Joshuachapter 7
26 verses · Joshua, by tradition · 15th or 13th century BC · History
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.
Introduction
Joshua, by tradition, History, Joshua Overview.
This chapter follows the great victory with a defeat, and it was written for a people who had to learn that the covenant bound them together. One man's hidden act is charged to the whole nation, and the story shows how it came to light. It is told slowly, step by step, with names and family lines given in full. Listen for words once used of Israel's enemies, now used of Israel. Notice what Joshua says when he falls on his face and how God answers him. The place at the end keeps a name that a later prophet returns to.
Context
- Who
- A nation learning that one man's theft was charged to all of it
- What
- Israel's defeat at Ai, the discovery by lot of Achan's theft from the devoted things of Jericho, and his punishment in the Valley of Achor.
- Where
- The camp at Gilgal, the steep climb to Ai in the hill country, and the Valley of Achor.
- When
- Soon after the fall of Jericho, in the first year in the land.
- Why
- To show that the sin of one member broke faith for the whole people, and that God's presence with Israel depended on dealing with it.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Achan son of Carmi, of the house of Zerah of Judah, and to Joshua and the assembly. The line is printed twice, at verse 1 and again at verse 18, which places him in the tribe that receives the first and largest portion in chapter 15.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
Ai stands in the hill country above Jericho, and the ascent from the valley floor is steep. The spies size the force by an estimate of the enemy, and Albert Barnes works the town's fighting strength back from the twelve thousand of 8:25, so their arithmetic was sound.
A first hearer knew what the devoted thing was. The accursed thing occurs at 6:18 for the first time in Scripture, in the warning Joshua gave before the city fell. Adam Clarke draws the mechanism out of the word itself, that whatever touched a devoted thing fell under the same sentence.
The remedy is a public assembly and a lot. The narrowing runs by tribes, then families, then households, then man by man, and each step says the LORD taketh rather than naming a method. Adam Clarke reports the older Jewish explanations, including the stone of the high priest's breastplate losing its light, and Proverbs 16:33 states the principle the procedure runs on.
The goods Achan names say where they came from. The Babylonish garment is literally a robe of Shinar, the plain named at Genesis 10:10, which shows how far trade reached into a Canaanite town. Albert Barnes notes that robes of that make were worn by kings and prophets.
The weights are large. Two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight was a sum an ordinary man would not otherwise see, and it was buried under the floor of a tent.
Give glory to the God of Israel at verse 19 is a formula of solemn adjuration, a demand for the truth under oath. The same words are put to the healed man at John 9:24 by men who want an admission out of him.
Significance
The sentence written twice about the enemy is now written about Israel. The hearts of the people melted and became as water is the wording Rahab used of Canaan at 2:11 and the wording 5:1 used of the Amorite kings.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
Verse 12 suspends what Joshua was given at 1:5, that God would not fail him nor forsake him, and makes its return conditional on destroying the devoted thing from among them. For the first hearers that was the whole weight of the chapter, that the presence they were counting on could be withdrawn.
The place keeps the name of the trouble, and 1 Chronicles 2:7 calls the man himself Achar, the troubler of Israel. Hosea 2:15 later takes the same valley and gives it back as a door of hope.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The defeat at Ai is read as a rebuke to the leader before it is read as a judgment on the thief. Rashi is quoted from the Metsudah Publications Book of Joshua of 1997, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. On the words God speaks to Joshua at the tenth verse he gives three readings in one note. The first turns on the written form of the verb: the prayers Joshua made have stood up for him, and the people will be spared. The second is a reproach for staying in camp. Joshua had been told that he would lead the people out and bring them in, and if he goes before them they succeed. The third is blunter still. The fault is Joshua's, because God had never told him to consecrate the spoil of the city (Rashi on Joshua 7:10:1).
The prayer itself is read closely. When Joshua says the people should have been content, Rashi takes it as a wish to have settled east of the Jordan, in the land already taken from Sihon and Og (Rashi on Joshua 7:7:1). On the question about the great Name, he gives an aggadic reading and a plain one side by side. The aggadic reading joins the divine name to the name of Israel, since one is written inside the other. "The simple meaning is, What will you do for your mighty Name, that has already achieved such fame" (Rashi on Joshua 7:9:1). What the nations would say is that God's strength had lessened. Rashi also reads the place name of the fifth verse out of the rout, since the pursuit ran to the place called Shevarim, which means broken (Rashi on Joshua 7:5:1 and 7:2:1).
