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Joshua 6 · a question people ask

Why could Israel keep nothing from Jericho, when at Ai they could?

In the text

The two chapters give two different commands. At Jericho, "The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to the LORD" (6:17), and its metals were "holy to the LORD" (6:19). At Ai, the LORD said, "You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves" (8:2), and "Israel took for themselves only the livestock and the goods of that city, according to the LORD’s word" (8:27). Neither chapter says why the two differed. The law says what it meant for a thing to be devoted: "no devoted thing that a man devotes to the LORD… shall be sold or redeemed. Everything that is permanently devoted is most holy to the LORD" (Leviticus 27:28). Jericho, devoted, was the LORD's. When Achan took from it (7:1), the LORD said of Israel, "they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen" (7:11).

The verses

“The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.”
Joshua 6:17 · World English Bible
“But all the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD. They shall come into the LORD’s treasury.””
Joshua 6:19 · World English Bible
“You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.””
Joshua 8:2 · World English Bible
“Israel took for themselves only the livestock and the goods of that city, according to the LORD’s word which he commanded Joshua.”
Joshua 8:27 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Joshua 6

Joshua 6: The wall fell down flat

The LORD said "I have given Jericho into your hand" (6:2) before anyone marched a step, and for six days Israel walked around the city, told not to say a word (6:10). The wall fell just as he had said it would (6:5, 6:20). And Joshua's oath over the city came to pass in Ahab's day, "according to the LORD’s word, which he spoke by Joshua" (1 Kings 16:34).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions