1And the Israelites violated the ban, and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah from the tribe of Judah took from the ban, and the LORD’s wrath flared against the Israelites.
2And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is by Beth-Aven to the east of Bethel, and he said to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land,” and the men went up and spied out Ai. 3And they came back to Joshua and said to him, “Let not the whole people go up. Let about two thousand men or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Do not weary the whole people there, for they are few.” 4And about three thousand men from the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. 5And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them and pursued them from before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the slope. And the people’s heart failed and turned to water. 6And Joshua tore his robes and flung himself on his face to the ground before the Ark of the LORD till evening—he and the elders of Israel—and they put dust on their heads. 7And Joshua said, “Alas, O Master LORD, why did You insist on bringing this people across the Jordan to give us into the hand of the Amorite and to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell across the Jordan. 8I beseech you, my Master, what should I say after Israel has turned tail before its enemies? 9And the Canaanites and all the dwellers in the land will hear and draw round us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?” 10And the LORD said to Joshua, “Rise up. Why have you fallen on your face? 11Israel has offended and also has broken My covenant that I charged them and also has taken from the ban and also stolen and also denied it and also put it in their bags. 12And the Israelites have not been able to stand up against their enemies. They have turned tail before their enemies, for they themselves have come under the ban. I will not continue to be with you if you do not destroy the banned things from your midst. 13Rise, consecrate the people, and say ‘Consecrate yourselves for the morrow, for thus the LORD God of Israel has said, There are banned things in your midst, O Israel! You will not be able to stand up against your enemies until you remove the banned things from your midst. 14And you shall draw near in the morning according to your tribes. And it shall be, that the tribe on which the LORD lets the lot fall shall draw near according to its clans, and the clan on which the LORD lets the lot fall shall draw near according to its households, and the household on which the LORD lets the lot fall shall draw near according to its men. 15And it shall be, that he on whom the lot falls for taking the banned things shall be burned in fire, he and all that is his, because he broke the LORD’s covenant and because he has done a scurrilous thing in Israel.’” 16And Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near according to its tribes, and the lot fell on the tribe of Judah. 17And he brought near the clans of Judah, and the lot fell on the clan of Zerah, and he brought near the clan of Zerah, and the lot fell on Zabdi. 18And he brought near his household according to the men, and the lot fell on Achan son of Carmi son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah. 19And Joshua said to Achan, “My son, show honor, pray, to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me, pray, what you have done. Do not conceal it from me.” 20And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed, it is I who offended against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and so I have done. 21I saw in the booty a fine fur mantle and two hundred shekels of silver and an ingot of gold fifty shekels in weight, and I coveted them and took them, and there they are, buried in the ground within my tent, and the silver is underneath them.” 22And Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent, and there it was buried in his tent, with the silver underneath it. 23And they took these from within the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the Israelites, and he presented them before the LORD. 24And Joshua took Achan son of Zerah and the silver and the mantle and the ingot of gold and his sons and his daughters and his ox and his donkey and his flock and his tent and all that was his, and all Israel was with him, and he brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25And Joshua said, “Even as you have stirred up trouble for us, the LORD shall stir up trouble for you on this day.” And all Israel pelted them with stones and burned them in fire and pelted them with stones. 26And they piled up over him a great heap of stones to this day, and the LORD turned back from His blazing wrath. Therefore is the name of that place called the Valley of Achor to this day.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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1. the Israelites violated the ban . . . Achan . . . took from the ban. This conjunction of subjects intimates why, in the harsh retribution of this episode, Achan must be extirpated: his violation of the ban imparts guilt, as though by contagion, to the whole people, as the defeat at Ai will immediately demonstrate.
3. about two thousand men or three thousand men. Boling’s contention that ʾelef here is not a number but means a “contingent,” perhaps no more than twenty or thirty men, may be supported by the fact that thirty-six deaths in the defeat are regarded as a catastrophic loss. This is not, however, conclusive evidence because the Israelites are supposed to carry out the conquest virtually unscathed, as at Jericho. Boling’s claim that the particle ke before the number means “precisely” and not, as it usually does, “about,” is dubious because the alternative of “two or three,” whether thousand or contingents, suggests approximation, not exactitude.