The casting of lots is where the tradition puts its argument, and the argument is about whether a lot can convict a man. Rashi describes the procedure. The heads of families came first and drew, then one man from each household, then all the men of that household (Rashi on Joshua 7:17:1 and 7:14:1). He adds a second mechanism beside the lot. Joshua brought Israel before the breastplate the high priest wore, and the stone of the guilty tribe faded, and the stone of Judah faded (Rashi on Joshua 7:16:1). Achan then challenges the whole method. He tells Joshua that a lot cast between Joshua and Eleazar the priest would have fallen on one of them, so a lot proves nothing. Joshua's answer in Rashi is an appeal to what is coming. He asks Achan to stop defaming the lot, "for this is the way the land will ultimately be divided" (Rashi on Joshua 7:19:1). A Christian reader should notice what that answer defends. The allotment of the land in chapters 13 to 21 rests on the same instrument.
The confession is given a motive the account leaves out. Rashi holds that Achan saw the men of Judah gathering for war to protect one of their own. "It is better that I alone should die rather than have many thousands of Bnei Yisroel killed" (Rashi on Joshua 7:20:1). The men who ran to the tent ran to reach it before Judah could remove the goods and discredit the lot (Rashi on Joshua 7:22:1). Rashi reads Achan's own account of the theft as a piece of misapplied law. Achan had thought about the permission in Deuteronomy to consume the spoil of a captured city, and took it as covering this city too (Rashi on Joshua 7:21:1).
Two notes at the end weigh the punishment rather than report it. On the spreading out of the goods Rashi carries a saying of the Sages. Joshua throws them down before God and asks whether the bulk of the Sanhedrin should fall for these (Rashi on Joshua 7:23:1). On the bringing of the whole nation to the valley he answers the obvious question, that they came to witness the downfall and to be warned against doing the same (Rashi on Joshua 7:24:1). The burning of the fifteenth verse he limits to the tent and the movable property (Rashi on Joshua 7:15:1). The corpus carries nine further notes on this chapter without an English text. Five stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Joshua 7:1:1, 7:3:1, 7:8:1, 7:12:1 and 7:18:1. Two stand at Malbim on Joshua 7:4:1 and 7:6:1, and two at Radak on Joshua 7:11:1 and 7:13:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse, the breach of the ban, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 8:5 and 10:5. On the second it holds Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 3:6:3 and Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 9:1:3. On the fifth, the rout down the slope, it holds Bava Batra 121b:9 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Lech Lecha 13.
The prayer of Joshua draws its own run. On the sixth verse the corpus holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:5 and Bereshit Rabbah 39:16. On the seventh it holds Bereshit Rabbah 49:10 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:7. On the eighth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 98:6 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 12:37. On the ninth, the question about the Name, it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 1:27:1 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 1:27:4. On the tenth, the answer Rashi read three ways, it holds Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 1:19 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 1:16.
The search for the guilty man is worked mainly in Sanhedrin. On the eleventh verse the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 15 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:4. On the twelfth it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 17:5 and Sifrei Zuta 10:29:1. On the fourteenth it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 773:7, and on the fifteenth Bamidbar Rabbah 23:6 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Masei 4:1. On the sixteenth, the lot itself, it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 6:3:2. On the eighteenth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 2:18 and Midrash Shmuel 1:4.
The confession and the sentence carry the rest. On the nineteenth verse, where Joshua asks Achan to give glory to God, the corpus holds Aggadat Bereshit 55:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:11. On the twentieth it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 25 and Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 7:5:6. On the twenty-first, the mantle and the silver and the wedge of gold, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 85:14 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 38:30:2. On the twenty-third it holds Sanhedrin 44a:12 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 6:6. On the twenty-fourth it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 24:13:1 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:6. On the twenty-fifth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 2:4:4 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 34:30:1. On the twenty-sixth, the heap of stones in the valley of Achor, it holds Moed Katan 15a:2. One further locator is filed under this chapter at a verse anchor past its twenty-six verses, Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 1:13:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Joshua 7:2:1 to 7:24:1, the Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Joshua 7:1:1, 7:3:1, 7:8:1, 7:12:1 and 7:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Joshua 7:4:1 and 7:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Joshua 7:11:1 and 7:13:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/joshua/7.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Routed at little Ai: hearts melt like water
Joshua’s warning at 6:18 had said that taking the devoted things would bring destruction on the whole camp. Here the verse opens with the Israelites as the ones who “acted unfaithfully”, and only afterward names the one man who took anything. Achan is traced four generations back to Zerah of Judah, a line repeated at verse 18, and the anger burns while the camp still knows nothing.
