TRV
Translation
King James Version
But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.
Complete Jewish Bible
All the silver and gold, and all the brass and iron utensils are to be separated out for ADONAI and added to the treasury of ADONAI."
Berean Standard Bible
For all the silver and gold and all the articles of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD; they must go into His treasury.”
American Standard Version
But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are holy unto Jehovah: they shall come into the treasury of Jehovah.
World English Bible Messianic
But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are holy to the LORD. They shall come into the LORD’s treasury.”
Geneva Bible (1599)
But all siluer, and gold, and vessels of brasse, and yron shalbe consecrate vnto the Lord, and shall come into the Lordes treasury.
Young's Literal Translation
and all the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, holy they are to Jehovah; into the treasury of Jehovah they come.'
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Commentary on Joshua 6 verses 17–27
17 ¶ 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 sent.
18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.
20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.
22 But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her.
23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.
24 And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.
25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
26 And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.
27 So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.
The people had religiously observed the orders given them concerning the besieging of Jericho, and now at length Joshua had told them (Jos 6:16), "The Lord hath given you the city, enter and take possession." Accordingly in these verses we have,
I. The rules they were to observe in taking possession. God gives it to them, and therefore may direct it to what uses and intents, and clog it with what provisos and limitations he thinks fit. It is given to them to be devoted to God, as the first and perhaps the worst of all the cities of Canaan. 1. The city must be burnt, and all the lives in it sacrificed without mercy to the justice of God. All this they knew was included in those words, Jos 6:17. The city shall be a cherem, a devoted thing, at and all therein, to the Lord. No life in it might be ransomed upon any terms; they must all be surely put to death, Lev 27:29. So he appoints from whom as creatures they had received their lives, and to whom as sinners they had forfeited them; and who may dispute his sentence? Is God unrighteous, who thus taketh vengeance? God forbid we should entertain such a thought! There was more of God seen in the taking of Jericho than of any other of the cities of Canaan, and therefore that must be more than any other devoted to him. And the severe usage of this city would strike a terror upon all the rest and melt their hearts yet more before Israel. Only, when this severity is ordered, Rahab and her family are excepted: She shall live and all that are with her. She had distinguished herself from her neighbours by the kindness she showed to Israel, and therefore shall be distinguished from them by the speedy return of that kindness. 2. All the treasure of it, the money and plate and valuable goods, must be consecrated to the service of the tabernacle, and brought into the stock of dedicated things, the Jews say because the city was taken on the sabbath day. Thus God would be honoured by the beautifying and enriching of his tabernacle; thus preparation was made for the extraordinary expenses of his service; and thus the Israelites were taught not to set their hearts upon worldly wealth nor to aim at heaping up abundance of it for themselves. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, not a land abounding with silver and gold; for he would have them live comfortably in it, that they might serve him cheerfully, but not covet either to trade with distant countries or to hoard for after times. He would likewise have them to reckon themselves enriched in the enriching of the tabernacle, and to think that which was laid up in God's house as truly their honour and wealth as if it had been laid up in their own. 3. A particular caution is given them to take heed of meddling with the forbidden spoil; for what was devoted to God, if they offered to appropriate it to their own use, would prove accursed to them; therefore (Jos 6:18) "In any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing; you will find yourselves inclined to reach towards it, but check yourselves, and frighten yourselves from having any thing to do with it." He speaks as if he foresaw the sin of Achan, which we have an account of in the next chapter, when he gives this reason for the caution, lest you make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it, as it proved that Achan did.
II. The entrance that was opened to them into the city by the sudden fall of the walls, or at least that part of the wall over against which they then were when they gave the shout (Jos 6:20): The wall fell down flat, and probably killed abundance of people, the guards that stood sentinel upon it, or others that crowded about it, to look at the Israelites that were walking round. We read of thousands killed by the fall of a wall, Kg1 20:30. that which they trusted to for defence proved their destruction. The sudden fall of the wall, no doubt, put the inhabitants into such a consternation that they had no strength nor spirit to make any resistance, but they became an easy prey to the sword of Israel, and saw to how little purpose it was to shut their gates against a people that had the Lord on the head of them, Mic 2:13. Note, The God of heaven easily can, and certainly will, break down all the opposing power of his and his church's enemies. Gates of brass and bars of iron are, before him, but as straw and rotten wood, Isa 45:1, Isa 45:2. Who will bring me into the strong city? Wilt not thou, O God? Psa 60:9, Psa 60:10. Thus shall Satan's kingdom fall, nor shall any prosper that harden themselves against God.
