Joshua 6:17 - 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 this and the 19th verse. Respecting the Cherem, we refer to the Reflections at the end of Deut. ch. 20: It is necessary, however, to add here, that if God used the utmost severity towards Jericho, even to the forbidding to spare the wives and children, or to keep any spoil, which he had allowed on other occasions, it was for reasons well worthy his supreme wisdom. On the other hand, he ordered all the inhabitants of this city to be put to the sword, in order to intimidate the rest of the Canaanites, and to determine them, by this act of justice, to prevent, by accepting peace, or by flight, a punishment which their enormous and wilful crimes rendered unavoidable. But then he forbad the Israelites keeping any booty to themselves, that, on their entering into the land of Canaan, they might the better understand that they had no right to the riches of that country but what he gave them; and that he would ever continue to himself the power of restraining that right as he should think proper.