Joshua 7:1
“But also we should not let it be passed over without comment that by one sinner wrath comes upon all the people.…But let us also see what sort of sin this person did. He stole, it says, "a tongue of gold" and placed it in his own tent. I do not think so great a force of sin was in that theft of a little gold that it defiled the innumerable church of the Lord. But let us see if a deeper understanding does not reveal the enormity and severity of the sin.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 7.6-7patristic
Joshua 7:2-3
sent men from Jericho to: Jericho fell by a plan given in advance, while Ai is scouted first and the force sized by the claim that “the people of Ai are so few”. Nobody asks God anything here, the lapse the book names at 9:14 over the Gibeonites. Barnes works the town’s strength back from the twelve thousand of 8:25, so the spies’ arithmetic was sound, and it left out the reason Jericho fell.
Joshua 7:2
“Sent men from Jericho to Ai - This is the place called Hai, Gen 12:8. It was in the east of Beth-el, north of Jericho, from which it was distant about ten or twelve miles. From Jos 7:4, Jos 7:5 it appears to have been situated upon a hill, and belonged to the Amorites, as we learn from Jos 7:7. It is very likely that it was a strong place, as it chose to risk a siege, notwithstanding the extraordinary destruction of Jericho which it had lately witnessed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The spies' last reason is the labour of the march. Henry sets it against Jericho, where the whole army walked thirteen circuits for a wall God himself threw down, and reads the wish to spare effort as a bad sign. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown suppose Ai looked small from a distance beside Jericho.
Joshua 7:3
“Let not all the people go up, . . . for they are but few--As the population of Ai amounted to twelve thousand (Jos 8:25), it was a considerable town; though in the hasty and distant reconnoitre made by the spies, it probably appeared small in comparison to Jericho; and this may have been the reason for their proposing so small a detachment to capture it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joshua 7:4-5
Thirty-six men is a small loss beside this book’s usual numbers, and the effect runs far past the figure. The words “the hearts of the people melted and became like water” turn on Israel the wording used of Canaan at 2:11 and of the Amorite kings at 5:1. Barnes reads Shebarim as “the quarries”, and the short casualty list points to a line that broke early.
Joshua 7:4
“About three thousand men - The spies sent to reconnoitre the place (Jos 7:3) reported that the town was meanly garrisoned, and that two or three thousand men would be sufficient to take it. These were accordingly sent up, and were repulsed by the Amorites.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 7:4
“He, as a public person, interested himself more than any other in this public loss, and is therein an example to princes and great men, and teaches them to lay much to heart the calamities that befal their people: he is also a type of Christ, to whom the blood of his subjects is precious, Ps. lxxii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Clarke notes that Shebarim means breaks and may describe the breaking of Israel's ranks. He supposes the men marched up expecting Ai to open its gates, and fled when its defenders came out. The melted hearts, he says, showed Israel needed God's help.
Joshua 7:5
“Shebarim - Rather, perhaps, “the stone quarries.” The smallness of the slaughter among the Israelites indicates that they fled early, probably without real conflict in battle.”
Joshua 7:6-9
Joshua’s complaint, “If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan”, echoes the murmurs of Exodus 14:12 and Numbers 14:2. His plea, “what will You do for Your great name”, is Moses’ argument of Exodus 32:12 and Numbers 14:15-16 in fewer words. Clarke observes that no rebuke follows, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that many readers hear weakness in it.
Joshua 7:6
“Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth . . . before the ark . . . he and the elders--It is evident, from those tokens of humiliation and sorrow, that a solemn fast was observed on this occasion. The language of Joshua's prayer is thought by many to savor of human infirmity and to be wanting in that reverence and submission he owed to God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
O Lord God: The prayer opens with the Hebrew cry ahah, which Clarke treats as the plain voice of distress found in every language. Henry judges that the words that follow savour of discontent and distrust and cannot be justified, though he allows that shock and care for the nation partly excuse them. The same cry opens Jeremiah 1:6.
