Verse 16

You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever– it must never be rebuilt again.

Referenced Verses

• Josh 8:28 : 28 Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound(it remains that way to this very day).
• Jer 49:2 : 2 Because you did that, I, the LORD, affirm that a time is coming when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon, hear the sound of the battle cry. It will become a mound covered with ruins. Its villages will be burned to the ground. Then Israel will take back its land from those who took their land from them. I, the Lord, affirm it!
• Isa 17:1 : 1 The Lord Will Judge Damascus This is an oracle about Damascus:“Look, Damascus is no longer a city, it is a heap of ruins!
• Isa 25:2 : 2 Indeed, you have made the city into a heap of rubble, the fortified town into a heap of ruins; the fortress of foreigners is no longer a city, it will never be rebuilt.
• Josh 6:24 : 24 But they burned the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the LORD’s house.
• Josh 6:26 : 26 At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration:“The man who attempts to rebuild this city of Jericho will stand condemned before the LORD. He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!”
• Mic 1:6 : 6 “I will turn Samaria into a heap of ruins in an open field, into a place for planting vineyards! I will dump the rubble of her walls down into the valley, and lay bare her foundations.
• Num 21:2-3 : 2 So Israel made a vow to the LORD and said,“If you will indeed deliver this people into our hand, then we will utterly destroy their cities.” 3 The LORD listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called Hormah.