7 1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted thing : for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the devoted thing : and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel. 2 And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and spy out the land. And the men went up 3 and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up ; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai ; make not all the people to 4 toil thither ; for they are but few. So there went up thither of the people about three thou- 5 sand men : and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men : and they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebariu, and smote 6 them at the going down : and the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the 7 evening, he and the elders of Israel ; and they put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish ? would that we had been content and dwelt 8 beyond Jordan ! Oh Lord, what shall I say, after that Israel hath turned their backs before 9 their enemies ! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall compass us round, and cut off our name from the earth : and what wilt thou do for thy 10 great name ? And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up ; wherefore art thou thus fallen 11 upon thy face ? Israel hath sinned : yea, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them : yea, they have even taken of the devoted thing ; and have also stolen, and 12 dissembled also, and they have even put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies, they turn their backs before their enemies, because they are become accursed : I will not be with you any more, except ye destroy the devoted 13 thing from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to- morrow : for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, There is a devoted thing in the midst of thee, O Israel : thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the devoted thing 14 from among you. In the morning therefore ye shall be brought near by your tribes : and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come near by families ; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come near by households ; and the household which the LORD 15 shall take shall come near man by man. And it shall be, that he that is taken with the de- voted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath : because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. 16 So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel near by their tribes ; and the 17 tribe of Judah was taken : and he brought near the family of Judah ; and he took the family of the Zerahites : and he brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man ; and Zabdi 18 was taken : and he brought near his household man by man ; and Achan, the son of Carmi, 19 the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make confession 20 unto him ; and tell me now what thou hast done ; hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Of a truth I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and thus and 21 thus have I done : when I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonish mantle, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

22. So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent,

23 and the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel; and they laid them down before the LORD.

24. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them up unto the valley of

25. Achor. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with

26 stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones, unto this day; and the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.

S 1 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of

2. Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land: and thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take

3 for a prey unto yourselves: set thee an ambush for the city behind it. So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty

4 men of valor, and sent them forth by night. And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye

5 all ready: and I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them;

6 and they will come out after us, till we have drawn them away from the city; for they will

7 say, They flee before us, as at the first; so we will flee before them: and ye shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city: for the LORD your God will deliver it into your

8 hand. And it shall be, when ye have seized upon the city, that ye shall set the city on fire;

9 according to the word of the LORD shall ye do: see, I have commanded you. And Joshua sent them forth: and they went to the ambushment, and abode between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.

10. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and

11 the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And all the people, even the men of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of

12. Ai: now there was a valley between him and Ai. And he took about five thousand men, and

13 set them in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the city. So they set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait that were on

14 the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the vale. And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hastened and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the

15. Arabah; but he wist not that there was an ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

16. And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they

17 pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after

18. Israel. And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his

19 hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it, and they hastened and

20 set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that

21 way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city

22 ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai. And tho other came forth out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that

23 side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. And the king of

24. Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua. And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. And all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua drew not back his hand, wherewith he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua. So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation, unto this day. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the eventide: and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, unto this day.

Thus far-Israel had not gained aught by military prowess. Miraculous intervention had secured the crossing of the Jordan and the capture of Jericho. But now the conquest by their own arm (under God) was to begin. They had been vividly taught by the events of the preceding month to be trusful before God, and this necessary lesson having been given, they were now to go forward and conquer the land for the Lord who sent them. But it very soon appeared that a new teaching of God’s severity against disobedience was necessary. They were to learn that their trust in God against their enemies was to be proportioned to their own obedience to God. Crosby.

The story of this chapter begins with a but. Joshua did right, and observed his orders in everything. But the children of Israel committed a trespass, and so set God against them; and then even Joshua’s name and fame, his wisdom and courage, could do them no service. The sin is here said to be taking of the accursed thing, in disobedience to the command, and in defiance of the threatening (ch. 6: 18). In the sacking of Jericho orders were given that they should neither spare any lives nor take any treasure to themselves; we read not of the breach of the former prohibition (there were none to whom they showed any mercy), but of the latter. Compassion was put off and yielded to the law, but covetousness was indulged. Yet the history of Achan is a plain intimation that he of all the thousands of Israel was the only delinquent in this matter. Had there been more in like manner guilty, no doubt we should have heard of it; and it is strange there were no more. H.

1. But the children of Israel committed a trespass.** This is here attributed to the whole people, which was really the act of but one man or one family. Nevertheless, Israel was one people, and it is here dealt with as one corporate body. There was criminality in the midst of them. And it was necessary that it should be disavowed and punished, in order that the people might be freed from all complicity and connection with it. W. H. G.

—The crime of this one man is imputed to all Israel on the principle of the organic unity of the nation. As the body is diseased or wounded, though only in one of its members, so his trespass destroyed the moral integrity of the whole people. Waive.

