The Battle of Jericho is a great story... and a horrifying one. Why would God want children to be slaughtered? The answer is that He didn't, but did have spiritual lessons to teach us.

First, it's important to be reminded that all places in the land of Canaan signified celestial and spiritual things about the church. These significations were present from the most ancient times.

The sons of Israel were to represent the church. The Word - the Old Testament - was written and preserved by them. In it, the places that are mentioned signify things about heaven and the church

Right before coming to Jericho, the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan River - crossing on dry land as the waters divided for them. The Jordan symbolizes our introduction into the church.

The city of Jericho, near the river, signifies instruction in the knowledges of good and truth. That kind of instruction introduces people into the church. Extending that, "Jericho" also stood for the good of life, because there has to be some initial good - some wanting to learn - before one can be instructed.

However, at the time, idolatrous nations lived in the land of Canaan, which changes the signification of the places and cities in that land into the opposite, i.e. with Jericho then signifying the profanation of truth and good.

The Writings tell us that the "city" signified the doctrine of falsity and evil, which perverted and profaned the truths and goods of the church, and its "wall" signified falsities of evil defending that doctrine. In the story, the "inhabitants" represent those who are profane.

What does profane mean in this context? Profaneness is what happens when - after an initial acknowledgment of truth and good, a person's evil loves corrupt that good and truth. In the story, Jericho was burned with fire, its wall fell down, and its people were cursed. ("Fire" here signifies infernal love, "curse" a total blotting out, and "the falling down of the wall" exposure to every evil and falsity.)

The Children of Israel marched around the city once a day for 6 days, and on the 7th day, marched around it 7 times. At the Lord's commandment, they then sounded their trumpets, and shouted, and the walls fell.

Compassing the city, carrying the Ark of the Covenant, signified a survey of falsity and evil and their dispersion by the influx of Divine truth from the Lord.

The sounding of the trumpets by the priests signified the proclamation of Divine truth from Divine good. The shouting of the people signified consent and confirmation of the truth.

The number seven means holiness. There were 7 priests, 7 trumpets, 7 days, and 7 circuits of the city. They signify the proclamation of Divine truth.

The gold, the silver, and the vessels of brass and iron, were put into the treasury of the house of Jehovah. The "gold and silver" represent the knowledges of spiritual truth and good, and "the vessels of brass and iron" knowledges of natural truth and good.

In the profane hands of the idolaters of Jericho, the knowledges were profaned, becoming tools to serve direful falsities and evils. In the house of Jehovah, they could be serviceable knowledges, applied to good ends - hence their being salvaged.

9416. 'And I will give you tablets of stone' means the book of the law, or the Word in its entirety. This is clear from the meaning of 'tablets' as objects on which matters of doctrine and life have been inscribed, in this instance matters of heavenly doctrine and of life in keeping with it. The reason why those tablets mean the book of the law or the Word in its entirety is that the things which had been inscribed on them contained in a general way all matters of life and of that heavenly doctrine. This also explains why the things inscribed on them are called the ten words, Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 10:4. For 'ten' in the internal sense means all, and 'words' means truths that are matters of doctrine and forms of good that are matters of life. For the meaning of 'ten' as all, see 3107, 4638, 8468, 8540, and for that of 'words' as truths and forms of good that are matters of life and doctrine, 1288, 4692, 5272. This is why those tablets mean the Word in its entirety, just as the Law does, which in a restricted sense means the things which had been inscribed on those tablets, in a less restricted sense the Word that was written through Moses, in a broad sense the historical section of the Word, and in the broadest sense the Word in its entirety, see what has been shown in 6752. Furthermore the things which had been inscribed on those tablets belonged to the first stage in the revelation of Divine Truth; they were also declared in actual words uttered by the Lord before all the Israelite people. What belongs to the first stage means all the rest in their proper order; and the fact that those things were declared in actual words uttered by the Lord means direct Divine inspiration in all other stages of revelation as well. The reason why those tablets were made of stone was that 'stone' means truth, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, the lowest levels of truth, to be exact, 8609. The lowest levels of God's truth constitute the letter of the Word as it exists on this planet, 9360.

[2] There was not one tablet but two, to represent the joining of the Lord to the Church through the Word, and through the Church to the human race. This also is why they are called the tablets of the covenant, Deuteronomy 9:9, 11, 15, and why the words inscribed on them are called the words of the covenant, Exodus 34:27-28, also the covenant, Deuteronomy 4:13, 23. And the ark itself in which the tablets had been deposited was called the ark of the covenant, Numbers 10:33; 14:44; Deuteronomy 10:8; 31:9, 25-26; Joshua 3:3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17; 4:7, 9, 18; 6:6, 8; 8:33; Judges 20:27; 1 Samuel 4:3-5; 2 Samuel 15:24; 1 Kings 3:15; 6:19; 8:1, 6; Jeremiah 3:16. For a covenant is a joining together, 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778, 9396. This explains why those tablets were divided from each other yet were joined together by being laid alongside each other. The writing on them ran across continuously from one tablet onto the other, like the writing on a single tablet. It was not, as people ordinarily think, that some commandments were written on one tablet and some on the other. For a single object divided in two, and the two parts then brought together or given each to the other, means the Lord and man joined together. The establishment of covenants was therefore accomplished in similar ways, that with Abraham for example by parting down the middle a heifer, she-goat, and ram, and laying each part opposite the other, Genesis 15:9-12; in verses 6 and 8 of the present chapter by putting blood in bowls and then sprinkling it half over the altar and half over the people; and generally in all sacrifices by burning one part on the altar and giving the other part to the people to eat. The like was also represented by the Lord when He broke bread, Matthew 14:19; 15:36; 26:26; Mark 6:41; 8:6; 14:22; Luke 9:16; 22:19; 24:30-31, 35. Here also is the reason why 'two' in the Word means things joined together, 5194, 8423, here the Lord and heaven, or the Lord and the Church, joined together, thus also goodness and truth joined together, which is called the heavenly marriage. From all this it becomes clear why it is that there were two tablets and that both sides of them were written on, from edge to edge, Exodus 32:15-16.

[3] Furthermore when the writing and engraving on tablets is mentioned in the Word it means those things that must be imprinted in people's memory and on their life, and so remain there, as in Isaiah,

Write it on a tablet among them, and express it in a book, ¹ so that it may be for time to come forever, even to eternity. Isaiah 30:8.

In Jeremiah,

The sin of Judah has been written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it has been engraved on the tablet of their heart, and at the horns of your altars. Jeremiah 17:1.

In Habakkuk,

Jehovah said, Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that one running by may read it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; if it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come. Habakkuk 2:2-3.

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