Why Couldn't the Israelites Plunder Jericho?

 After the death of Moses, the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land. God told Joshua, Moses’ successor, “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them — the children of Israel” (Josh. 1:2).

On the appointed day, God stopped the Jordan River for the Israelites, much as He’d parted the Red Sea for their fathers, and the people crossed the Jordan on dry ground (Josh. 3-4). After crossing, they camped near Jericho, the first city they encountered in the Promised Land.

Now, the Canaanites who dwelt in this land were exceedingly wicked and sinful in the sight of God, committing all manner of sexual abominations (Lev. 18:3-28) and even burning their children in the fire as sacrifices to pagan deities (Deut. 12:31). So God commanded the Israelites to annihilate every city they came to; to kill every Canaanite man, woman, and child; and to destroy every vestige of pagan worship. In short, God told them to expunge every trace of these people’s wickedness from the earth.

God permitted the Israelites to plunder most of these cities, to take the flocks and herds for themselves, to enjoy the fruit of the vineyards and orchards, and even to dwell in the houses. In fact, this was part of His promise, to give them “large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant” (Deut. 6:10-11).

God even permitted the Israelites to eat the grain they harvested around the city of Jericho, as we can read in Josh. 5:10-12. But Jericho itself was different. God strictly prohibited the Israelites from taking any plunder from Jericho (Josh. 6:17-21), and a man who did so was later put to death for it (Josh. 7).

So why was Jericho different? Why did God permit the Israelites to plunder other Canaanite cities, but sentence everything in Jericho to utter destruction?

Devoted to Destruction

First, let’s review God’s exact instructions for Jericho. Quoting from Young’s Literal Translation, which strives to be as faithful to the original Hebrew as possible, here’s what God, speaking through Joshua, commanded Israel to do to Jericho:

17 and the city hath been devoted, it and all that is in it, to Jehovah; only Rahab the harlot doth live, she and all who are with her in the house, for she hid the messengers whom we sent;

18 and surely ye have kept from the devoted thing, lest ye devote yourselves, and have taken from the devoted thing, and have made the camp of Israel become a devoted thing, and have troubled it;

19 and all the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, holy they are to Jehovah; into the treasury of Jehovah they come.'

20 And the people shout, and blow with the trumpets, and it cometh to pass when the people hear the voice of the trumpet, that the people shout — a great shout, and the wall falleth under it, and the people goeth up into the city, each over-against him, and they capture the city;

21 and they devote all that is in the city, from man even unto woman, from young even unto aged, even unto ox, and sheep, and ass, by the mouth of the sword. (Josh. 6:17-21; YLT.)

The Hebrew words which the YLT translated as “devoted” are kherem (Strong’s # H2764) and kharam (Strong’s # H2763). They describe putting someone or something under a ban, and devoting it to God for destruction.

Here’s how Lev. 27:28-29 describes it: “Nevertheless no devoted offering [kherem] that a man may devote [kharam] to the LORD of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering [kherem] is most holy to the LORD. No person under the ban [kherem], who may become doomed to destruction [kharam] among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death.”

Now, this applies to the people of Canaan because God had sentenced them all to die for their wickedness. They were under a ban, under the death penalty, doomed to destruction. God had commissioned the Israelites to be the executioners. So this was, in essence, a holy war. It was an act of righteousness and obedience to God, a war to purge the earth of evil. And so, throughout the Book of Joshua, we read that Joshua and the Israelites “utterly destroyed” (kharam) the Canaanites whom they encountered. Sixteen times in the Book of Joshua, we read that.

Those who repented and sought God’s mercy, He spared. Rahab and her family were spared from the destruction of Jericho, as we’ve already read. And even though they sought mercy by deceitful means, the Gibeonites, too, were spared, on the condition of becoming servants for the house of God (Josh. 9). But all the people of the other cities failed to show any sign of repentance, and so they perished: 

19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others they took in battle.

20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy [kharam] them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the LORD had commanded Moses. (Josh. 11:19-20.)

Failure to carry out the Divine sentence incurred Divine punishment, as we can read about in the Book of Judges. As another example, centuries later, God put another man under the same sort of ban, this time the king of Syria. But King Ahab of Israel spared the Syrian king after capturing him in battle, and let him go with a promise of peace. So God sent a prophet to speak to Ahab. “Then he said to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction [kherem], therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people”’” (1 Kings 20:42).

All these examples we’ve seen applied to people only. Besides Jericho, there’s only one other example in the Bible — at least that I’ve found — of a kharam ban extending beyond people to all their possessions. Since it’s the only comparable example, let’s take a quick look.