Trespass in the devoted thing. The words signify “the thing that was consecrated to God,” as was all the silver and gold (ch. 6: 19). When God relates to Joshua the sin of Israel as the reason of their flying before their enemies, he represents Achan’s crime as sacrilege combined with theft and dissembling. Jos. Mede.—It was SACRILEGE, it was invading God’s rights, alienating his property, and converting to a private use that which was devoted to his glory, and appropriated to the service of his sanctuary—this was the crime to be thus severely punished, for warning to all people in all ages to take heed how they rob God. H.

Achan, the son of Carmi. This Achan is elsewhere called Achar, trouble or the troubler, undoubtedly in allusion to the effect of his conduct on this occasion. Nothing is more common in the Scriptures than for the names of persons and places to be changed in consequence of, and in allusion to, certain remarkable events by which they may have been distinguished. Bush.

2. Ai—cast of Bethel.** From the neighborhood of Jericho three roads or passes strike up toward the interior of Palestine; one leads to the southern district, by the way of Jerusalem; another, which leads to the central, ascends by Geba and Michmash; and another, and more northerly, by Ai and Bethel. Joshua deemed it best, in the first instance, to take possession of the central district; and for this purpose it was essential that he should hold the road by Ai. W. G. B.—The site of Ai has been identified by Dr. Robinson, twelve miles northwest from Jericho; ten miles northeast from Jerusalem; three miles southeast from Bethel. The valley of Achor was a short distance south of ancient Jericho. Coleman.

Nine miles south of Shiloh is the modern village of Beitin, the site of Bethel. Here there is nothing but a heap of ruins, but on the hill adjoining and east of Bethel are the remains of a fortified Christian church, which was probably built by the early Christians to consecrate the spot where Abraham built his second altar after entering the Promised Land, and where he separated from Lot. The site of Ai may be confidently assigned to a ruined hill-top east of the church, called by the Arabs Et Tell, “the heap.” This corresponds exactly to the description, when we know the site of Bethel and the site of Abraham’s encampment where he built an altar; for we read that he pitched his camp having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east. There is a valley behind the ruined heap where Joshua placed his ambush. There is a spot opposite, across the intervening valley, where Joshua stood to give the preconcerted signal; and there is a plain or ridge down which the men of Ai hurried in pursuit of the retreating Israelites, so that the men in ambush rose and captured the city. Test Work.

Ai was a comparatively smaller city than Jericho, numbering only 12,000 inhabitants (ch. 8 : 25). Yet its position was exceedingly important. Southward it opened the road to Jerusalem, which is only a few hours distant; northward it commanded access to the heart of the country, so that as we find in the sequel a victorious army could march thence unopposed into the fertile district of Samaria. Moreover, the fate of Ai virtually decided also that of Bethel. A. E.

4,5. There was no serious fighting, or the slaughter would have been more than thirty-six. “There went up, . . . and”—what then? Fought? No. “They fled before the men of Ai,” rushing in wild terror down the steep pass which they had so confidently breasted in the morning, till the pursuers caught them up at some “quarries,” where, perhaps, the ground was difficult, and there slew the few who fell, while the remainder got away by swiftness of foot, and brought back their terror and their shame to the camp. A. M.—In this second battle the Israelites are beaten: it was not the fewness of the assailants that overthrew them, but the sin that lay lurking at home. The wedge of Achan did more fight against them than all the swords of the Canaanites. The victories of God go not by strength but by innocence.

6-9. But good Joshua, that succeeded Moses no less in the care of God’s glory than in his government, is much dejected with this event. He rends his clothes, falls on his face, casts dust upon his head, and as if he had learned of his master how to expostulate with God, says, “What will thou do to thy mighty name?” Bp. H.—This he looks upon and laments as the great aggravation of the calamity, he feared it would reflect on God, his wisdom and power, his goodness and faithfulness; what would the Egyptians say? Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul than dishonor done to God’s name. H.—He viewed the hand of God rather than of man in this disaster; and this led to his deep humiliation before God. But his tender regard for the honor of the divine name was that which eminently distinguished him on this occasion. This was the plea which Moses had often used, and to which God had paid especial regard; and the man that feels it in his soul and urges it in sincerity and truth can never be ultimately foiled. Bush.

