Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
and ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing--Generally they were at liberty to take the spoil of other cities that were captured (Deuteronomy 2:35; Deuteronomy 3:7; Joshua 8:27). But this, as the first fruits of Canaan, was made an exception; nothing was to be spared but Rahab and those in her house [Joshua 6:17]. A violation of these stringent orders would not only render the guilty persons obnoxious to the curse, but entail distress and adversity upon all Israel, by provoking the divine displeasure. These were the instructions given, or repeated (Deuteronomy 13:17; Deuteronomy 7:26), previous to the last act of the siege.
And the city shall be accursed--(See on Leviticus 27:28). The cherem, or "anathema," was a devotion to utter destruction (Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 20:17; 1 Samuel 15:3). When such a ban was pronounced against a hostile city, the men and animals were killed--no booty was allowed to be taken. The idols and all the precious ornaments on them were to be burned (Deuteronomy 7:25; compare 1 Chronicles 14:12). Everything was either to be destroyed or consecrated to the sanctuary. Joshua pronounced this ban on Jericho, a great and wealthy city, evidently by divine direction. The severity of the doom, accordant with the requirements of a law which was holy, just, and good, was justified, not only by the fact of its inhabitants being part of a race who had filled up their iniquities, but by their resisting the light of the recent astonishing miracle at the Jordan. Besides, as Jericho seems to have been defended by reinforcements from all the country (Joshua 24:11), its destruction would paralyze all the rest of the devoted people, and thus tend to facilitate the conquest of the land; showing, as so astounding a military miracle did, that it was done, not by man, but by the power and through the anger, of God.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Joshua 6:8-11
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