See Joshua 6.1-20. This verse contains the first reference to faith which does not indicate precisely who has the faith. If the actor is not made explicit, the sentence may seem to say that it is the walls which have faith—an error found in some translations. The implied reference is to the faith or confidence which the people of Israel had, and therefore the first part of verse 30 may be translated as “Because the Israelites trusted God, the walls of Jericho collapsed” or “… the wall of the city of Jericho collapsed.” It is important to avoid the suggestion that the walls had faith!

In the choice of a verb to translate fall down, it is important to make a clear distinction between (1) the falling of an object from one level to another and (2) the collapsing of some object to the level of its base. It is the second meaning which must be employed in this verse.

Translators sometimes create unnecessary problems in dealing with this essentially simple verse. Good News Translation‘s and Revised Standard Version‘s for seven days is quite adequate; the phrase means “over a period of seven days.” It need not mean that the entire seven days were spent in marching round the walls, as Knox suggests; Joshua 6 makes it clear that this did not happen. Unlike Joshua 6, the rest of Hebrews does not say that the Israelites marched around the walls “each day for seven days” (Barclay). Bijbel in Gewone Taal‘s “that happened when they had gone round seven times, once each day” goes beyond the text of Hebrews and actually contradicts Joshua 6.15.

The verb translated marched around can mean either “stood around in a circle” (Revised Standard Version and New English Bible “encircled”; Phillips and Moffatt “surrounded”) or “marched around them,” that is, the walls (common language translations, Barclay, Translator’s New Testament). The first meaning is the more common, but the second is suggested by Joshua 6.

It may be clearer in some languages to speak of the Israelites “marching around Jericho” rather than “marching around the walls.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .