Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

7:1 After the rousing success of Israel's first victory in Canaan, the opening summary of this chapter has an ominous ring: But the people of Israel broke faith. See note on 1 Chron. 2:3-8. While Achan is the actual perpetrator, Israel as a covenant community is held responsible for the presence of sin in its midst. Achan's abuse of the devoted things (on which, see notes on Josh. 6:17; 6:18; 6:19) arouses the anger of the Lord and leads to Israel's first defeat in the land of Canaan. Despite his fine Israelite pedigree (of the tribe of Judah), Achan begins the "Canaanization" of Israel.

7:2-5 For a second time (see 2:1) Joshua sent men to spy out the land (7:1). But this spying mission proves disastrous. The spies give an optimistic estimate of the challenge of taking Ai, and the cost is the lives of thirty-six of their men (v. 5). In a striking reversal of what had earlier been the state of Canaanite morale (2:11; 5:1), now it is the Israelites whose hearts have melted and become as water (7:5). The location of ancient Ai, whose name means "ruin," is often assumed to be at Khirbet et-Tell, in the central hill country about 13 miles (21 km) by road west of Jericho and 3,458 feet (1,054 m) higher in elevation. But the specific site identification is disputed, as the stratigraphy of et-Tell does not match important events of biblical history, such as Joshua's campaign against it. It is more likely that Ai was in the same general location but at the modern site of Khirbet el-Maqatir.

7:6-9 After tearing his clothes (a sign of distress and mourning; see Gen. 37:29, 34), Joshua speaks to the Lord for the first time in the chapter, raising his urgent complaint and accusing the Lord of bringing this people over the Jordan . . . to give us into the hands of the Amorites (Josh. 7:7). Joshua's words carry the further implication that the Lord has reversed his repeated promise (ch. 1) to give both the land and the inhabitants of Canaan into Israel's hands. Joshua's fear that our name will be cut off . . . from the earth (7:9) hints at a further reversal, namely, of the Lord's promise to Abraham to "make your name great" (Gen. 12:2). If these promises fail, Joshua insists, they will do little for your great name (on the issue of Israel's fate and the Lord's reputation, see Num. 14:13-16; Deut. 9:26-29). But Joshua is about to learn that his probing questions are misdirected.

7:10-12 Get up! . . . Israel has sinned. In no uncertain terms, the Lord redirects Joshua's attention to the true reason for Israel's defeat: Israel has transgressed my covenant. They have taken some of the devoted things (see notes on 6:17; 6:18; 6:19), stolen, lied, and put them among their own belongings--all actions explicitly forbidden in the Law of Moses (Deut. 7:25-26). Adherence to that law was insisted on in the assurances given Joshua in Josh. 1:7-8. The actual perpetrator of these crimes was Achan (7:1). But in addition to the corporate responsibility inherent in a covenant community, there was also the apparent negligence of Joshua and Israel's leaders in failing to seek divine direction for the Ai campaign (cf. 9:14's explicit reference to a similar neglect in the Gibeonite affair). No wonder, then, that Israel cannot stand before their enemies (cf. 7:13, and contrast 1:5, where the reverse was promised, on condition of Israel's faithfulness to the Lord).

7:13 Consecrate yourselves. See note on 3:5.

7:14 takes by lot. The Hebrew text reads simply "takes," and "by lot" is the likely interpretation as the means by which God indicated his choice (Urim and Thummim being the other possibility; see note on 1 Sam. 14:41-42).

7:15 The offending party, once discovered, is to be burned with fire, because one who takes devoted things commits an outrageous act (an act of willful, sacrilegious folly) and makes himself and all that he has liable to the same treatment that the "devoted things" would receive. While it is possible that Achan's family must have known of his offense and thus rightly shared his fate (v. 24), the text does not comment on this. Achan's offense is not a civil infraction (for which he alone might be held responsible; cf. Deut. 24:16), but a religious one that defiled the camp and, most especially, those closest to him.

7:19 Joshua's charge that Achan give glory to the Lord God and give praise to him is probably to be understood not so much as commanding worship as in preparing Achan to tell me now what you have done. The Greek words for "give glory to . . . God" appear in John 9:24, where the Jewish leaders put under oath a man whom Jesus has healed; and the word "praise" (Hb. todah) can connote confession as well as praise.

7:21 The allure of what Achan saw among the spoil was not insignificant; the six pounds of silver and a pound and a quarter of gold represent, according to some commentators, about what an average worker would have earned in a lifetime.

7:24-26 Having brought trouble on Israel by his covetous act, Achan is put to death and he and all that he had are covered under a great heap of stones in the Valley of Achor (Achor represents Hb. ‘akor, which sounds like the Hb. word for "trouble," ‘akar). The word them (vv. 24, 25) presumably includes Achan's children, but there is room for uncertainty here because (1) v. 15 only says "all that he has"; (2) this could be what "them" refers to; and (3) there is no mention of Achan's wife. Seven heaps or piles of stones figure in the Joshua account (see note on 4:20). The first was set up by Joshua in 4:20 as a memorial to the Lord's faithfulness in bringing Israel safely across the Jordan River. This heap of stones over Achan is a reminder of Israel's potential for unfaithfulness and of the dire consequences that result. all Israel stoned him with stones. This method of execution appropriately involved the entire community, as the entire community had been defiled and needed to be purified. It also freed any single individual from bearing the weight of acting as sole executioner.