Biblion Bible Commentary
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Achan, and the Defeat at Ai
Joshua 7:1-15
1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against the children of Israel. · WEB
One hidden theft stops the whole conquest — and God interrupts Joshua's theology of defeat with a diagnosis and a procedure.
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan... took some of the devoted things. Therefore Yahweh's anger burned against the children of Israel Joshua 7:1.
The narrator tells the reader in the first verse what Israel will spend the chapter discovering. One man took from Jericho's banned spoil, and the verse's grammar carries the theology: the children of Israel committed a trespass... for Achan... took. The covenant community is one body — a truth Israel enjoyed at the Jordan and Jericho, and now meets from its other side Joshua 6:18.
"Don't let all the people go up... for there are only a few of them." So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai Joshua 7:3–4.
The spies' advice after Jericho is a study in the wrong lesson learned. Nobody consults God about Ai; the town is small, the army confident, and the assault is sized to the visible enemy — as though Jericho's wall had fallen to Israel's momentum. Thirty-six men die in the rout Joshua 7:5, and the hearts of the people melted, and became like water — the sentence that had described Canaan Joshua 2:11 Joshua 5:1 now describes Israel. Without the presence, Israel is simply the smaller army.
"Why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all...? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan!" Joshua 7:7.
Joshua's prayer is honest, anguished — and wrong. Torn clothes, dust, a day on his face before the ark Joshua 7:6, and the words of the wilderness generation in his mouth: I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan is their we wish that we had died in the land of Egypt Numbers 14:2–3 one river later. His closing argument is the right one badly aimed — what will you do for your great name? Joshua 7:9 is Moses' plea Exodus 32:12, but Moses prayed it about Israel's sin, and Joshua prays it as though God had failed.
Yahweh said to Joshua, "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? Israel has sinned" Joshua 7:10–11.
The interruption is almost brusque. This is not an hour for liturgy, because the problem is not a mystery of providence but a fact on the ground — stated in a cascade of verbs: transgressed, taken, stolen, deceived, hidden among their own stuff Joshua 7:11. And the consequence is defined with terrible precision: they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you Joshua 7:12. The banned thing bans its holder; Israel harboring Jericho's spoil becomes, in that measure, Jericho. The promise of the presence — the book's one foundation Joshua 1:5 — turns out to have this single stated exception.
Sanctify the people... "There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you" Joshua 7:13.
The remedy is the same word as before the Jordan — sanctify yourselves Joshua 3:5 — now for an inquest instead of a wonder. Tribe, family, household, man: the procedure announced for morning Joshua 7:14 gives the guilty man a night to come forward. He does not use it.
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