Jericho
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(pronounced Yericho in Hebrew) - the renowned city lying within the territory of Benjamin. The usual meaning of the word is fragrant or sweet-smelling, but some interpreters understand it as month or moon, which the founders of Jericho may have worshiped. Jericho is first mentioned in the Bible in Numbers 22:1: 'And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho,' words repeated with slight changes eight or nine times in Numbers.
Mount Nebo in Moab and the summit of Pisgah are likewise described as lying opposite Jericho (Deut 32:49; 34:1). Deuteronomy 34:3 shows that Jericho was called the city of palm trees, a name also found in Judges 1:16 and 3:13, though perhaps not of the same place in both passages. Fuerst regarded the first Judges passage as referring to a known locality in the Sinai Peninsula; others identified it with En-gedi. He referred the second directly to Jericho, which was still called the city of palm trees in the days of Ahaz (2 Chr 28:15).