Chapter Seven

1. The defeat of the Hebrew force by the inhabitants of Ai. 6. Deep sorrow of Joshua and the elders. 10. Divine revelation to the Hebrew leader. 16. Discovery of the guilty one by lot. 19. The confession of Achan. 24. His punishment.

Joshua 7:1. But the Israelites committed a breach of faith [and took] some of the devoted things. Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things; and the anger of the Lord burned against the Israelites. The lofty feeling expressed in the dedication of Jericho to the Lord was not so universal among the Hebrew people as to exclude any exception. Such an exception appeared in the person of Achan, who took “from the devoted things,” that is, committed sacrilege. This grave sin was reckoned as the sin of the sons of Israel, as constituting one “people of the Lord” (Num 11:29), one community (Lev 10:6, Num 1:53), which was therefore responsible for the offenses of its members, and therefore was bound to remove evil from its midst (Deut 13:5-17 and elsewhere), if it wished to avoid punishment from God. Therefore the biblical narrator, intending to speak of Achan’s crime, begins with the words: “And the Israelites committed a breach of faith...” having in mind not to indicate the people’s participation in the commission of the crime, but their guilt before God for the sin of one of its members. The words “[great]... [and took]” are brought in from the Greek-Slavonic translation; the first is not read, however, in the Alexandrian and other manuscripts. Achan—thus named in the Hebrew text here and in Josh 22:20; and in 1 Chr 2:7—Achar. This difference in the spelling of the name is also reflected in the Greek manuscripts, of which in the Vatican the name appears here in the book of Joshua as Achar, in the Alexandrian and other manuscripts as Achan. The latter must be recognized as the original, as it is indicated the same in both places in the Hebrew text; the letter “r” appeared probably later, under the influence of the name of the valley of Achor, in which he was stoned to death. According to genealogy Achan belonged to the fifth generation of descendants of Zerah, son of Judah (1 Chr 2:7), but in view of the long period of time separating the patriarch Judah from Achan, one may suppose that this genealogy is incomplete.

Joshua 7:2. Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, to the east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. Joshua 7:3. When they returned to Joshua, they said to him: “Do not let all the people go up; let only two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few [in number]. Joshua 7:4. So about three thousand of the people went up there, and they fled before the inhabitants of Ai. Joshua 7:5. The inhabitants of Ai killed about thirty-six of them and chased them from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the slope. And the hearts of the people melted and became like water. Achan’s crime was not revealed immediately after its commission, but some time later, during which the Hebrews were overtaken by an unexpected misfortune, which served as a punishment for his crime. It became known only after the failure that befell the Hebrew forces, in order that through this the importance of the sin committed might be revealed with complete clarity, and also the necessity of firm obedience to the divine commandments for obtaining divine help in the conquest of Canaan, without which the Hebrew forces could have no success. The misfortune happened during the conquest of the small city of Ai, which was at no great distance from Jericho, “near Beth-aven, to the east of Bethel.” That after the capture of Jericho Joshua son of Nun directed his forces against that part of the land of Canaan where Ai was located and which comprises the central strip of the land, in this is correctly seen a remarkable strategic plan, consisting in gaining control of this strip, dividing the southern and northern parts of the country, and then acting against each of them separately. The known position of Bethel at the site of the present Beitin, north of Jerusalem, makes known the general position of Ai. Researchers of biblical geography indicate the location of this city to the east of Beitin, on a hill near the village of Deir Diwan, bearing at present the name Tell (“heap of stones”), which recalls what is said in Josh 8:28 of the turning of Ai into an eternal ruin. What locality is meant by Beth-aven in Josh 18:12, named “wilderness,” remains unknown with precision; it is supposed that the locality bearing this name, meaning “house of emptiness,” that is, “of idols,” was located so near Bethel that in later times the name of Bethel (“house of God”) began to be used instead, as not fitting in light of the opinion of the prophets (Hos 4:15) of the idolatry practiced at Bethel. Such replacement of one name with another, however, does not give the right to regard the name Beth-aven as inserted into the text of the book of Joshua by someone at a later time. The incorrectness of such an assumption is evident from the fact that Beth-aven is named in Josh 18:12 in describing the border of the tribe of Benjamin as a completely defined and known locality; as well as in 1 Sam 13:5 it is named in the same sense in describing the war of Saul with the Philistines. In spite of the insignificance of Ai, which Joshua son of Nun had learned about beforehand through persons sent for that purpose, the attack completely failed; the Hebrew force was repelled with the loss of 36 men and pursued “to Shebarim,” as they were presumably called, quarries on the slope of the mountain. In the Greek-Slavonic translation the words “to Shebarim” correspond to “until they shattered” (συνέτριψαν), which shows that the Hebrew word “shebarim” was read differently and taken as a form of “shavar”—“to break, to shatter.” The inaccuracy of this translation was recognized already in ancient times, as shown by one of the Greek manuscripts, in which instead of the Greek translation given above in the margin is placed εως Σεβαρεμι—“to Shebarim” (Field). In the translation of Blessed Jerome likewise it reads ad Sabarin. “The hearts of the people melted and became like water”—an expression similar to that used in Josh 2:11, but even more forceful, indicating complete loss of courage, likened to spilled water: as the latter disappears, so courage vanished from the heart of the people.

