Joshua 6:18

18 As for you, keep [away] from the things devoted to destruction so that you do not take them and bring about your own destruction, making the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it.

Joshua 6:18 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 6:18

And you in any wise keep [yourselves] from the accursed
thing
From laying hold on, secreting, and enjoying as their own, what was devoted to another use:

lest ye make [yourselves] accursed;
or a "cherem", also devoted to destruction:

when ye take of the accursed thing;
any part of it, be it what it will, gold or any other metal, or raiment, and the like:

and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it;
for being done secretly, and not known who did it, the whole body of the people would be chargeable with it, and suffer on account of it, unless discovered and punished, and as more fully appears by an after instance.

Joshua 6:18 In-Context

16 And at the seventh time the priests blew on the trumpets, and Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For Yahweh has given you the city.
17 The city and all that is in it will be devoted to Yahweh; only Rahab the prostitute and all who [are] with her in the house will live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
18 As for you, keep [away] from the things devoted to destruction so that you do not take them and bring about your own destruction, making the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it.
19 But all of the silver and gold, and the items of bronze and iron, [are] holy to Yahweh, and they must go to Yahweh's treasury."
20 So the people shouted, and they blew on the trumpets. And when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell flat. {The people charged, each one straight ahead into the city}, and they captured it.

Footnotes 1

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.