JERICHO Orli', and irr14, and ; the firs form of the name would signify cit,y of the moon,' but the second, a fragrant place ; 'Irpcxco' ; 2cricho), a well-known city of Canaan, situated in the valley of the Jordan, about eight miles from the mouth of that river. Nothing is known of the origin of Jericho. It is first mentioned in connec tion with the approach of the Ismelites to Pales tine. The Israelites pitched in the plains of 1Moab, on this side Jordan by Jericho (Num. xxii. 0. It was then a large and strong city, and must have existed for a long period. The proba bility is, that on the destruction of the cities of the plain by fire from heaven, Jericho was founded, and perhaps by some who had resided nearer the scene of the catastrophe, but who abandoned their houses in fcar. Had the city existed in the time of Abraham and Lot, it would scarcely have escaped notice when the latter looked down on the plain of Jordan from the heights of Bethel (Gen. xiii.) From the manner in which it is referred to, and the frequency with which it is mentioned, it was evidently the most important city in the Jordan valley at the time of the Exodus (Num. xxxiv. 15 ; xxxi. 12 ; XXXV. 1 etc.) It was then encompassed by groves of palms, which attracted the special attention of the Israelites as they looked down upon its plain from the heights of Moab, and led them to call it the city of palm trees' (Deut. xxxiv. 3) Jericho \vas the first city captured by the Israelites west of the Jordan, and the story of the two spies who were sent to it, and of its subsequent siege and destruction, forms one of the most wonderful and romantic episodes in sacred history (Josh. ii. 6). Scarcely less remark able was the curse pronounced upon the city by Joshua—` Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho ; he shall lay the foundation thereof in his tirst-born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it ' (vi. 26). It is evident this was no hasty or causeless anathema. The sin of Sodom appears to have clung to the spot, perhaps in some measure owing to the relaxing nature of the climate and the great productiveness of the soil, genemting habits of idle luxury. On the division of the land
amona the tribes, Jericho was one of the marks on the border of Benjamin, whose tenitory ex tended down in a narrow point to the Jordan, (Josh. xvi. 1-7). But though the Benjamites pos sessed the site of the city (xviii. 21), and though a few inhabitants gathered round it to cultivate the plain Uudg. ; 2 SaIn. X. 5), the ban of Joshua lay upon it for nearly five centuries. We read that, in the reign of Ahab, Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho : he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord' (1 Kings xvi. 34). Jericho thus became once more a large and important city ; and notwithstanding the curse of Joshua and the fatality attendant cu its rebuilding, the prophets gathered round it, established a famous school, and gave it a name for sanctity and learning which it retained down to the commencement of our own era. Doubticsc the visit of Elijah and Elisha, the translation of the former on the opposite bank of the Jordan, and the miraculous healing of the poisonous fountain by the latter, contributed much to the celebrity of the place (2 Kings.ii.) With the cxception of two incidental references (2 Kings xxv. 5 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 15), we hear nothing more of the city till after the captivity. Of the chil dren of Jericho three hundred and forty and five ' returned front Babylon (Ezra ii. 34), and aided in rebuilding Jerusalem (Neh. iii. 2). In the interval between the O. T. and N. T. histories, Jericho was a place of note. It was one of the towns for tified by Bacchides, a general of Demetrius Soter, when defeated by the Jews under Jonathan Macca beus (I Maccab. ix. 5o ; Joseph. Antiy. xiii. T. 3). Pompey encamped here on his way to Jerusalem in B. C. 63 (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 4. ; Bell. Yud.