Joshua 7:7
“Alas, O Lord God - Particles of exclamations and distress, or what are called interjections, are nearly the same in all languages: and the reason is because they are the simple voice of nature. The Hebrew word which we translate alas is אהה ahah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Hebrew for turned its back is literally turned its neck, as Henry notes. Gill reads the question as Joshua at a loss for anything to say in defence of God's power and faithfulness. The Lord answers with the same phrase at verse 12.
Joshua 7:8
“O Lord, what shall I say,.... For the comfort and encouragement of the people of Israel, in vindication of thy power and faithfulness, and against the charge of weakness in thyself, unfaithfulness to thy promises, and unkindness to thy people, brought by our enemies: when Israel hath turned their backs before their enemies? or after they have done it; what is to be said now, this being the case? he speaks as a man confounded, and at the utmost loss how to account for the power, the providence, and promises of God.”
Barnes draws out the pairing inside the verse: if the Canaanites cut off Israel's name, what becomes of God's name among them. He calls it a bold expostulation grounded on past promises and mercies. These Canaanites are the peoples who lost heart at 5:1.
Joshua 7:9
“What wilt thou do unto thy great name? - i. e. “after the Canaanites have cut off our name what will become of Thy Name?” This bold expostulation, that of one wrestling in sore need with God in prayer, like the similar appeals of Moses in earlier emergencies (Compare the marginal references), is based upon God’s past promises and mercies. What would be said of (God by the pagan if now He permitted Israel to be destroyed?”
Israel hath sinned: get thee up
Joshua 7:10-12
The answer tells Joshua to stand up, then lays the charge on the nation, “Israel has sinned”, followed by five verbs, each a step further from the first act. Verse 12 suspends the promise of 1:5 until the devoted things are removed. Clarke draws the mechanism from the word itself, that whatever touched the devoted thing fell under its sentence, so Israel stands condemned by contact.
Joshua 7:10
“And the Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up,.... From the ground where he lay prostrate, with his face to it: this he said, not as refusing his supplication to him, but rather as encouraging and strengthening him; though chiefly he said this in order to instruct him, and that he might prepare for what he was to do: wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? in this manner, so distressed and dejected; or for this thing, as the Targum, for this defeat of the army; something else is to be done besides prayer and supplication.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 7:10
“Wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? - It is plain there was nothing in Joshua’s prayer or complaint that was offensive to God, for here there is no reprehension: Why liest thou thus? this is no time for complaint; something else is indispensably necessary to be done.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Clarke explains the lie as pretending to have kept the command. Barnes sees the list rise to its worst point in the last clause, where goods devoted to God are stored as private property.
Joshua 7:11
“Also stolen, and dissembled also - The anger of God and the heinousness of Israel’s sin are marked by the accumulation of clause upon clause. As a climax they had even appropriated to their own use the consecrated property purloined from God.”
The verse answers Joshua's complaint at verse 8 with his own phrase, turn their backs, and gives the cause he had not guessed. Joshua asked why Israel ran. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown sum up the reply: the crisis came from sin in the people, and God had kept faith.
Joshua 7:12
“Because they were accursed - From this verse it appears that the nature of the execration or anathema was such, that those who took of the thing doomed to destruction fell immediately under the same condemnation. The inhabitants of Jericho and all that they had were accursed: therefore they and all their substance were to be destroyed. The Israelites took of the accursed thing, and therefore became accursed with it. This was certainly understood when the curse was pronounced: Every man who touches this property shall be involved in the same execration.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joshua 7:13-15
The people consecrate themselves before the search, as at Sinai in Exodus 19:10 and at the Jordan in 3:5. The narrowing runs by tribe, clan, family and man, and Clarke reports older Jewish explanations such as a stone of the high priest’s breastplate losing its light. The Hebrew behind “an outrage in Israel” is kept for a few acts, at Genesis 34:7, Deuteronomy 22:21 and Judges 19 and 20.
