Verse 15. - And it came to pass on the seventh day. Why did God command this long pause of suspense and expectation? Even to teach us that His ways are not as our ways, and that we had far better leave the issue in His hands, than by our impatience to anticipate, and not unfrequently frustrate, the course of His Providence. ? Calvin. There is a time to act and a time to wait patiently. If we seek His guidance by prayer, God will tell us when to do either. And when it is our duty not to do anything ourselves, but to wait for the deliverance which He never fails to send in His own good time, let us be careful to restrain ourselves, lest by our rash intermeddling with His designs, we bring disgrace and disaster upon ourselves and His cause. Had the Israelites disobeyed His command, and instead of the solemn procession round Jericho, ventured to attack the city at once, it would have fared worse with them than at Ai, or at the wilderness of Pavan (Numbers 14:45). About the dawning. So the Chethibh. The Ken substitutes כְּ for בְּ, i.e., as soon as it was dawn. Literally, "as the dawn went up." After this manner. Literally, according to this judgment, "sieur dispositum erat" (Vulg.). For a similar use of מִשְׁפָט see Genesis 40:13, and compare the proverb mos pro lege.

6:6-16 Wherever the ark went, the people attended it. God's ministers, by the trumpet of the everlasting gospel, which proclaims liberty and victory, must encourage the followers of Christ in their spiritual warfare. As promised deliverances must be expected in God's way, so they must be expected in his time. At last the people were to shout: they did so, and the walls fell. This was a shout of faith; they believed the walls of Jericho would fall. It was a shout of prayer; they cry to Heaven for help, and help came.And it came to pass on the seventh day,.... Which Jarchi says was the Sabbath day, and which is a common notion of the Jews (c); but whether it was or not, it is certain that one of these seven days must be a sabbath, in which the several things ordered were done, and the procession made. Kimchi observes, that their Rabbins say this was the sabbath day; and he adds, what is pretty remarkable,"though they slew and burnt on the sabbath day, he that commanded the sabbath commanded to profane the sabbath in the subduing of Jericho;''with which compare what our Lord says, Matthew 12:3,

that they rose early, about the dawning of the day; having seven times the work to do they did on the other six days:

and compassed the city after the same manner seven times; after the same manner as they had done the six preceding days:

only on that day they compassed the city seven times; whereas on the other days they only went round it once, which distinguished this day from the rest.

(c) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p. 31. Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 312. 2.