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Joshua 7:1-8:29

The Hidden Thing (Official)

Lyrics · Joshua

The Hidden Thing (Official)

Joshua 7:1-8:29

Lyrics

About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Joshua collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Joshua
Collection
Joshua
Musical styles
Electronic
[Intro] Thirty-six men on the slope of Ai. Three thousand running home. The people's hearts went soft as water running over stone. [Verse 1] Joshua tore his clothes in two and lay face down till evening came. The elders threw dust on their heads and the ark stood over them all the same. Then the LORD said, get up. Why lie there? Somebody's crossed My word. He took the thing I kept for Me and hid it in the dirt. [Pre-Chorus] At dawn they came up tribe by tribe and Judah's lot was drawn, then Zerah's clan, then Zabdi's house, then one by one by one, till it stopped on Achan, Carmi's son. [Chorus] You can bury it deep beneath your bed, you can smooth the ground and sing, but the lot comes down on the guilty head, and God sees the hidden thing. God sees the hidden thing. [Verse 2] Joshua said, my son, give God the glory. Tell me. Don't hide a thing. He said, I saw it in the ruin, a robe from Babylon, two hundred shekels, silver, a wedge of gold that shone. I wanted them. I took them. I dug beneath my bed. [Chorus] You can bury it deep beneath your bed, you can smooth the ground and sing, but the lot comes down on the guilty head, and God sees the hidden thing. God sees the hidden thing. [Verse 3] They ran and found it where he said, the silver underneath. They led him down to Achor's vale, the sons and daughters too, the tent, the ox, the robe, the gold, and every stone they threw went up into a heap that stands down there until this day. They called it Trouble Valley, and the anger turned away. [Bridge] Then thirty thousand lay by night behind the town of Ai. Joshua ran, the city chased, he raised his spear up high, and the hidden men came out of the dark and the smoke went up the sky. [Final Chorus] You can bury it deep beneath your bed, you can smooth the ground and sing, but the lot comes down on the guilty head, and God sees the hidden thing. God sees the hidden thing. This time the hidden men were His, and God sees everything.

Named in this songAiJoshuaAchanBabylon

About the passage

Joshua 7: The hidden goods become a public catastrophe

The reader learns about Achan's theft before Joshua learns why Israel loses at Ai. That gap drives the chapter. A small attacking force is routed, about thirty-six men die, and Israel's own hearts now melt in the language previously used of Jericho. Joshua and the elders mourn before the ark, but his prayer initially treats the crossing into Canaan as the problem. God's answer relocates the crisis inside the camp: Israel has taken, stolen, concealed, and placed banned goods among private possessions. A public process narrows from tribe to family to household to Achan, whose confession traces the movement from seeing to coveting to taking to hiding. The recovered garment, silver, and gold are laid openly before the LORD. Judgment follows in the valley of Achor, where a great heap of stones preserves the memory of trouble. The hidden offence becomes a national catastrophe before it becomes public evidence.

Study Joshua 7 in depth

Joshua 8: Ai is taken, then the law is heard

After Achan's judgment, God tells Joshua not to fear and sends Israel back against Ai with new instructions. This time livestock and spoil may be kept, making the contrast with Jericho unmistakable. The battle plan also changes completely. An ambush and feigned retreat use Ai's memory of Israel's earlier defeat against it, drawing the defenders away until smoke from the captured city reveals the trap. The destruction that follows is severe, but the handling of spoil and the removal of the king's body at sunset remain under specific commands. Then the chapter shifts abruptly from battle to covenant ceremony. At Mount Ebal, Joshua builds an altar of unworked stones, writes the law, and reads blessings and curses before the entire assembly. Leaders, women, children, and resident foreigners all stand within its hearing. Ai is taken, but the chapter's final image is not smoke. It is a whole people listening to the law that governs their inheritance.

Study Joshua 8 in depth