Joshua 6:17 - Meaning and Application

The people had carefully followed the orders given for the siege of Jericho, and Joshua had now said to them, “The Lord has given you the city” (Joshua 6:16). So in these verses we see both the rules for taking it and the way God carried it out. God gave them the city, so he could also decide how it would be used and place whatever limits he wanted on it. It was given to them as a city devoted to God, and it was the first, and perhaps the worst, of all the cities of Canaan.

First, the city itself had to be burned, and every life in it had to be given up to the justice of God. They already understood this from Joshua 6:17: “The city shall be devoted to the Lord, both it and all that is in it.” No life in it could be spared on any terms. As the giver of life, God could require it back, and as Judge of sinners, he had the right to punish them. Who can question his sentence? God was not being unfair in doing this. More of God’s power was shown in the taking of Jericho than in any other city of Canaan, so Jericho was to be more fully devoted to him than the rest. This severe judgment would also put fear into the other cities and weaken their courage before Israel. Rahab and her family were the only exception. She had shown kindness to Israel, so she would receive kindness in return, and quickly.

Second, all the wealth in the city, the money, silver and gold, and valuable goods, had to be given to the service of the tabernacle and added to the things devoted to God. The Jews said this was because the city was taken on the Sabbath. In this way, God was honored by the beauty and support of his tabernacle. It also provided for the special costs of his worship. At the same time, Israel was taught not to set their hearts on riches or spend their strength on piling up wealth for themselves. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, not one overflowing with silver and gold. He wanted them to live comfortably so they could serve him gladly, but not to chase trade with distant lands or store up wealth for later years. He wanted them to count themselves rich when God’s house was enriched, and to see what was laid up there as real honor and wealth.

Third, they were given a strong warning not to touch the forbidden spoil. What had been devoted to God would become a curse to them if they took it for themselves. So Joshua said, “Keep yourselves from the accursed thing” (Joshua 6:18). He knew they would be tempted to reach for it, so he warned them to hold back and be afraid to have anything to do with it. He spoke as one who foresaw Achan’s sin, which is told in the next chapter. That is why he added the warning that they must not make the camp of Israel a curse and bring trouble on it, as Achan later did.

Then the way into the city was opened by the sudden fall of the walls, or at least the part of the wall opposite where they were standing when they shouted (Joshua 6:20). “The wall fell down flat,” and it likely killed many people, including guards standing watch on it, or others crowded near it to watch Israel march around. Scripture tells of thousands killed by a wall falling (1 Kings 20:30). What they trusted for defense became their ruin. The sudden collapse must have thrown the city into such panic that no one had the heart to resist. They became easy prey to Israel’s sword and learned how useless it is to shut the gates against a people with the Lord at their head (Micah 2:13). God of heaven can easily break the power that stands against him and against his church, and he will certainly do it. Gates of bronze and bars of iron are like straw and rotten wood before him (Isaiah 45:1-2). Who will bring me into the strong city? “Will not you, O God?” (Psalm 60:9-10). So Satan’s kingdom will fall, and no one will succeed who hardens himself against God.

Then came the carrying out of the orders for this devoted city. Everyone who breathed was put to the sword, not only the men in battle, but also the women, children, and old people. Even if they begged for mercy and pleaded for their lives, no pity was allowed. They were utterly destroyed (Joshua 6:21). If this had not been done under a clear command from God, confirmed by miracles, it could never have been justified. It cannot be used to justify anything like it today, because we have no such command. But since the righteous Judge of heaven and earth appointed it, and since he is not wrong in taking vengeance, they were serving as faithful ministers of his justice. In that time, work for God was bloody work, and it was cursed to do it carelessly or with a half-hearted sword (Jeremiah 48:10). The gospel spirit is very different, because Christ came not to destroy lives, but to save them (Luke 9:56). His victories were of another kind.

The cattle were killed along with their owners, as added offerings to divine justice. When Israel’s cattle were slain at the altar, they were accepted as sacrifices for the people. But the cattle of these Canaanites were required to die with them, because their guilt was not removed by sacrifice and offering. In both cases, God was glorified.

