the entire circuit as a sanctuary procession rather than a military manoeuvre: the war is fought, but the visible center is the covenant presence.
The verse also pairs the front and the rear. The armed men go before the priests; the rearguard comes after the ark. The closing of the formation around the ark shapes the people into a moving sanctuary, with the ark bracketed between two human groups. The vocabulary reappears almost identically in Joshua 6:13, signalling that verse 9 sets the pattern that the whole week-long siege follows.
Context
Verses 6–8 describe the instructions that Joshua gives: seven priests take up trumpets of rams' horns before the ark, the armed men pass on before the ark of Jehovah, and the ark follows the priests. Joshua 6:9 then describes what happens when those instructions are carried out, naming each segment of the procession in its actual position. The formation that verse 9 fixes is the same one that verse 13 describes on a later day, and the six days of circling in verse 14 are shorthand for repeating this exact arrangement.
Verses 10–12 extend the picture: Joshua forbids any shout or spoken word until he gives the signal, the ark compass the city once on the first day, and the company returns to camp to lodge. The silent procession of verse 9, with only the trumpets audible, is therefore the deliberate state of the march before the seventh-day shout of Joshua 6:16 and the collapse of the walls in verse 20.
Common questions
Who are the 'armed men' in Joshua 6:9?
The phrase describes the fighting men of Israel who form the vanguard of the procession. Joshua 6:7 calls them 'the armed men' passing on before the ark of Jehovah, and verses 8–9 place them at the front of the march; verse 13 repeats the same wording in the same position on another day.
Where is the ark placed in the marching order of Joshua 6:9?
The ark is positioned in the middle of the formation: armed men and trumpeting priests go before it, and the rearguard follows after it. The verse thus frames the ark between two human groups, making the procession a sanctuary-shaped march rather than a purely military line.
Why does Joshua 6:9 repeat that the priests were blowing the trumpets as they went?
The repetition emphasizes that the trumpeting is continuous throughout the circuit, not a single signal blast. Combined with Joshua 6:10–11, it sets up the deliberate silence of the people: until Joshua gives the word, the only audible worship during the march is the sustained sound of the priests' trumpets.