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Jericho

Historical Location
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An ancient city near the Jordan, famous in biblical narrative for its walls and conquest.

Detailed Definition
Jericho is among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements and appears in the Hebrew Bible as the first city taken by the Israelites after crossing the Jordan. Its walls, brought down through ritual procession and trumpet sound, have given the place a powerful poetic life. Jericho can symbolize fortified pride, miraculous collapse, the sound that breaks silence, or a threshold between wilderness and inheritance.
Example
Example in poetry:
A biblical poem can use Jericho to symbolize walls that fall before faith or persistence; “The trumpets of Jericho” provides an allusion to communal power overcoming a barrier; A contemporary poet might call an unjust institution “another Jericho” to criticize entrenched authority; A poem can also question the violence behind the biblical conquest instead of treating the allusion as simple triumph.
Additional Notes
Jericho is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities and is prominent in the Hebrew Bible, where its walls fall after the Israelites’ ritual procession. Poets may invoke it to suggest miraculous victory, divine judgment, fortified resistance, or the collapse of barriers. The phrase “walls of Jericho” is especially recognizable.
Other Meanings of “Jericho”
Also Known As
Ariha Tell es-Sultan
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