Joshua 7:6. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell face down to the ground before the Ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. Joshua 7:7. Joshua said: “Ah, Lord God! Why have you brought this people across the Jordan at all, to hand us over to the Amorites so as to destroy us? Would that we had been content to settle beyond the Jordan! Joshua 7:8. O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned their backs to their enemies? Joshua 7:9. The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name? Such great despair of the people was caused not by the defeat itself, which was insignificant in the number of those killed, but by the abandonment by God, the loss of divine help, which he rightly perceived in this defeat. Therefore Joshua son of Nun and the people’s elders, cast into extreme sorrow and with the usual outward signs of it on their garments and on their heads (Lev 10:6; Num 20:6) turned to the Lord: in the Tent of Meeting they “fell face down to the ground before the Ark of the Lord.” The prayer of Joshua son of Nun is an expression of a soul shaken, losing itself in confusion before the sorrowful event that had taken place, troubled by fear for the future, but a soul believing, concerned for God’s glory, and therefore speaking boldly and sincerely its troubled thoughts before God. The defeat just experienced brought the Hebrew leader into such despair that the purpose of the great works of God accomplished before his eyes became unclear to him, and he found himself in a state to turn to the Lord with a question, reminiscent of the complaints of the previous generation (Num 14:2) about why the Lord had brought the people across the Jordan. The purpose of this became so unclear to him at that time that in reflecting on it the possibility of the Hebrews being handed over to the Amorites was not excluded, on account of which was even expressed regret that the people had not remained beyond the Jordan. In expressing such dark thoughts, Joshua son of Nun feels, however, all their inappropriateness and, as if in justification of himself, says: “O Lord, what can I say now that Israel has turned their backs to their enemies?” This defeat was so unexpected and so little in accord with what had been happening up to that point that it involuntarily gave rise to dark thoughts and caused him to fear for the future destiny of the people. Fear so took possession of the soul of the one praying that to him there now appeared as inevitable the consequences of the defeat, consisting in the fact that, having heard of it, the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of this land would surround the Hebrew people and destroy it. But this conception of the consequences of defeat, despite all the despondence of the spirit of Joshua son of Nun, did not take complete possession of his soul, for it was not in accord with the great name of God, that is, with His divine majesty!.. It is through the consciousness of this lack of accord, expressed in the form of a question, that the prayer concludes: “And what will you do for your great name?” that is, how, if the Hebrew people be destroyed, will you protect your great name from reproach on the part of other peoples, a name which you have shown forth in the events of Hebrew history? The greatness of God’s name was pointed to by Moses as well in his intercessions for the people (Num 14:15; Deut 9:28).

