Deuteronomy 13:16

All the spoil thereof every whir, for the Lord thy God ; rather, all the spoil [booty] thereof as a whole offering unto Jehovah thy God ; it was to be wholly devoted to God, and as such to be consumed by fire. "It was a destruction, and not properly an offering. Hence the author selects neither עֹולָה nor חַטָּאת , but כָּליִל , whole, whole offering ( Deuteronomy 33:10 ; Le Deuteronomy 6:15 (22) ), which word, in the law concerning offering, is no technical designation of any particular kind of offering. The rendering omnino is untenable" (Knobel). The city was to be made a ruin, never to be rebuilt; and thus was to be treated the same as a heathen, idolatrous city might be (cf. Numbers 21:3 ).

HOMILETICS