Exodus 22:20

Sacrifice by an Israelite to any god save Jehovah to be punished with the ban. Jehovah is a -jealous God" (Exodus 20:5), who does not tolerated the worship of any other god beside Himself.

utterly destroyed banned or devoted. The -ban" (ḥérem) was an archaic institution, often alluded to in the OT. A city or nation that was hostile to Jehovah was -banned," or -devoted" (etymologically, as Arabic shews, separatedor set apart1 [189]), i.e. given over to Him as a form of offering, human beings being destroyed, with or without the cattle and spoil as well, according to the gravity of the occasion. For examples, see Deuteronomy 2:34 f., Exodus 3:6 f., Exodus 7:2; Exodus 13:12-18 (an idolatrous Isr. city to be -devoted"), Joshua 6:17-19; Joshua 6:21; Judges 1:17; Judges 21:11; 1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 15:9. Here the -ban" is to be put in force against the Israelite who is disloyal to Jehovah. The ban was also a Moabite institution. Mesha in his inscription (see DB.s.v. Moab, or EB.s.v. Mesha), ll. 16 18 tells us how, after he had carried off the -vessels of Yahweh" from the town of Nebo (Numbers 32:38), and dragged them before Chemosh, he slew 7000 Israelite prisoners, for he had -devoted" the city to Ashtor-Chemosh (cf. Numbers 21:2 f.). See further DB.v. 619 b, EB.Ban.

[189] The root is the Arabic ḥarama, to shut off, set apart, whence ḥarâm, the sacred enclosure round the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, and ḥarîm, the secluded part of a Mohammedan establishment, in which the women live, applied also to its occupants, i.e. the -harem."

In AV. heḥěrîmwas usually rendered -utterly destroy," and the corresponding subst. ḥérem-cursed thing" (Deuteronomy 7:26), or (in Joshua 6; Joshua 7.) -accursed thing": but these renderings both express secondary ideas, besides being to all appearance entirely unrelated to each other: in RV. the verb, when applied to things, is rendered -devote" (as Leviticus 27:29 AV.); when applied to human beingsit is still rendered -utterly destroy," but -Heb. devote" has been added on the margin; and -devoted thing" has been substituted for -cursed" and -accursed thing" (e.g. Joshua 6:18; Joshua 7:1 ff.): the connexion between the two cognate terms has thus been preserved throughout.