And the city shall be accursed, it and all that is in it, to Jehovah; only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But in any wise keep from the accursed thing, lest ye make [yourselves] accursed in taking of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
Israel's greatest victory came with a warning. The danger was not the enemy outside the walls but the appetite inside the camp. Joshua warns that taking what God has doomed will not ruin one man only. It will drag the whole nation into the doom of the city they just destroyed.
Older translations read "accursed" here. The word means devoted — handed over to God alone, out of ordinary human use. Jericho and everything in it was His, and Israel could spend none of it.
Joshua told them that Jericho and everything in it was accursed. It was all devoted to God alone. Israel had to destroy the city completely and burn away its defilement. The silver and the gold survived the fire, and they had to go into the treasury of the LORD, because He had said, "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine." He claimed the metals that fire cannot destroy as His own share (Joshua 6:17-19).
That claim was total. Jericho gave Israel no profit at all.
Not a shred nor a shekel from Jericho did God allow Israel for their personal glory or wealth. Those called to carry out God's ban on the Canaanites were to take nothing for themselves.
The ban was about fellowship, not money. To pocket part of Jericho would leave God's people owing something to the world God had condemned.
Another principle is this: there must be no fellowship at all with what makes up the power of God's enemy — the world and its strength. All is accursed. It is the same for us in this world. If the world of Sodom had made Abraham rich, he would have depended on that world. He would have owed it something. He would not have been free from it to belong entirely to God. "But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction" [the older translation the writer used reads on: "lest you make yourselves accursed"]. God may use these things by consecrating them to Himself, if He will. But if man, if the Christian, meddles with them, the Lord must judge him... But holiness, complete separation from the world because power belongs to God — that is the condition of strength.
The danger was not the enemy's strength. It was appetite.
Here is also a solemn word of warning against lust and covetousness, for traps surround us on every side. One of those who had professed faithfulness to God saw a Babylonian garment and a wedge of gold, and coveted them. So he took them and hid them in his house; but God saw him, and His judgment fell heavily as a result. We all know Satan's common baits for professing Christians today: love of dress — "the Babylonian garment" — and the possession of wealth — "the wedge of gold."
Joshua does not say the thief will trouble himself. He says the trouble will fall on the whole camp. That is what happened: one man stole, and the whole nation stood guilty.
The whole assembly shared in the evil. How was this? God's presence made the whole assembly one. It bound them together so closely that the sin of one man touched them all. They were one assembly, so no one could stand apart on his own. The sin of each was the sin of all, because God was among them, and He could not tolerate evil that went unjudged.
The reversal is complete. The people who had just carried out judgment on a doomed city would carry the doom themselves.
Israel later met with disaster. This verse had already named the reason.
From Joshua 6:18 he ought to have known where the cause of this disaster lay... Instead of the victories of Israel, the purification of Israel must take place... If we do not judge ourselves, the Lord will, so that we may not be condemned with the world... The camp of Israel will not become a Canaanite nation, though for a moment it may become like Jericho... But it is only delay. Discipline does not cancel grace; it only keeps holiness. The valley of Achor is a door of hope (Hosea 2:15).
- Devoted. What is devoted belongs to God alone. Jericho's metals went to His treasury, and Israel kept not a shred or a shekel.
- Debt. A share of the spoil would leave God's people owing something to the world He had condemned. Abraham refused Sodom's wealth for the same reason.
- Desire. The real trap was covetousness: a fine garment and a wedge of gold, love of dress and love of wealth.
- Defilement. God warns the whole nation, not just the thief. His presence bound the camp into one, so one man's hidden theft made them all share the curse.
- Discipline. Joshua had already been told where defeat would come from. Once Israel judged the evil, they moved on again. Discipline delays; it does not cancel grace.
And all the silver, and gold, and vessels of copper and iron, shall be holy to Jehovah; they shall come into the treasury of Jehovah.
Jericho falls without a siege, and before a single Israelite steps inside, God has already decided who owns the plunder. Everything that burns must burn, while the metals fire cannot destroy belong to Him and go into His treasury — so why did the winners get nothing from their first battle in the land?
Joshua told the people what God required, and what He kept back for Himself.
Joshua told them that Jericho and everything in it lay under God's curse. It all belonged to God alone. The city had to be destroyed completely, and its defilement burned away by fire. Whatever survived the fire — the silver and the gold — had to go into the treasury of Jehovah, because He had said that the silver and the gold are His. He claimed the metals that fire cannot destroy as His own share.
The treasury was a real place in the temple, and it turns up again in the Gospels.
One part of the temple was called "the treasury." It held the things set apart for Jehovah, such as the gold, silver, and vessels of bronze and iron captured from Jericho (Joshua 6:19). The people also handed in their freewill offerings at "the treasury" (Mark 12:41, 43). On one occasion the Lord spoke to the people "in the treasury, as He taught in the temple." He was no doubt in the outer part, where He could watch the people bringing in their gifts (Luke 21:1; John 8:20).
The walls fell without a blow struck. The rule about the plunder matched the way God gave the victory, and it held for this city, not for every battle after it.
At the taking of Jericho, Jehovah had already shown that His might alone gave the victory. Or rather, His might alone made everything fall before Israel, for the prince of this world had no power against Him. He had also shown that the gold and silver were His. So the people were not to seek the treasures of the conquered world, or enrich themselves with its spoils. As a rule, though, once Israel had wiped out their enemies, they took possession of everything, just as they took the promised land.
Everything else in Jericho went up in flames. The verse names four materials that come through fire, and one writer reads them as pictures of things too valuable to burn with the city.
These were things that could stand up to the fire of God's judgment. Fire would only purify them, not destroy them. They all picture spiritual things that, used rightly, bring glory to God and blessing to the whole congregation. Gold, for instance, speaks of the glory of God. But people who only profess religion, people Satan has deceived, badly abuse that glory. We see it in Revelation 18:12, where the false church trades in gold — that is, it trades in what is only rightly used for God's glory. The same is true of silver, which speaks of redemption, and men's religions misuse that too. Bronze is named in the same verse as well. Bronze pictures the holiness of God, yet in their profitable religion it becomes merchandise too. How important to have these things rescued from unholy hands and given back to God!
The same distinction is drawn more briefly elsewhere, and applied to the believer's own dealings with the world.
The city and everything in it lay under the curse, and had to be completely destroyed, apart from the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, which were set apart for the Lord. This pictures the power of Satan in the world that stops the Christian's progress. The Christian must count it all as under the curse, though God may use such things by setting them apart for Himself.
This command becomes the measuring rod for the disaster in the next chapter.
God allowed Israel not a shred or a shekel from Jericho for their own glory or wealth. The men He called to carry out His sentence on the Canaanites were to take nothing for themselves. Yet Achan laid hands on both the garment and the gold — on what was cursed and doomed to the fire, and on what was set apart for Jehovah's treasury. Achan was a prince in Israel, and sin and sorrow often come in through the leaders rather than through the ordinary soldiers of God's army.
- His power — the walls fell by God's might alone, so the victory was never Israel's to cash in.
- His claim — He kept the metals that survive fire as His own share, because the silver and the gold are His.
- His treasury — they went to the temple treasury, the same place that later took in the people's freewill gifts.
- His use — gold, silver, bronze and iron picture what fire only purifies; men abuse them, but God can take them back for Himself.
- His line — God allowed not a shred or a shekel for personal gain. Achan grabbed the doomed garment and the devoted gold, and sin and sorrow came in through a leader.