20 ⁿ“Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.¹

28 “But ^gno devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. 29 ^hNo one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction¹ from mankind, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

25 The carved images of their gods ^ryou shall burn with fire. You ^sshall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ^tensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction¹ like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, ^ufor it is devoted to destruction.

12 “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, 13 that certain ^hworthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, 14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask ⁱdiligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, 15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction,¹ all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. 16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and ^jburn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a ^kheap forever. It shall not be built again. 17 ^lNone of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, ^mthat the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, ⁿas he swore to your fathers, 18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, ^okeeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

The Sin of Achan

10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have ^jtransgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the ^kdevoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. 12 ^lTherefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They ^mturn their backs before their enemies, because they have become ⁿdevoted for destruction.¹ I will be with you no more, unless you destroy ^othe devoted things from among you. 13 Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ^p‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”