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Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

Joshua 6:17

Verse Joshua 6:17. The city shall be accursed] That is, it shall be devoted to destruction; ye shall take no spoils, and put all that resist to the sword. Though this may be the meaning of the word חרם cherem in some places, Leviticus 27:29, yet here it seems to imply the total destruction of all the inhabitants, see Joshua 6:21; but it is likely that peace was offered to this city, and that the extermination of the inhabitants was in consequence of the rejection of this offer.

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See also Joshua 6:17 in other biblical comments:

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    ACCURSED - Better as in margin, (“devoted” (Leviticus 27:28 note). In other cases the inhabitants only of the towns were slain; their cattle and property became the booty of the victors. But Jericho,...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    6. THE FALL OF JERICHO CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The divine instruction (Joshua 6:1)_ 2. The instructions followed (Joshua 6:6) 3. The fall of Jericho (Joshua 6:20) 4. Rahab remembered ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    JOSHUA 5:13 TO JOSHUA 6:27. THE CAPTURE OF JERICHO. The narrative begins at Joshua 5:13; Joshua 6:1 is an insertion (observe that RV places it in brackets), so that

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    ACCURSED. devoted. Probably because this was the "first-fruit" of conquest. Numbers 31:54. Compare Joshua 6:19. SHE HID. Compare Joshua 2:4....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _the city shall be accursed_ "be this cyte cursid" (Wyclif), or, as in margin, _devoted_. The verb from which the word comes denotes (i) _to cut off_, (ii) _to devote_, to withdraw from common use and...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Capture and Destruction of Jericho 6. _And Joshua_ In obedience to the commands thus received Joshua implicitly carries out the instructions given him and issues the needful orders to the host....

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    _VER._ 17. _THE CITY SHALL BE ACCURSED,—AND ALL THAT ARE THEREIN, TO THE LORD_— That is, Jericho, and whatever it contains, shall be devoted to utter destruction, save what is expressly excepted in th...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    _The City Destroyed Joshua 6:12-21_ 12 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord 13 And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams-' horns before the ark of t...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _AND THE CITY SHALL BE ACCURSED, EVEN IT, AND ALL THAT ARE THEREIN, TO THE LORD: ONLY RAHAB THE HARLOT SHALL LIVE, SHE AND ALL THAT ARE WITH HER IN THE HOUSE, BECAUSE SHE HID THE MESSENGERS THAT WE SE...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    6:17 accursed, (b-6) 'Devoted by curse to destruction.' so ver. 18....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    ACCURSED] Heb. _Kherem_='devoted,' i.e. irredeemably devoted (Leviticus 27:28) to the Lord. LXX has 'anathema,' the word which St. Paul uses in Romans 9:3 and elsewhere. It appears to denote a form of...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE CAPTURE OF JERICH This chapter describes the first and perhaps MOST decisive _action in_ the war. The impression it produced (Joshua 6:27) no doubt did much to decide the fortunes of subsequent ca...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    COME IN, AND RECEIVE GOD’S PROMISES! JOSHUA _BRIAN ROWLANDS_ Maps to help you to study this book are on the Internet at www.easyenglish.info. CHAPTER 6 V1 The people in Jericho kept their gate...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    THE CITY SHALL BE ACCURSED. — Heb., _shall be chêrem,_ “a devoted or accursed thing”; and so Joshua 6:18, “from the accursed thing.” (See Note on Deuteronomy 7:26.) The combination of the two ideas of...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וְ הָיְתָ֨ה הָ עִ֥יר חֵ֛רֶם הִ֥יא וְ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER XII. THE FATE OF JERICHO. Joshua 6:8. THE instructions of Joshua to the priests and the people are promptly obeyed. In the bright rays of the morning sun, on the day when Jericho is to be su...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER XIII. RAHAB SAVED. Joshua 6:17; Joshua 6:22. It has not been the lot of Rahab to share the devout interest which has been lavished on Mary Magdalene. Our Correggios, Titians, and Carlo Dolci...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    JERICHO TAKEN AND “DEVOTED” Joshua 6:12 “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,” Hebrews 11:30. Whose faith? To some extent it was the faith of the people, who marched round them day by day in full...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    All the preparation being completed, the hosts of God moved forward as the scourge of God in judgment on the corrupt peoples of the land. It is impossible to imagine anything more calculated to impres...