III. The execution of the orders given concerning this devoted city. All that breathed were put to the sword; not only the men that were found in arms, but the women, and children, and old people. Though they cried for quarter, and begged ever so earnestly for their lives, there was no room for compassion, pity must be forgotten: they utterly destroyed all, Jos 6:21. If they had not had a divine warrant under the seal of miracles for this execution, it could not have been justified, nor can it justify the like now, when we are sure no such warrant can be produced. But, being appointed by the righteous Judge of heaven and earth to do it, who is not unrighteous in taking vengeance, they are to be applauded in doing it as the faithful ministers of his justice. Work for God was then bloody work; and cursed was he that did it deceitfully, keeping back his sword from blood, Jer 48:10. But the spirit of the gospel is very different, for Christ came not to destroy men's lives but to save them, Luk 9:56. Christ's victories were of another nature. The cattle were put to death with the owners, as additional sacrifices to the divine justice. The cattle of the Israelites, when slain at the altar, were accepted as sacrifices for them, but the cattle of these Canaanites were required to be slain as sacrifices with them, for their iniquity was not to be purged with sacrifice and offering: both were for the glory of God. 2. The city was burnt with fire, and all that was in it, Jos 6:24. The Israelites, perhaps, when they had taken Jericho, a large and well-built city, hoped they should have that for their head-quarters; but God will have them yet to dwell in tents, and therefore fires this nest, lest they should nestle in it. 3. All the silver and gold, and all those vessels which were capable of being purified by fire, were brought into the treasury of the house of the Lord; not that he needed it but that he would be honoured by it, as the Lord of hosts, of their hosts in particular, the God that gave the victory and therefore might demand the spoil, either the whole, as here, or, as sometimes, a tenth, Heb 7:4.
IV. The preservation of Rahab the harlot, or inn-keeper, who perished not with those that believed not, Heb 11:31. The public faith was engaged for her safety by the two spies, who acted therein as public persons; and therefore, though the hurry they were in at the taking of the town was no doubt very great, yet Joshua took effectual care for her preservation. The same persons that she had secured were employed to secure her, Jos 6:22, Jos 6:23. They were best able to do it who knew her and her house, and they were fittest to do it, that it might appear it was for the sake of her kindness to them that she was thus distinguished and had her life given her for a prey. All her kindred were saved with her; like Noah she believed to the saving of her house; and thus faith in Christ brings salvation to the house, Act 16:31. Some ask how her house, which is said to have been upon the wall (Jos 2:15), escaped falling with the wall; we are sure it did escape, for she and her relations were safe in it, either though it joined so near to the wall as to be said to be upon it, yet it was so far off as not to fall either with the wall or under it; or, rather, that part of the wall on which her house stood fell not. Now being preserved alive, 1. She was left for some time without the camp to be purified from the Gentile superstition, which she was to renounce, and to be prepared for her admission as a proselyte. 2. She was in due time incorporated with the church of Israel, and she and her posterity dwelt in Israel, and her family was remarkable long after. We find her the wife of Salmon, prince of Judah, mother of Boaz, and named among the ancestors of our Saviour, Mat 1:5. Having received Israelites in the name of Israelites, she had an Israelite's reward. Bishop Pierson observes that Joshua's saving Rahab the harlot, and admitting her into Israel, were a figure of Christ's receiving into his kingdom, and entertaining there, the publicans and the harlots, Mat 21:31. Or it may be applied to the conversion of the Gentiles.