Joshua 7:13
“Up, sanctify the people - Joshua, all the time that God spake, lay prostrate before the ark: he is now commanded to get up, and sanctify the people, i.e., cause them to wash themselves, and get into a proper disposition to hear the judgment of the Lord relative to the late transactions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Barnes notes that the Hebrew word for lot suggests small stones, perhaps white and black, drawn from a chest. The same method later finds out Jonathan at 1 Samuel 14:42 and Jonah at Jonah 1:7, and divides Canaan among the tribes at Numbers 26:55. Henry reads selects as the Lord's own verdict.
Joshua 7:14
“Ye shall be brought according to your tribes - It has been a subject of serious inquiry in what manner and by what means the culpable tribe, family, household, and individual, were discovered. The Jews have many conceits on the subject; the most rational is, that the tribes being, in their representatives, brought before the high priest, the stone on the breastplate gave immediate intimation by suddenly losing its lustre. According to them, this is what is termed consulting God by Urim and Thummim.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Barnes reads the burning as following death by stoning, as verse 25 records, and points to Leviticus 20:14. Henry explains the fire as the treatment given to devoted goods, so that nothing of the accursed thing remained. The man is handled as part of the ban.
Joshua 7:15
“He and all that he has must be burnt with fire, that there might be no remainders of the accursed thing among them; and the reason given for this severe sentence is because the criminal has, (1.) Given a great affront to God: He has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, who is jealous particularly for the honour of the holy covenant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Achan's mantle, silver, and wedge of gold
Joshua 7:16-18
The lot takes Judah, the tribe of the sceptre in Genesis 49:10 and of the largest inheritance in chapter 15, and Henry weighs what that costs the honoured name. Achan watches the lot come nearer through three rounds and says nothing until it reaches him. Proverbs 16:33 states the principle the procedure rests on, that the lot is cast into the lap but its decision is from the LORD.
Joshua 7:16
“So Joshua rose up early in the morning,.... Which showed his readiness and diligence to obey the command of God; and as there was much work to do, it required that he should rise early: and brought Israel by their tribes: before the Lord, at the tabernacle, where he and the high priest and elders attended; each tribe was thither brought by their representatives: and the tribe of Judah was taken: either his stone in the breastplate of the high priest looked dull, as some say, or rather the lot being cast fell on that tribe.”
Numbers 26:20-21 lists five clans of Judah, and Wesley takes each to have come forward through its head. Gill traces the Zerahites to Zerah son of Judah, and the house of Zabdi to a branch of that clan. Each round shrinks the circle.
Joshua 7:17
“And he brought the family of Judah,.... That is, the tribe of Judah, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, (z); or rather, the several families in that tribe, even the heads of them: and he took the family of the Zarhites: which descended from Zerah the son of Judah; that was taken by lot: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and cast lots on them: and Zabdi was taken: that part of the family of the Zarhites which sprung from Zabdi, a son of Zerah. (z) So R. Sol. Ohel Moed, fol. 94. 2.”
man by man: Henry finds it strange that Achan neither ran nor confessed as the lot closed in, and puts it down to a heart hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, the words of Hebrews 3:13. Gill reads was selected as the lot falling on him and his being held. He is named in full a second time.
Joshua 7:18
“And he brought his household man by man,.... The household of Zabdi, the heads of each house therein: and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken; the lot fell upon him, and he was laid hold on, and detained.”
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 7:18
“It was strange that Achan, being conscious to himself of guilt, when he saw the lot come nearer and nearer to him, had not either the wit to make an escape or the grace to make a confession; but his heart was hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and it proved to be to his own destruction.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joshua 7:19-20
Joshua calls him “My son”, and “give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel” is a solemn demand for the truth under oath, put again to the healed man at John 9:24. Achan answers without argument, “I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel”. The older commentators divide over what the confession was worth, Clarke holding out hope and others reading an admission the lot had forced.
Joshua 7:19
“Give glory to the Lord - A form of solemn adjuration by which the person addressed was called upon before God to declare the truth. The phrase assumes that the glory of God is always promoted by manifestation of the truth (compare the marginal references).”
Wesley reads the confession as sincere, since Achan names the Lord as the one wronged and adds to his fault with no excuse. Henry hears in it the words of a conscience weighed down. The details wait for verse 21.
