Joshua 6:17-24

6:17 The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, 1  except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies 2  we sent. 6:18 But be careful when you are setting apart the riches for the Lord. If you take any of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster. 3  6:19 All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the Lord. 4  They must go into the Lord’s treasury.”

6:20 The rams’ horns sounded 5  and when the army 6  heard the signal, 7  they gave a loud battle cry. 8  The wall collapsed 9  and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. 10  6:21 They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, 11  including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys. 6:22 Joshua told the two men who had spied on the land, “Enter the prostitute’s house 12  and bring out the woman and all who belong to her as you promised her.” 13  6:23 So the young spies went and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and took them to a place outside 14  the Israelite camp. 6:24 But they burned 15  the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house. 16 

1 tn Or “dedicated to the Lord.”

sn To make the city set apart for the Lord would involve annihilating all the people and animals and placing its riches in the Lord’s treasury (vv. 19, 21, 24).

2 tn Heb “messengers.”

3 tn Heb “Only you keep [away] from what is set apart [to the Lord] so that you might not, as you are setting [it] apart, take some of what is set apart [to the Lord] and make the camp of Israel set apart [to destruction by the Lord] and bring trouble on it.”

4 tn Heb “it is holy to the Lord.”

5 tc Heb “and the people shouted and they blew the rams’ horns.” The initial statement (“and the people shouted”) seems premature, since the verse goes on to explain that the battle cry followed the blowing of the horns. The statement has probably been accidentally duplicated from what follows. It is omitted in the LXX.

6 tn Heb “the people.”

7 tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”

8 tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”

9 tn Heb “fell in its place.”

10 tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”

11 tn Heb “all which was in the city.”

12 tn Heb “the house of the woman, the prostitute.”

13 tn Heb “and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore on oath to her.”

14 tn Or “placed them outside.”

15 tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”

16 tn Heb “the treasury of the house of the Lord.” Technically the Lord did not have a “house” yet, so perhaps this refers to the tabernacle using later terminology.