V. Jericho is condemned to a perpetual desolation, and a curse pronounced upon the man that at any time hereafter should offer to rebuild it (Jos 6:26): Joshua adjured them, that is, the elders and people of Israel, not only by their own consent, obliging themselves and their posterity never to rebuild this city, but by the divine appointment, God himself having forbidden it under the sever penalty here annexed. 1. God would hereby show the weight of a divine curse; where it rests there is no contending with it nor getting from under it; it brings ruin without remedy or repair. 2. He would have it to remain in its ruins a standing monument of his wrath against the Canaanites when the measure of their iniquity was full, and of his mercy to his people when the time had come for their settlement in Canaan. The desolations of their enemies were witnesses of his favour to them, and would upbraid them with their ingratitude to that God who had done so much for them. The situation of the city was very pleasant, and probably its nearness to Jordan was an advantage to it, which would tempt men to build upon the same spot; but they are here told it is at their peril if they do it. Men build for their posterity, but he that builds Jericho shall have no posterity to enjoy what he builds; his eldest son shall die when he begins the work, and if he take not warning by that stroke to desist, but will go on presumptuously, the finishing of his work shall be attended with the funeral of his youngest, and we must suppose all the rest cut off between. This curse, not being a curse causeless, did come upon that man who long after rebuilded Jericho (Kg1 16:34), but we are not to think it made the place ever the worse when it was built, or brought any hurt to those that inhabited it. We find Jericho afterwards graced with the presence, not only of those two great prophets Elijah and Elisha, but of our blessed Saviour himself, Luk 18:35; Luk 19:1; Mat 20:29. Note, It is a dangerous thing to attempt the building up of that which God will have to be destroyed. See Mal 1:4.
Lastly, All this magnified Joshua and raised his reputation (Jos 6:27); it made him not only acceptable to Israel, but formidable to the Canaanites, because it appeared that God was with him of a truth: the Word of the Lord was with him, so the Chaldee, even Christ himself, the same that was with Moses. Nothing can more raise a man's reputation, nor make him appear more truly great, than to have the evidences of God's presence with him.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 17–27. Public domain.
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Augustine of HippoAD 430
LETTER 47
And when temples, idols, groves, and other things of the sort are authorized to be torn down, although it is evident when we do this that we are not honoring but despising them, still we should not take away anything for private, or at least personal, use so that our purpose in tearing down must be manifest as devotion, not cupidity. However, when such things are turned over for public, not private or personal use, as when they are used to honor the true God, that same holds true for things as for people, when they turn from sacrilege and impiety to the true religion. God is understood to have taught this by those texts which you quoted, as when he ordered wood from the grove of foreign gods to be brought for a holocaust and ordered that all the gold, silver and brass vessels be carried into the treasury of the Lord.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Joshua 6:19 delineates a crucial exception within the command for utter destruction (cherem) during the conquest of Jericho, specifying that valuable materials—silver, gold, brass, and iron—were to be consecrated to the LORD and deposited into His sacred treasury. This instruction powerfully underscored God's ultimate ownership of all spoils, Israel's required obedience to His precise commands, and the profound principle of setting apart specific items for sacred use, serving as a foundational test of faith for the nascent nation's relationship with Yahweh.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Joshua 6:19 employs several significant literary devices that enrich its meaning and impact. The most prominent is Contrast, as this verse explicitly delineates a crucial exception to the sweeping command of cherem (utter destruction) given in Joshua 6:17. While the city and its inhabitants were to be utterly destroyed, the precious metals and vessels were to be preserved and consecrated, creating a stark difference that highlights God's precise and nuanced instructions. This Divine Command itself functions as a powerful literary device, emphasizing God's direct involvement, meticulous planning, and absolute authority over the conquest and its spoils. The very act of consecrating these items carries strong Symbolism, representing God's ultimate ownership not only of the victory but also of the wealth of the nations. By claiming these specific spoils for His treasury, God symbolically asserts His sovereignty over all material possessions and His divine right to determine their use, transforming items from a pagan context into instruments for His holy purposes.