Joshua 7:10. The Lord said to Joshua: “Get up! Why have you fallen upon your face? Joshua 7:11. Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, hidden them, and put them among their own belongings. Joshua 7:12. Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction themselves. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Joshua 7:13. Get up, sanctify the people and say: Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: there are devoted things among you, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you. Joshua 7:14. In the morning therefore you shall come forward tribe by tribe. The tribe that the Lord takes shall come near by clans, the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household that the Lord takes shall come near one by one. Joshua 7:15. And the one who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, together with all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel. The divine response to Joshua son of Nun’s prayer came to him immediately. It begins with a command to him, as one not guilty of what had happened, to get up from the ground, but at the same time contains a rebuke, expressed as a question: “Why have you fallen upon your face?” That is, why have you been seized with such fear, why have such dark thoughts come upon you? Is this in accord with firm faith in divine promises? Then in strong expressions, consisting of similar words (“has sinned, have transgressed, have taken”) with the addition of the Hebrew particle (“gam”—even—which strengthens the meaning of the words), there is pointed out the grave sin committed by the people as the cause of the defeat that has overtaken them, together with a threat to deprive the people of divine help if they do not “remove the devoted things from among you,” that is, if what has been taken from what is dedicated to God is not returned to its proper purpose (Josh 6:18). The response concludes with a command—“get up, sanctify the people” (Josh 3:5) before tomorrow morning, to announce to the people the sin committed by someone from its midst and the way by which the guilty one will be found. Josh 7:14 is remarkable in that it clearly indicates the composition of the Hebrew people as consisting of tribes, clans, houses, or families, and individual households; the heads of the latter were “men” (according to the Hebrew text and the Greek-Slavonic translation “by men” instead of “one by one”). Where exactly and how the investigation of the guilty one was carried out, the narrative does not indicate. But since the people were commanded to sanctify themselves and the coming of the people to the place of investigation is expressed by the verb “draw near” (according to the Hebrew text instead of “come forward”), used, though not exclusively, of appearing before the Lord (Lev 16:1), since the indication of the guilty one belonged to God Himself (“the Lord takes”), it is on the basis of this that one may suppose that the place of this popular assembly was the courtyard of the Tent. The Hebrew verb corresponding to the word “takes” is “lakad,” which helps to determine the very way by which the guilty one was found. The matter is that this verb in other places in the Old Testament books is used to denote the indication obtained through the lot. Thus, in 1 Sam 14:42 Saul says: “cast the lot between me and Jonathan”... “and (according to the literal translation from the Hebrew) he was taken (“illakad”) Jonathan,” which in the Russian translation corresponds to: “The lot fell upon Jonathan.” This same verb is used in the selection of Saul to the kingship in 1 Sam 10:20, where it is said: “and the tribe of Benjamin was taken... and the clan of Matri was taken...” Such a meaning of the Hebrew verb used in this passage of the book of Joshua makes it very probable that the lot was used in the search for the guilty one in sacrilege, in accord with which the words “the Lord takes” (Josh 7:14) are translated in the Vulgate (sors invenerit) as “the lot will find.” In this the decision by lot was received as God’s decision (cf. Prov 16:33). The casting of the lot itself, nowhere indicated in sacred books, consisted probably in the fact that tablets with inscriptions of names or objects subject to choice or decision, or stones of various colors, were placed in a box or fold (Prov 16:33) and the tablet or stone drawn, according to the pre-arranged meaning, served as an indication of a positive or negative answer. A capital and shameful punishment by fire (cf. Lev 20:14) was assigned to the one guilty of sacrilege; the burning, however, was not of the living but of the dead, as is evident from Josh 7:25. The reason for the assignment of this punishment is indicated in the fact that the one who committed this crime committed a double sin: against God, boldly violating His command concerning the devoted things as a great sanctity of the Lord (Lev 27:28; Deut 13:17), and at the same time violating the covenant with God (Exod 19:8) and against his people, committing “an outrageous thing” in their midst, or—closer to the meaning of the Hebrew word “nevala” used here—“a shameful deed,” diminishing the dignity of the people as the people of God.

Joshua 7:16. So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. Joshua 7:17. He brought the clans of Judah near, and the clan of Zerah was taken; and he brought the clan of Zerah near man by man, and Zabdi was taken. Joshua 7:18. And he brought his household near one by one, and Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. Joshua 7:19. Joshua said to Achan: “My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and render praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me. Joshua 7:20. And Achan answered Joshua: “It is true; I am the one who sinned against the Lord God of Israel. This is what I did: Joshua 7:21. “When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Shinar robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They now lie hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath. Joshua 7:22. So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. Joshua 7:23. They took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites; and they spread them out before the Lord. Joshua 7:24. Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen, donkeys, and sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor. Joshua 7:25. Joshua said: “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord is bringing trouble on you this day.” And all Israel stoned him to death; they burned them with fire, cast stones on them. Joshua 7:26. They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day. The address to the one designated by lot as the guilty party with the words “my son” testifies to the compassion and gentleness of the Hebrew leader. “Give glory to the Lord” as the All-Knowing, from whom no wrongdoing can be hidden. These words, used also in the time of Christ the Savior (John 9:24), served as a special call in the name of God to speak the truth. “A beautiful Shinar robe,” that is, made in Shinar (Gen 10:10), more precisely—in Babylon (Gen 11:2), which was famous for the art of preparing colorful garments. “Two hundred shekels of silver” amounts in our money to about 160 rubles. “A bar of gold weighing fifty shekels.” The word “bar” in the Hebrew text corresponds to “leshon,” which means “tongue,” as is also translated in the LXX: γλῶσσαν, in the Slavonic Bible—“vessel.” Among commentators it is usually understood as an ornament, household item, or weapon in the shape of a tongue (among the Romans a long sword was called a “tongue”). 50 shekels of gold in our money amounts to more than 500 rubles.

