The Hidden Goods Become a Public Catastrophe

Achan’s line runs back four generations to Zerah, one of the twin sons Tamar bore to Judah (Genesis 38:30). 1 Chronicles 2:6–7 lists the same family and calls him “Achar, the troubler of Israel”. “Trespass” is maal, a breach of faith with God, the word for sacrilege.

Ai means “the ruin”, and it nearly always carries the article in Hebrew. It is usually located at et-Tell, a site excavators found unoccupied at the likely date of the conquest, which has led some to propose other sites nearby. Beth-aven, “house of wickedness”, is Hosea’s mocking name for Bethel (Hosea 4:15).

Jericho lies well below sea level, and Ai sits in the hill country above it, a climb of more than three thousand feet. “Make not all the people to labour” means do not wear the whole army out on that road. “They are but few”; 8:25 will count twelve thousand dead in Ai.

The smaller of the two numbers suggested was not chosen; three thousand went, the top of the scouts’ estimate. The verse is brief and blunt: they went up, and they fled. No battle is described at all.

Shebarim means “the breakings”, perhaps quarries or a place where the ground breaks away into ravines. “The going down” is the descent, a steep slope where fleeing men are easily cut down from behind. The number, about thirty six, is small, and the effect on the whole camp is enormous.

Torn clothes and earth on the head are the signs of the runner who brought Eli news of the lost ark (1 Samuel 4:12), and of Job’s friends when they first saw him (Job 2:12). Joshua lies before the ark until evening, the same length of time as a day of mourning.

Joshua’s words come close to the wilderness complaint he once resisted: “would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land?” (Numbers 14:2–3). “Lord GOD” is Adonai YHWH; the capitals mark the divine name, read as “God” after “Lord”.

“Turneth their backs” is literally “turned the neck”, showing the enemy the back of the head, from the same noun as “stiffnecked”. “O Lord” renders bi Adonai, a polite particle of pleading, “please, my Lord”, used when a speaker is at a loss.

“Environ” means surround. Joshua uses the argument Moses used on Israel’s behalf after the spies: that the nations would hear and draw conclusions about God (Numbers 14:13–16). He had heard Moses make that plea at Kadesh; now he makes it himself.

“Get thee up” is qum lakh; God’s first word to Joshua in the book was qum, “arise, go over this Jordan” (1:2). The question “wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?” echoes God’s question to Moses at the sea: “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” (Exodus 14:15).

“Dissembled” is kichesh, to deceive or deny. “Stuff” is kelim, gear, household goods. The picture recalls Rachel, who hid Laban’s stolen household gods in the camel’s furniture and sat on them while Laban “searched all the tent” (Genesis 31:34–37).

The promise of 1:5 was “I will be with thee”; here God says “neither will I be with you any more”, unless the thing is removed. The condition turns on a single change: Israel must destroy what it was told to destroy. The presence that went before the ark is withdrawn.

“In the midst of thee” is beqirbekha. At the Jordan Joshua had said “the living God is among you”, beqirbekhem (3:10). The same place in the camp where God was said to be is now occupied by a banned thing. “Up” repeats the qum of verse 10.

“Taketh” is lakad, to capture, the verb used for taking cities. The same narrowing selection picks out Saul as king, through tribe, family and man (1 Samuel 10:20–21), and Jonathan after he tasted honey (1 Samuel 14:42). The instrument is not named here.

Burning is the penalty for the man, not only the goods. Jericho was burned with fire (6:24), and the man who kept part of Jericho is treated as part of the burned city. “Wrought folly in Israel” is the phrase used of outrages against the whole community’s standards.

Judah is the first tribe taken, the tribe that camped first to the east of the tabernacle (Numbers 2:3), would receive its land first (Joshua 15) and would produce David. The lot does not spare the leading tribe.

The Hebrew says the family of the Zarhites was brought “man by man”, but the next step should be household by household, and some Hebrew manuscripts, with the Syriac, read “by households”. Zabdi, Achan’s grandfather, is taken as head of the household.

At the moment he is taken, Achan’s full pedigree is repeated from verse 1, word for word, four generations back to Zerah. The reader has known his name since the first verse; now Israel knows it.

“Give glory to the LORD” was a formula for putting someone under oath to tell the truth. The Pharisees use the same formula to the man born blind: “Give God the praise” (John 9:24). “Make confession” is todah, the word for a thanksgiving offering.

“Indeed” is omnah, truly. “Thus and thus” is Hebrew for giving the details one by one. Achan answers at once, but only after the lot had fallen on him; he did not come forward during the night after the order to sanctify.

“A goodly Babylonish garment” is literally “a mantle of Shinar”, Shinar being Babylonia (Genesis 11:2); Mesopotamian cloth was a luxury import. The “wedge of gold” is a “tongue of gold”, an ingot shaped like a tongue. Two hundred shekels of silver weighed about five pounds; the gold about one and a quarter.

The messengers run; nobody walks to this tent. Their finding repeats Achan’s words exactly, “hid in his tent, and the silver under it”. The confession and the evidence match.

“Laid them out” is yatsaq, to pour out, the verb used for pouring oil or casting metal: the goods are tipped onto the ground. They are laid out “before the LORD”, which suggests the place before the ark or tabernacle.

Here Achan is called “the son of Zerah”, naming the clan ancestor and skipping two generations. The list mixes objects and people without break: the silver, the garment, the gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen. Everything attached to the man goes with him into the valley.

Deuteronomy 24:16 forbade putting children to death for their fathers, and commentators have long weighed that law against this verse. The verse records two actions: stoning, then burning. Burning was what verse 15 had prescribed for the one taken with the banned goods.

“Unto this day” is said twice in one verse, of the heap and of the name. Other stone heaps mark disgrace in the historical books: over the king of Ai (8:29) and over Absalom in the wood (2 Samuel 18:17). Isaiah 65:10 promises the valley of Achor as a resting place for herds.