Joshua 7:20
“I have sinned against the Lord God - This seems a very honest and hearty confession, and there is hope that this poor culprit escaped perdition.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 7:20
“But human habits have so long applied themselves to this admiration of money that no one is thought worthy of honor unless he is rich. This is no new habit. No, this vice (and that makes the matter worse) grew long years ago in human hearts. When the city of Jericho fell at the sound of the priests' trumpets and Joshua the son of Nun gained the victory, he knew that the valor of the people was weakened through love of money and desire for gold.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Duties of the Clergy 2.26.129patristic
I saw among the spoils: The confession gives the order: he saw, coveted, took and hid, the steps of Genesis 3:6 and of 2 Samuel 11:2-4. The cloak is from Shinar, the plain of Genesis 10:10, so the goods show how far trade reached into a Canaanite town, and Barnes notes such robes were worn by kings. The silver and gold make a large sum, and the tenth commandment names the step before the taking.
Joshua 7:21
“When I saw - He accurately describes the progress of his sin, which began at his eye, which he permitted to gaze upon them, which inflamed his desire, and made him covet them; and that desire made him take them; and having taken, resolve to keep them; and to that end hide them in his tent.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 7:21
“A goodly Babylonian garment - literally, “a robe or cloak of Shinar,” the plain in which Babylon was situated Gen 10:10. It was a long robe such as was worn by kings on state occasions Jon 3:6, and by prophets 1Ki 19:13; Zec 13:4. The Assyrians were in early times famous for the manufacture of beautiful dyed and richly embroidered robes (compare Eze 23:15). That such a robe should be found in a Canaanite city is natural enough.”
Joshua 7:22-23
The messengers run, the one quick movement in a chapter that proceeds by assembly and lot. The tent matches the confession exactly, the goods hidden and the silver underneath. The goods are laid out before the LORD, so the silver and gold reach the treasury they were devoted to at 6:19, after a defeat and thirty-six graves.
Joshua 7:22
“And they ran - Partly longing to free themselves and all the people from the curse under which they lay; and partly that none of Achan's relations might get thither before them, and take away the things. It was hid - That is, the parcel of things mentioned, ver. 21 and 24.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The goods are shown to Joshua and the whole assembly before sentence is carried out. Henry gives the reason, that everyone could see how plain the evidence was and fear to take devoted things themselves. He notes how small the stolen goods were.
Joshua 7:24-25
Achan’s sons and daughters are brought to the valley with his livestock, and their fate is disputed. Deuteronomy 24:16, held binding at 2 Kings 14:6, forbids putting children to death for a father, while others read the household as sharing in what lay under their floor. Joshua’s question, “Why have you brought this trouble upon us”, uses the verb the valley is named from, and his sentence turns it back.
Joshua 7:24
“Joshua - took Achan - and all that he had - He and his cattle and substance were brought to the valley to be consumed; his sons and his daughters, probably, to witness the judgments of God inflicted on their disobedient parent. See Jos 7:25.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joshua 7:24
“If it be pretended that some of them were infants; the text doth not say so, but only calls them sons and daughters. And considering that Achan was an old man, as is most probable, because he was the fifth person from Judah, it seems most likely, that the children were grown up, and so capable of knowing, and concealing, or discovering this fact.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Readers differ over who died. Henry holds that the children died with Achan, arguing that the law against putting children to death for a father bound magistrates, while God gave a direct order here. Wesley reads the verse as stoning to death first and burning afterward, the stoning being the penalty of Leviticus 24:14 and Numbers 15:35.
Joshua 7:25
“They were stoned (which was the punishment of such offenders, Lev. xxiv, 14 Num. xv, 35,) and not burned to death; but God would have their dead carcases burned to shew his utmost detestation of such persons as break forth into sins of such a public scandal and mischief.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
This is the second heap of stones in the book, after the twelve at Gilgal, and a third goes over the king of Ai at 8:29. The place keeps the name of the trouble, and 1 Chronicles 2:7 calls the man Achar, who brought trouble upon Israel. Hosea 2:15 gives the same valley back as a door of hope, and Isaiah 65:10 makes it a place for herds to rest.
