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488 Ban

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baneth

"slew the inhabitants of Attarot as a spectacle to his god Kemosh" (line 12). As a rule, the people, before going to war, devoted, in the form of a vow, the whole booty to the deity in order Ban to secure its victorious aid. So did Devoted to the Teutons and Gauls, according to the Deity. Tacitus and Caesar and in like manner did Israel vow to " ban " the Ca;

naanites and their cities in case God would deliver them into his hand " and they banned [A. V. " utterly destroyed "] them and their cities and lie called the name of the place Hormah" (Num. xxi. 3). The people of Israel being throughout the entire pre-exilic history engaged in a warfare against idolatrous nations, the view of the consecration of the booty, whether expressed beforehand in a vow or not, lent its coloring to every battle consequently, the doom of the Ban fell not only upon the persons and things captured, but also upon him who appropriated them, and even upon the very house where the devoted thing was sacrilegiously placed. Thus, before the capture of Jericho, Joshua (vi. 17, 18) proclaimed that the city and all that was therein should he devoted to the Lord and he warned the people, saying: "Keep yourselves from the ban [A. V. "accursed thing"], lest ye make yourselves ban [A. V. " accursed "], when ye take of the ban [A. V. "accursed thing "], and make the camp of Israel a ban [A. V. " a curse "], and bring doom upon it [A. V. "trouble it"]." Accordingly, " all the silver and gold and the vessels of brass and iron are consecrated [" kodesh "] unto the Lord they shall come into the treasury of the Lord and they devoted [" vayaharimu " A. V. " utterly desAchan and troyed "] all that was in the city, both









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man and woman, young and

Agag.

ox,

and sheep, and

old, and with the edge

ass,

sword " (Josh. vi. 19-21). In taking of the devoted booty, Achan, therefore, brought doom upon the whole people; and they themselves came under the ban (A. V. "curse") until he and his household, upon whom the Ban rested, were exterminated (Josh, of the

Likewise, in the war against Amalek, Samuel caused the people to devote (A. V. "utterly destroy ") all that Amalek had, without sparing any one, and to " slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass " (I Sam. xv. 3). Saul, however, "banned [A. V. "utterly destroyed "] all the people with the edge of the spared Agag and the best of the sword, but sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good " (ib. 8, 9) banning only that part of the property which was vile and refuse. He thereby provoked the wrath of God; and in fulfilment of the Ban, Agag was hewn in pieces before The oath of King Saul not to eat the Lord (ib. 32). anything until the battle with the Philistines was decided, the violation of which almost cost Jonathan his life (I Sam. xiv. 24-46), does not fall under the category of "herem," or Ban; it was a vow like Jephthah's. The Ban as a primitive war measure was especially enforced in the Deuteronomic legislation: "When the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee thou shalt smite them, and ban [A. V. " utterly destroy "] them " (Dent. vii. 2). " Thou shalt not covet [A. V. vii.

11-15, 25).

.



488

" desire "] the silver or gold that is on them [the graven images] neither shalt thou bring an abomination unto thine house, lest thou Ban be a ban [A. V. " accursed thing "] like in War. it " (ib. vii. 25, 26 compare ib. xx. 16This is accordingly related as 18). having been carried out by Joshua (Josh. x. 1, 28-40; xi. 11-21 but compare I Kings ix. 21). With some modification it is told of Sihon, king of Heshbon " We took all his cities at that time, and banned [A. V. " utterly destroyed "] the men, and the women, only the cattle we took for and the little ones a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took " (Deut. ii. 34, 35). The idolatrous Israelite city was to be treated in the same way as the Canaanite " Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, banning it [A. V. " destroying it utterly "], and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the Against street thereof, and shalt burn with fire Idolatrous the city and all the spoil thereof as a holocaust [A. V. " every whit "] to [for] Cities. the Lord thy God and it shall not be built again [A. V. "aheap forever"], and there shall cleave nought of the devoted [A. V. " cursed "] thing .

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hand" (Deut. xiii. 16-18 [15-17]). The was made a place of desolation. So in the case of Jericho (Josh. vi. 26 I Kings xvi. 34) and Ai (Josh. viii. 28, " shemamah " compare Judges to thine

banned

city





and this probably led later on to an identification of " herem" with " shammata" (desolation see Ahathema). Somewhat modified for the occasion, the Ban was also proclaimed in the Benjamite war: " Ye shall ban [A. V. " utterly destroy "] every male, and every woman that hath had intercourse with (Judges xxi. 11, 12 com[A. V. " lain by "] man pare Num. xxxi. Xletseq.); I Kings ix. 21; II Kings ix. 45)





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xix. 11; Jer. xxv.

9,

1.

26,

li.

26; Mai. hi. 24; Zach.

xiv. 11).

The man or the people under the Ban

= a man

(" ish

hermi

my

ban [A. V. " a man whom I apof pointed to utter destruction"], Kings xx. 42; or " hermi " the people of ban [A. V. " of

=

my

my

curse"], Isa. xxxiv. 5) must not be allowed to escape All the idolatrous nations are under the their doom.

Ban

(Isa. xxxiv. 2; Jer. xxv. 9; Micah iv. 13). In the same degree as the Ban proved to be a rigid

war measure against

idolatrous nations,

it

was

re-

sorted to also in the case of idolatrous individuals. Hence the law set down already in the oldest legislation, " He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be banned " (A. V. " utterly destroyed," Ex. xxii. 19 [20] ), and the one in Lev. xxvii. 29,

"None

devoted, which shall be devoted

of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death," seem to deal with the case of an idolater (see the commentaries of Dillmann, Driver, and Kaliscb). In an altogether different sense is the word " herem " (devotion) used in the last-mentioned verse, It is as well as in Ezek. xliv. 29, and Num. xviii.14. the thing devoted by virtue of a simple vow which is declared to belong not to the Lord, but to the priest. In this sense the Rabbis read also Lev. xxvii.