Jericho and Amalek

In 1 Samuel 15, God sent the prophet Samuel to King Saul with a message: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy [kharam] all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Sam. 15:2-3). This is the closest we get to a judgment like Jericho’s. Not only were all the Amalekite people under a ban, but also their flocks and herds and possessions.

But Saul and his army disobeyed God: “He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed” (1 Sam. 15:8-9). Because of Saul’s disobedience, God took the kingdom away from him and he later died in battle.

Yet though there are similarities between the judgments of Jericho and Amalek, there are also a couple differences. Firstly, there’s no mention of bringing any of the plunder from Amalek into the treasury of God’s sanctuary. Secondly, though both were judged for sin, Amalek’s sin is clearly spelled out and defined. Back in Deut. 25:17-19, God spoke through Moses and said,

17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt,

18 “how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.

19 “Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. (Deut. 25:17-19.)

The Amalekites had attacked Israel without provocation, waging war on those who were at peace with them. But not only had they attacked Israel, they had targeted the weak and helpless among the Israelites. They were essentially desert bandits who attacked, robbed, and murdered innocent travelers, and so God ordered that they and all their possessions be destroyed.

But Jericho was different. Nowhere does the Bible tell us that Jericho was any more wicked than the other Canaanite cities, cities which God allowed the Israelites to plunder. Nowhere does the Bible spell out any specific sins of Jericho, beyond those of which all the Canaanites were guilty. There must, then, be some other reason that God prohibited the Israelites from plundering Jericho. What is it?

First Things First

There is a basic principle at work here, and throughout the Bible. In Mat. 6:33, Jesus taught us, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Again, Jesus instructed that we must love Him more than anyone or anything else, even our lives and families: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate [by comparison] his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). We must put God first, above all else.

And so, throughout the Old Testament, we see that God’s people must always put Him first and that the first of everything belongs to Him. The firstborn of man and beast alike belong to God because He redeemed them when He killed the firstborn of the Egyptians. God told Moses, “For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are Mine, both man and beast; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them to Myself” (Num. 8:17). Elsewhere, we see that the firstborn of clean animals were to be sacrificed, while human firstborn and the firstborn of unclean animals were to be redeemed or ransomed (Ex. 13:11-16; Num. 18:15).

In addition to the firstborn, the firstfruits of all crops also belonged to God: “You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce and your juices. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me” (Ex. 22:29). Again, we read, “The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God” (Ex. 23:19; 34:26). And again, “The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him [to the priest]” (Deut. 18:4).

The first acceptable fruit of trees, too, belonged to God. God told the Israelites, “When you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as uncircumcised. Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten. But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the LORD. And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, that it may yield to you its increase: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:23-25).

God further commanded His people to offer Him a tenth, or a tithe, of their increase in livestock and crops each year (Deut. 14:22; Lev. 27:30-32). And when the Israelites captured plunder in battle, it was customary to donate a portion of it to the sanctuary of God. Abraham gave a tithe of his plunder to Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18-20); the Israelites gave a portion of their plunder from Midian to the priests (Num. 31:25-54); King David donated much of the plunder he took from foreign nations for the building of the temple (2 Sam. 8:9-12; 1 Chron. 18:10-11); and King Asa offered some of the plunder he took from the Ethiopians as part of renewing Judah’s covenant with God (2 Chron. 14:13-15; 15:10-15).

When we apply this principle — that the first of everything belongs to God — to Jericho, everything falls into place. Jericho was the first city that the Israelites captured in the Promised Land, the land which God gave them. As such, it didn’t belong to Israel; it belonged to God. It wasn’t by Israel’s own might that Jericho fell; it was by the power of God, who caused Jericho’s walls to fall down flat.

Everything in the city was devoted to God: “And the city hath been devoted, it and all that is in it, to Jehovah; only Rahab the harlot doth live, she and all who are with her in the house, for she hid the messengers whom we sent” (Josh. 6:17; YLT). Every living thing was slaughtered; the city was set ablaze as though it was a giant sin offering; and all the metals which survived the fire were donated to the sanctuary: “But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD” (Josh. 6:24).

Or at least that’s what was supposed to happen. One man, Achan, sinned by secretly taking some of the plunder for himself. Not only did Achan disobey God’s direct command, but he also stole what was devoted to God, and thereby devoted himself and his family to destruction:

24 Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor.

25 And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day." So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

26 Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day. (Josh. 7:24-26.)

Conclusion

So there’s no indication that Jericho was more evil than the other Canaanite cities. It was simply the first city, and so it belonged to God rather than to Israel. There was to be no plunder for Israel from this city, but all its treasures that survived the flames were donated to God’s sanctuary.

The story of Jericho is yet another illustration of what we read throughout the Bible, that the first of everything belongs to God. It illustrates what Jesus taught us, too, that we must always put God first and He will take care of the rest: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mat. 6:33).