Joshua 7:26
“They raised over him a great heap of stones - The burial-places, both of heroes and eminent culprits, were anciently thus distinguished; and transactions of this kind gave rise to those great piles of stones called cairns, that are so frequently to be met with, especially in northern countries. From the whole of this account we may see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the great danger of not withstanding its first approaches. By covetousness many lives and many souls have been destroyed, and yet the living lay it not to heart!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A covenant breach and its judicial process, told as a defeat, a complaint, an assembly and an execution, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid | The confession at verse 21 gives the order, and the order is what the verse is for. Genesis 3:6 runs the same three steps, saw and desired and took, and 2 Samuel 11:2 to 4 runs them again. The tenth commandment names the step that came before the taking. The site's published exposition of verse 21 sets the three passages side by side.Albert Barnes and Matthew Henry, Notes on the Old Testament and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, cited in the site's published exposition of Joshua 7:21. | Joshua 7:21 |
| Five verbs laid on Israel before Achan is named | The answer at verse 11 opens with Israel as its subject rather than Achan. After Israel hath sinned, five more verbs follow: transgressed, taken, stolen, dissembled, and put it among their own stuff. Each is a step further from the first act. Adam Clarke draws the mechanism out of the word itself, that whatever touched the devoted thing fell under the same sentence, so Israel stands under it by contact.Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Notes on the Old Testament, cited in the site's published exposition of Joshua 7:10-12. | Joshua 7:1, Joshua 7:11, Joshua 7:12 |
| The lot narrowing in four rounds | The search runs by tribes, then families, then households, then man by man. Each step says the LORD taketh rather than naming a method. Adam Clarke reports the older Jewish explanations of how it worked, including the stone of the high priest's breastplate losing its light. Proverbs 16:33 states the principle the procedure runs on, that the lot is cast into the lap and its disposing belongs to the LORD. Achan watches it come nearer through three rounds and says nothing until it reaches him.Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, cited in the site's published exposition of Joshua 7:13-15 and 7:16-18. | Joshua 7:14, Joshua 7:16, Joshua 7:17, Joshua 7:18 |
| Why hast thou troubled us, and the valley of the trouble | Joshua's question at verse 25 uses the verb the valley takes its name from, and the sentence he pronounces turns the same verb back. The man himself is called Achar at 1 Chronicles 2:7, the troubler of Israel, so the name and the deed are held together in the record. Hosea 2:15 later takes that same valley and gives it back as a door of hope, and Isaiah 65:10 has it as a place for herds to lie down.Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, cited in the site's published exposition of Joshua 7:26. | Joshua 7:24, Joshua 7:25, Joshua 7:26 |
The debated concept: what happened to Achan's household
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 24 brings Achan's sons and daughters down to the valley with the oxen, the tent and the goods. Verse 25 carries both pronouns, stoned him with stones and burned them with fire, and readers take the them for the family or for the goods and the cattle.
The first position holds that the children were spared. Its ground is Deuteronomy 24:16, which forbids putting children to death for a father, and 2 Kings 14:6, which quotes that law as binding on a later king. On this reading the them of verse 25 covers the tent, the livestock and the stolen goods.
The second position holds that the household died with him. Its ground is verse 24 itself, which names the sons and daughters among those brought down, and the reading that a family living over a buried robe knew what lay under its own floor. The strongest objection to it is the law of Deuteronomy 24:16.
The site's published exposition of verses 24 and 25 states both readings and settles neither, and the chapter gives the pronouns without an explanation.
The historical value
The confession dates and places the goods. The Babylonish garment is literally a robe of Shinar, the plain named at Genesis 10:10, so the spoil itself records how far trade reached into a Canaanite town. Albert Barnes notes that robes of that make were worn by kings and prophets.
The weights are given in shekels, two hundred of silver and a wedge of gold at fifty shekels weight. That is a large sum for one man, and it was buried under the floor of a tent. The site's published exposition of verse 21 carries both figures as the text gives them.
The place keeps its name in the later record. 1 Chronicles 2:7 calls the man Achar, the troubler of Israel, and Hosea 2:15 and Isaiah 65:10 both name the valley again.
The New Testament's use
No apostle quotes this chapter. What the New Testament does carry is the principle the chapter turns on, that one member's act reaches the whole body, which Paul argues at 1 Corinthians 5:6 from leaven and a lump. The link is the commentators' and stands in their names rather than an apostle's, since neither Achan nor Ai is named in the New Testament.
The site's published dossier carries this chapter under the theme it titles The Book of the Law, noting that the one campaign that goes wrong follows a covenant violation.
Keep studying
Places1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, cited in the site's published exposition of Joshua 7:10-12; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, cited in the site's published exposition of Joshua 7:2-3 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, cited in the site's published exposition of Joshua 7:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.