Joshua 6:18

18 Don't take any of the things that are to be destroyed as an offering to the Lord. If you take them and bring them into our camp, you yourselves will be destroyed, and you will bring trouble to all of Israel.

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 The seventh time around the priests blew their trumpets. Then Joshua gave the command: "Now, shout! The Lord has given you this city!

17 The city and everything in it are to be destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone in her house should remain alive. They must not be killed, because Rahab hid the two spies we sent out.

18 Don't take any of the things that are to be destroyed as an offering to the Lord. If you take them and bring them into our camp, you yourselves will be destroyed, and you will bring trouble to all of Israel.

19 All the silver and gold and things made from bronze and iron belong to the Lord and must be saved for him."

20 When the priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted. At the sound of the trumpets and the people's shout, the walls fell, and everyone ran straight into the city. So the Israelites defeated that city.