  • Gary Hampton Commentaries

    WHEN GOD BROUGHT DOWN THE WALLS Joshua 6:1-27 When Joshua met the captain of the host of the Lord in chapter 5, he asked him, "What does my Lord say to his servant?" He first told Joshua to take off...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    And the city shall be (l) accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers t...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    An anathema. That is, a thing accursed and devoted to utter destruction. (Challoner) --- Only the metal that was found, was consecrated to the Lord, (ver. 19,) and the family of Rahab saved. In devoti...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Before the entry upon Jericho, Joshua gives suitable directions for the government of the people in their victory, and makes known the divine will concerning it. Reader! observe in this appointment, h...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    The passing of the Jordan was a wondrous and significant event; but it was not everything. It sank deep into the consciences of the Canaanites on all sides; but there was more that was needed, and mor...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    17._And the city shall be accursed, _etc Although God had determined not only to enrich his people with spoil and plunder, but also to settle them in cities which they had not built, yet there was a p...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    In chapter 6 we find the principles on which the conquests of Israel are founded. The work is altogether God's. He may indeed exercise His people in conflict, but it is He who does all. "They went up...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    AND THE CITY SHALL BE ACCURSED,.... Or, be a "cherem", devoted to the Lord, as it follows: [EVEN] IT AND ALL THAT [ARE] THEREIN, TO THE LORD; the city and the inhabitants of it should be devoted to d...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    And the city shall be accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _The city shall be accursed to the Lord_ That is, devoted to destruction, by the right which God has to punish such as offend against him. This he speaks by direction from God, (see 1 Kings 16:34,) wh...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 Iericho is shut vp. 2 God instructeth Ioshua how to besiege it. 12 The citie is compassed. 17 It must be accursed. 20 The walles fall downe. 22 Rahab is saued. 26 The builder of Iericho is cur...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    And the city shall be accursed, devoted to the Lord as under His curse and condemnation, EVEN IT AND ALL THAT ARE THEREIN, TO THE LORD; ONLY RAHAB, THE HARLOT, SHALL LIVE, SHE AND ALL THAT ARE WITH HE...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    RAHAB SAVED AT THE OVERTHROW OF JERICHO...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    JERICHO DESTROYED Joshua and Israel having been fully prepared by God, their conquest of Canaan begins. Jericho, with its thick walls, was securely shut up (v.1), prepared for a long siege; but certa...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    ACCURSED: Or, devoted...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    17-27 Jericho was to be a solemn and awful sacrifice to the justice of God, upon those who had filled up the measure of their sins. So He appoints, from whom, as creatures, they received their lives,...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    ACCURSED, i.e. devoted to utter destruction, LEVITICUS 27:21,29 DEU 12. This he spake by instinct or direction from God, as is evident from 1 KINGS 16:34. TO THE LORD; partly, because the first-fruits...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Joshua 6:17 city H5892 doomed H2764 LORD H3068 destruction H2764 Rahab H7343 harlot H2181 (H8802) live H2421 ...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    Joshua 6:17 A “And the city shall be devoted, it and all that is in it to YHWH.” This would regularly happen to a first conquest. It was the firstfruits. The idea was that it became sacred to their G...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Conquest of Jericho. CHARACTERS: God, Joshua, priests, Rahab, 2 spies. CONCLUSION: The victories of faith are often to be won by means, and upon principles utterly foolish and inadequate i...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Joshua 6:4. _Seven trumpets of rams' horns._ Josephus uses this term, “rams' horns:” but in most versions it is holy trumpets, or trumpets used in the Jubilee, as seems to be implied by the Hebrew wor...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _The wall fell down flat._ THE FIGHT OF FAITH Of uninspired poems, perhaps the most widely read are those which celebrate a siege--the siege of Troy. Homer and Virgil have sung in noble numbers the p...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOSHUA—NOTE ON JOSHUA 6:1 Taking the Land. Although the Promised Land is God’s gift to the Israelites (Joshua 6:2), now that they are in the land they must conquer it....

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOSHUA—NOTE ON JOSHUA 6:17 DEVOTED TO THE LORD FOR DESTRUCTION. See notes on Lev. 27:28–29; De

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— Joshua 6:17. The city shall be accursed] _Heb. Cherem_. Absolute devotion to God is here meant. Every devoted thing was to be set apart as consecrated to Him, and every devoted person...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION THE VICTORY.— JOSHUA 6:1 This verse (see above) is parenthetical. It explains why the captain of the Lord's host appeared unto Joshua. The inhabitants of Jericho, though in a state of the...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So in chapter six we begin the conquering of the land. The method by which they took Jericho was very fascinating indeed. The Lord said to Joshua, I have given to you the city of Jericho, and its king...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Corinthians 16:22; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Samuel 15:6; Ezekiel 39:17;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Accursed — That is, devoted to utter destruction. This he speaks by direction from God, as is evident from 1 Kings 16:34. To the Lord — Partly because the first — fruits were appropriated to God; part...

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