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16.And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it. They are commanded to burn all the furniture, and whatever is found in the city; and the reason is subjoined, because it is accursed (anathema) If any city was taken in war, all that God here commands to be burnt was to be counted as spoil, for the Jews would pollute themselves by its very touch. It might be indeed that God’ intention was to obviate covetousness, lest the Jews should mix up their zeal with rapine; but the principal reason was that which Moses expresses, that the people might be more accustomed to detest the crime, which they saw to be so cruelly punished by God. The word חרם, cherem, which the Greeks have translated anathema, (64) properly means destruction, or abolition; but that which God would have annihilated, because He cannot bear the sight of it, is called חרם, before Him. Therefore it is said, “ shalt burn it to the Lord thy God;” for the translation which some give, “(propter ) the Lord,” is not quite literal. The sum is to this effect, that if they fear God’ vengeance for themselves, and desire to propitiate His favor, they must hold in execration the houses and property of those who have rebelled against the Law. Moreover, it is implied by the words “” and “” that if God should deal with absolute justice, the wickedness of one city would suffice to destroy a whole country. Whence we gather, that a kind of expiation is demanded to propitiate God, when they are commanded utterly to destroy the city, and to cast every remnant of it into the fire.
(64) “Execration.” — Fr.