Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
"This verse is merely an explanatory clause inserted before the message which the Prince of the Hosts of Jehovah had come to communicate."[13]  "If there is any place in the Bible where the division into chapters and verses is unsuitable, it is here."[14]  Jericho was a strongly fortified and walled city, and this verse strongly suggests that heavenly intervention was necessary if Israel was to capture it.