The city was then burned with fire, along with everything in it (Joshua 6:24). The Israelites may have hoped to make Jericho, a large and well-built city, their main camp. But God still wanted them to live in tents, so he burned this nest and kept them from settling there. All the silver and gold, and every vessel that could be purified by fire, was brought into the treasury of the house of the Lord. He did not need it, but he was honored by it as the Lord of hosts, the God who had given the victory and could therefore claim the spoil, whether all of it, as here, or at other times a tenth (Hebrews 7:4).

Rahab the prostitute, or innkeeper, was preserved and did not perish with those who did not believe (Hebrews 11:31). The two spies had given public assurance that she would be safe, and they did so as representatives of the people. So even though the capture of the city must have been hurried and chaotic, Joshua took care to make sure she was protected. The same men she had hidden were used to secure her safety (Joshua 6:22-23).

The people best able to carry this out were those who knew Rahab and her household. They were also the most fitting people to do it, so it would be clear that she was honored because of the kindness she had shown them, and her life was given back to her as plunder taken from destruction. All her relatives were saved with her. Like Noah, she believed, and her faith led to the saving of her household; in the same way, faith in Christ brings salvation to a household (Acts 16:31).

Some people ask how her house, which was said to be on the wall (Joshua 2:15), did not fall when the wall fell. We can be sure that it did not fall, because she and her family were safe in it. Either the house was so close to the wall that people said it was on the wall, but it was still far enough away not to fall with it or under it. Or, more likely, that part of the wall where her house stood did not fall at all.

After she was preserved alive, she was left outside the camp for a time so she could be purified from the Gentile superstition she was turning away from, and prepared to be received as a convert. In due time, she was brought into the people of Israel, and she and her descendants lived among them. Her family became notable long afterward. We later find her as the wife of Salmon, a prince of Judah, the mother of Boaz, and listed among the ancestors of our Savior (Matthew 1:5). She had welcomed Israelites as Israelites, and she received an Israelite's reward.

Bishop Pearson points out that Joshua's saving Rahab the prostitute, and receiving her into Israel, pictured Christ receiving tax collectors and prostitutes into his kingdom and giving them a place there (Matthew 21:31). It may also point to the conversion of the Gentiles.

Jericho was then placed under a lasting curse. Joshua bound the people, that is, the elders and the whole nation of Israel, not only by their own agreement, so that they and their children would never rebuild the city, but also by God's command, since God himself had forbidden it under the severe penalty added here (Joshua 6:26). God did this for two reasons. First, he wanted people to see the weight of a divine curse. Where God's curse rests, no one can fight against it or escape from it. It brings ruin that cannot be fixed.

Second, he wanted the ruins to stand as a lasting sign of his anger against the Canaanites when their sin was full, and of his mercy to his people when the time came for them to settle in Canaan. The ruined city showed both his favor to Israel and the shame of their gratitude when they forgot the God who had done so much for them. The city's location was pleasant, and its closeness to the Jordan probably made it useful, so men might be tempted to rebuild it. But they were warned that doing so would cost them dearly.

People often build with their children and grandchildren in mind, but the man who rebuilt Jericho would have no descendants to enjoy it. His oldest son would die when he began the work, and if he still pressed on in defiance, his youngest would die when the work was finished, with the rest of his children likely dying in between. This curse, which was not spoken without cause, came on the man who rebuilt Jericho much later (1 Kings 16:34). Yet we should not think that this made the place worse when it was later built again, or that it harmed the people who lived there. We later find Jericho honored by the presence of both Elijah and Elisha, and of our blessed Savior himself (Luke 18:35; Luke 19:1; Matthew 20:29). It is a dangerous thing to try to rebuild what God has chosen to destroy (Malachi 1:4).

Finally, all of this increased Joshua's honor and reputation (Joshua 6:27). It made him not only acceptable to Israel, but feared by the Canaanites, because it was clear that God was truly with him. The Chaldee says that the word of the Lord was with him, even Christ himself, the same one who was with Moses. Nothing can raise a person's standing more, or show true greatness more clearly, than having clear signs that God is with him.