Deuteronomy 13:15

13:15 you must by all means ¹  slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate ²  with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.

Joshua 6:17

6:17 The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, ³  except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies ⁴  we sent.

Isaiah 24:6

24:6 So a treaty curse ⁵  devours the earth;

its inhabitants pay for their guilt. ⁶ 

This is why the inhabitants of the earth disappear, ⁷ 

and are reduced to just a handful of people. ⁸ 

Amos 3:14-15

3:14 “Certainly when ⁹  I punish Israel for their ¹⁰  covenant transgressions, ¹¹ 

I will destroy ¹²  Bethel’s ¹³  altars.

The horns ¹⁴  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

3:15 I will destroy both the winter and summer houses. ¹⁵ 

The houses filled with ivory ¹⁶  will be ruined,

the great ¹⁷  houses will be swept away.” ¹⁸ 

The Lord is speaking!

¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “by all means.” Cf. KJV, NASB “surely”; NIV “certainly.”

² tn Or “put under divine judgment. The Hebrew word (חֵרֶם, kherem) refers to placing persons or things under God’s judgment, usually to the extent of their complete destruction.Though primarily applied against the heathen, this severe judgment could also fall upon unrepentant Israelites (cf. the story of Achan in Josh 7). See also the note on the phrase “divine judgment” in Deut 2:34.

³ tn Or “dedicated to the Lord.”

⁴ tn Heb “messengers.”

⁵ sn Ancient Near Eastern treaties often had “curses,” or threatened judgments, attached to them. (See Deut 28 for a biblical example of such curses.) The party or parties taking an oath of allegiance acknowledged that disobedience would activate these curses, which typically threatened loss of agricultural fertility as depicted in the following verses.

⁶ tn The verb אָשַׁם (’asham, “be guilty”) is here used metonymically to mean “pay, suffer for one’s guilt” (see HALOT 95 s.v. אשׁם).

⁷ tn BDB 359 s.v. חָרַר derives the verb חָרוּ (kharu) from חָרַר (kharar, “burn”), but HALOT 351 s.v. II חרה understands a hapax legomenon חָרָה (kharah, “to diminish in number,” a homonym of חָרָה) here, relating it to an alleged Arabic cognate meaning “to decrease.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חורו, perhaps understanding the root as חָוַר (khavar, “grow pale”; see Isa 29:22 and HALOT 299 s.v. I חור).

⁸ tn Heb “and mankind is left small [in number].”

⁷ tn Heb “in the day.”

⁸ tn Heb “his.” With the referent “Israel” here, this amounts to a collective singular.

⁹ tn Traditionally, “transgressions, sins,” but see the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3.

¹⁰ tn Heb “punish” (so NASB, NRSV).

¹¹ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

¹² sn The horns of an ancient altar projected upwards from the four corners and resembled an animal’s horns in appearance. Fugitives could seek asylum by grabbing hold of these corners (see Exod 21:14; 1 Kgs 1:50; 2:28). When the altar’s horns were cut off, there would be no place of asylum left for the Lord’s enemies.

⁹ tn Heb “the winter house along with the summer house.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “houses of ivory.” These houses were not made of ivory, but they had ivory panels and furniture decorated with ivory inlays. See P. King, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 139-48.

¹¹ tn Or “many,” cf. NAB “their many rooms.”

¹² tn The translation assumes the form is from the Hebrew verb סָפָה (safah, “to sweep away”) rather than סוּף (suf, “to come to an end”), which is the choice of most versions. Either option effectively communicates the destruction of the structures.