5. pursued them from before the gate. The evident strategy is a sudden sortie from the gate of the town, taking the besiegers, who are too few in number, by surprise.
7. why did You insist on bringing this people across the Jordan to give us into the hand of the Amorite and to destroy us? Joshua’s complaint is distinctly reminiscent of the complaints of the Israelites in the wilderness to Moses, asking him why he brought them into the wilderness to perish instead of leaving them in peace in Egypt. The echo may suggest that Joshua is not quite as fit a leader as Moses.
9. the Canaanites. There is a loose interchange of reference between “Amorites” and “Canaanites.”
And what will You do for Your great name? God’s reputation as all-powerful deity is contingent on the success of His chosen people. Moses uses the same argument when God in His anger threatens to wipe out Israel.
11. also . . . also . . . also . . . also. These repetitions of gam—which equally has the sense of “even” or “actually”—vividly express God’s wrathful indignation.
12. they themselves have come under the ban. Through the contamination of having taken objects devoted to destruction, they have become subject to destruction. The word “themselves” has been added in the translation for the sake of clarity.
14. draw near. This is a technical term for approaching the Ark of the Covenant.
lets the lot fall. The verb repeatedly used in this section also means “to catch” or “to trap.” What is involved in this process is an oracular device—most likely the Urim and Thummim—that yields a binary yes/no answer, thus serving to select one from many.
17. the clans of Judah. The received text has “the clan of Judah,” but a tribe is not a clan. Several Hebrew manuscripts show the more plausible plural form.
19. My son, show honor, pray, to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him. Joshua’s language in addressing Achan is cunningly gentle, suggesting he intends to draw in his interlocutor and then lead him to divulge his crime. He begins by calling Achan “my son,” elsewhere an affectionate form of address in the Bible; he uses the polite particle of entreaty, na’, “pray,” and at first does not mention guilt but rather honoring God. The idiom for “make confession,” ten todah, more frequently means “to give thanks,” so it sounds almost as though Joshua were about to say something quite positive to the man who will be made to confess his guilt and then undergo horrendous punishment.
20. Indeed, it is I who offended. Achan’s immediate and full confession is probably best explained by his awareness that the oracle has singled him out, the lot falling on him alone of all the multitude of Israel, and so he feels he has no choice but to admit his guilt. Joshua’s ostensibly fatherly approach to him may also make him sense that he is a member of this community now gravely endangered by his act, and hence he must make restitution, whatever the price.
thus and so I have done. Although this is an idiom that can be used in place of a detailed account, here it is proleptic: the precise content of “thus and so” is laid out in the next verse.
21. a fine fur mantle. The Masoretic Text reads “a fine Shinar mantle,” neatly rendered in the King James Version as “a goodly Babylonish garment” because Shinar is another name for Babylon. There is no evidence that Shinar specialized in exporting fine apparel, and this translation reads instead of shinʿar, deleting the middle consonant, seiʿar, “hair” or “fur.”
24. And Joshua took Achan . . . and the silver and the mantle . . . and his sons and his daughters. The lining up in a single syntactic string of human beings, material treasure, and animal possessions is disturbing. The evident assumption about the family members is that they have been contaminated by Achan’s violation of the ban, and hence they must perish with him. One notes that Achan has considerable possessions (the donkey and ox may well be collective nouns), which makes his crime all the more heinous. The collective punishment is nevertheless troubling.
the Valley of Achor. This means the Valley of Trouble, making the end of this story an etiological tale about the origin of the place-name. It may have been originally called the Valley of Trouble for entirely different reasons—for example, because its terrain was treacherous or bleak and barren.
25. burned them in fire and pelted them with stones. The burning may refer only to the material objects because it was not customary to burn bodies after stoning. The repeated clause about pelting with stones seems redundant.
26. Therefore is the name of that place called. This is an explicit etiological formula.