John Calvin Commentary Joshua 6:17

"And the city shall be devoted, even it and all that is therein, to Jehovah: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent." — Joshua 6:17 (ASV)

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, there was a peculiarity in the case of the first city; for it was right that it should be consecrated as a kind of first fruits.

Accordingly, he claims the buildings, as well as all the movable property, as his own, and prohibits the application of any part of it to private uses. It may have been an irksome and grievous task for the people voluntarily to pull down houses in which they might have comfortably lived, and to destroy articles which might have been important for use.

But as they had not been required to fight, it was necessary for them to refrain, without grudging, from touching the prey, and willingly give up the rewards of the victory to God, as it was solely by his nod that the walls of the city had fallen, and the courage of the citizens had fallen along with them.

God was contented with this pledge of gratitude, provided that by this the people quickly learned that everything they called their own was the gift of his free liberality. For with equal right all the other cities might have been doomed to destruction, had God not granted them to his people for dwellings.

Regarding the Hebrew word חרס, I will now only briefly repeat what is said in other passages. When it refers to sacred offerings, it becomes, as far as humans are concerned, equivalent to abolitions, since things devoted in this manner are renounced by them as completely as if they were annihilated. The equivalent Greek term is ἀνάθημα, or ἀνάθεμα, meaning set apart, or as it is properly expressed in French, interdicted.

Therefore, the exhortation is to beware of what was under anathema, since that which had been set apart for God alone had perished, as far as humans were concerned.

The word is used in a different sense in the following verse, where caution is given not to place the camp of Israel under anathema. Here its simple meaning is, excision, perdition, or death.

Moreover, God destined vessels made of metals for the use of the sanctuary; all other things he ordered to be consumed by fire or destroyed in other ways.