Joshua 7:25. Joshua said: “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord is bringing trouble on you this day.” And all Israel stoned him to death; they burned them with fire, cast stones on them. All the people, represented of course by their representatives, took part in the punishment of Achan, because through his crime he had brought the wrath of the Lord upon all the people. According to the law, it lay upon the Hebrew people to remove evil from its midst through the punishment of the guilty (Lev 20:1, Deut 17:7 and elsewhere). That along with Achan his sons and daughters were stoned is not specifically stated in the biblical text; but this is justly concluded from the fact that they were brought to the place of punishment together with all the property of the father (Josh 7:24), and from the fact that after the words “they stoned him”—that is, Achan—“all the Israelites,” there immediately follows: “they burned them with fire, cast stones on them”; here the pronoun “them” instead of “him” in the preceding words refers, evidently, to the mentioned sons and daughters of Achan, who were consequently also stoned and then delivered to burning. And the basis for the punishment of the children together with the father, who actually committed the crime, in the existence of the law on punishment only for one’s own crime (Deut 24:16), is that the sons and daughters of Achan knew about these things stolen from the devoted things, stored in the tent, and saw when the father buried them in the ground. This explanation belongs to the early Christian time and was expressed by Procopius of Gaza. According to the LXX in the earliest manuscripts (Vatican, Alexandrian, and other uncials) the final words Josh 7:25 “they burned them with fire, cast stones on them” were not read; in the Hexapla of Origen the Greek translation of these words is marked with an asterisk, indicating the supplementation here of the Greek translation; this supplement, corresponding to the Hebrew text, was preserved in some later Greek manuscripts, and from editions—in the Complutensian Polyglot, in which is read: κατέκαυσαν αὐτα ἐν πυρί καὶ ἐλιθοβοησαν αὐτοὺς ἐνλίθοις—“they burned these in fire and stoned them with stones.” The Slavonic translation follows this supplemented reading of the Greek verses with the peculiarity that “these” in it is replaced by the word “all,” which is read only in the Latin translation (et cuncta quae illius erant, igne consumpta sunt—“and all that he had was consumed with fire”). Thus, despite certain variations in the transmission of this passage in the Greek translation manuscripts through correction of the latter agreement has been reached between it and the Hebrew text.

Joshua 7:26. They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day. The valley near Gilgal, in which Achan was executed, received the name Achor from the sorrowful event that took place in it, which served to complete a grave crime (Josh 7:25). Achor means “trouble, sorrow.” Among the prophets (Hos 2:15; Isa 65:10), in their predictions about future salvation, this valley of sorrow is transformed into a place of joy and is depicted as a place of hope and rest. * * * Cook. Commentary, 2:4–5. Tristram. Bible Places, 10. Others, however, indicate the location of Ai on the summit of another hill, also found near Beitin and called Tell-el-Gajar (Keil. Iosua, 55). Protopresbyter M. Kheraskov. A Survey of the Historical Books of the Old Testament, 22. S. A. Bulatova. Ancient Hebrew Coins. 1886, p. 140. According to the investigations of numismatists (Brandis, Schrader, and others) gold in Western Asia in ancient times was valued higher than silver by a ratio of 13 1/3 to 1. (Riehm, pp. 482, 1000, 1450). Consequently, if a silver shekel was worth 80 kopecks, then a gold one was worth 10 rubles 66 kopecks, and 50 gold shekels—533 rubles. Migne. Patrologia. S. gr. t. LXXXVII, p. 1017: τοὺς δὲ προσήκοντας Ἀχὰρ ὡς συνεἱδιτας ἀπώλεσε—“and those close to Achar, as accomplices, he destroyed.” In the Moscow Greek Bible these words are read, although in the Alexandrian manuscript they are absent.