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Joshua 6:19 serves as a profound theological statement on divine ownership, holiness, and the nature of obedience. It teaches that all things, even the spoils of war obtained through human effort, ultimately belong to God. By commanding the consecration of these valuable materials to His treasury, God asserted His sovereignty over material wealth and demonstrated His right to claim the "firstfruits" of the conquest. This act of setting apart, or making holy, underscores the principle that God's people are to distinguish between the sacred and the common, dedicating their best to Him. Furthermore, the instruction highlights the critical importance of precise obedience to God's commands, no matter how specific or seemingly minor. The subsequent narrative, where Achan's failure to adhere to this very command brings disaster upon Israel, powerfully illustrates the corporate consequences of individual disobedience, emphasizing that faithfulness to God's revealed will is paramount for the well-being and blessing of the entire community.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Joshua 6:19 offers timeless and profound principles for believers today, challenging our fundamental understanding of ownership, stewardship, and the depth of our obedience. In a world that frequently prioritizes personal gain, material accumulation, and self-sufficiency, this verse serves as a powerful reminder that all our possessions, our inherent talents, and our acquired resources ultimately belong to God. Like the silver and gold of Jericho, our wealth is not merely for our personal consumption or fleeting enjoyment but is to be used in ways that profoundly honor Him and actively advance His eternal kingdom. This truth calls us to embrace a posture of faithful stewardship, recognizing God as the ultimate source of all blessings and committing our "firstfruits" and our very best resources to His divine purposes. It compels us to deeply consider how we can genuinely "consecrate" our entire lives—our precious time, our unique talents, and our material treasures—to the LORD, setting them apart for His exclusive use rather than allowing them to be defiled or consumed by worldly pursuits. Moreover, the stark and immediate consequences of Achan's disobedience in the very next chapter serve as a potent and sobering reminder of the gravity of God's commands. Our obedience, even in matters that may seem small or insignificant to us, is absolutely crucial not only for our individual spiritual health and growth but also for the collective well-being, effectiveness, and blessing of the body of Christ. We are called to a wholehearted, unreserved obedience that authentically reflects our unwavering trust in God's perfect wisdom and His sovereign plan.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why were these specific items (silver, gold, brass, iron) spared from destruction while everything else was destroyed?
Answer: The general command for cherem (utter destruction or devotion to God) for Jericho was a multifaceted act of divine judgment against the profound wickedness of the Canaanites and a crucial preventative measure to safeguard Israel from spiritual contamination by pagan practices and idolatry. However, God, in His absolute sovereignty and wisdom, made a specific exception for these particular precious metals and vessels. Unlike perishable goods or items inherently associated with idolatrous worship, these materials were intrinsically valuable and possessed the potential to be ritually purified and repurposed for sacred use within the Tabernacle. By commanding their consecration to the LORD's treasury, God powerfully demonstrated His ultimate ownership over all wealth and ensured that these spoils, representing the "firstfruits" of the conquest, would serve His holy purposes, providing for the maintenance, adornment, and ongoing service of His dwelling place, rather than being plundered for personal gain by the Israelites. This also served as a critical test of Israel's obedience and their recognition that the miraculous victory was entirely God's doing, not their own.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Joshua 6:19, with its profound emphasis on consecration, divine ownership, and the setting apart of valuable things for God's purposes, finds its ultimate and most complete Christ-centered fulfillment in the person and redemptive work of Jesus. Just as the precious metals of Jericho were "consecrated unto the LORD" and brought into His treasury as sacred offerings, Jesus Christ Himself is the quintessential "devoted thing," set apart and consecrated by God for the singular and supreme purpose of accomplishing salvation for humanity (Hebrews 10:5-10). He did not come to plunder the world's riches or accumulate earthly wealth, but rather to offer Himself as the perfect, unblemished, and ultimate sacrifice, thereby consecrating a redeemed humanity back to God. Furthermore, Jesus, as the Son of God and the Creator of all things, is the rightful heir and sovereign owner of all creation (Colossians 1:15-17). The "treasury of the LORD" into which the Jericho spoils were placed serves as a profound foreshadowing of the spiritual treasury of God's eternal kingdom, a treasury built not with perishable silver and gold, but with redeemed souls and the immeasurable spiritual riches found exclusively in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:7-8). Through His perfect life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection, Jesus has established a new covenant where believers are now called to consecrate their entire lives—their bodies, their unique talents, and their material resources—as living sacrifices, holy and supremely acceptable to God (Romans 12:1-2). Our true and lasting "treasury" is not found in earthly wealth or fleeting possessions, but in the unfathomable, inexhaustible riches of Christ, which we are graciously invited to share and contribute to the building of His eternal kingdom (Matthew 6:19-21).