It had been Israel’s first defeat. The immediate danger likely to accrue was a combination of all their enemies round about, and the utter destruction of a host which had become dispirited. But there was even a more serious aspect than this. Had God’s pledged promises now failed? or, if this could not even for a moment be entertained, had the Lord given up His gracious purpose, His covenant with Israel, and the manifestation of His “Name” among all nations, connected therewith? Feelings like these found expression in Joshua’s appeal to God, when, with rent clothes and ashes upon their heads, he and the elders of Israel lay the livelong day, in humiliation and prayer, before the Lord, while in the camp “the hearts of the people” had “melted and became as water.” We require to keep in view this contrast between the terror of the people and the praying attitude of their leaders, to realize the circumstances of the case; the perplexity, the anxiety, and the difficulties of Joshua, before we judge of the language which he used. It fell indeed far short of the calm confidence of a Moses; yet, in its inquiry into the reason of God’s dealings, which were acknowledged, faith wrestled with doubt, while rising fear was confronted by trust in God’s promises (verse 9). Best of all, the inward contest found expression in prayer. It was therefore, after all, a contest of faith, and faith is “the victory over the world.” A. E.

10. All his expostulations are answered in one word; “Get thee up, Israel hath sinned.” Joshua now knows that Israel, which before prevailed for their faith, is beaten for their sin. Bp. H.—11. The cause of the disaster is with Israel, not with God, and therefore the remedy is not in prayer, but in active steps to cast out the unclean thing. The prayer had asked two things,—the disclosure of the cause of God’s having left them, and his return. The answer lays bare the cause, and therein shows the conditions of his return. Note the indignant accumulation of verbs in verse 11, describing the sin in all its aspects. The first three of the six point out its heinousness in reference to God, as sin, as a breach of covenant, and as an appropriation of what was especially his. The second three describe it in terms of ordinary morality, as theft, lying, and concealment; so many black sides has one sin when God’s eye scrutinizes it. Note, too, the attribution of the sin to the whole people, the emphatic reduplication of the shameful picture of their defeat, the singular transference to them of the properties of the devoted thing which Achan has taken, and the plain, stringent conditions of God’s return. Joshua’s prayer is answered. He knows now why little Ai has beaten them back. He asked, “What shall I say?” He has got something of grave import to say. A. M.

The rebuke of the Lord meant that this was not a time for prayer, but for self-examination, on the part of Israel; not for complaint, but for repentance. It was not that God had forsaken Israel, as Joshua seemed to imagine, but that Israel had forsaken God. It was this that needed inquiry. And is the lesson thus conveyed not also that which comes home alike to the church and to individual Christians in days of sorrow and defeat? “Get thee up . . . Israel hath sinned.” That alone is success which cometh from his presence and blessing. And that is not real or, at least, lasting defeat, which brings us to our knees, and leads to self-examination and the cleansing from all sin. A. E.

A principal reason why they were forbidden to appropriate any spoil of this wealthy city was to impress upon them the fact that the conquest of the city was not in any respect due to the power of their arms, and that, therefore, they had no right to any portion of the spoil. Nothing was so well calculated as this privation to remind them to whom alone this important conquest was due. It was also a prudential measure, as it tried the obedience of the people. Kit.

13. On the morrow would be the search for the offenders. That very evening they would make their solemn ritual preparation for the investigation. The fearful nature of sin is shown most forcibly in this memorable scene. Crosby.

14. Though God revealed the fact, he did not name the person that had committed it, but left that to be discovered in a way more impressive to the nation, and more merciful to the offender, inasmuch as it gave him time for repentance and voluntary acknowledgment. Bush.

15. The burning with fire was the most striking token of the consuming wrath of a holy God. (See Heb. 12 : 29, and 10 : 27.) Crosby.—All that he hath. That one guilty of sin does involve in its consequences those connected with him, is simply a fact, admitting no discussion, and is equally witnessed when God’s law in nature and when His moral law are set at defiance. The deepest reason of it lies in this, that the God of nature and of grace is also the founder of society; for the family and society are not of man’s devising but of God’s institution, and form part of His general plan. Accordingly, God deals with us not merely as individuals, but also as families and as nations. To question the rightness of this would be to question alike the administration, the fundamental principles, and the plan of God’s universe. But there is reason for devout thankfulness that we can and do recognize the presence of God in both nature and in history. The highest instance of the application of this law is that which has rendered our salvation possible. For just as we had sinned and destroyed ourselves through our connection with the first Adam, so are we saved through the second Adam—the Lord from heaven, who has become our substitute, that in him we might receive the adoption of children. A. E.—Bishop Butler states a fact of daily experience when, in his irrefutable reply to objections against the mediation of Christ, he reminds us that nearly the whole of what we enjoy or suffer comes to us through our relation to other men. Every thinking man can see for himself that the conduct of parents shapes the destiny of their children. The more obvious operations of the law are visible to our feeble eyes. How much farther it extends is known only to God or as he reveals it to us. Boggs.

Had the Israelites turned this judicial mission into a war of conquest and plunder, they would have become corrupted in turn: hence all captured treasure was held to be sacred and no private looting was allowed. In stealing and secreting plunder Achan had violated an express prohibition, and endangered a necessary policy. The exigencies of military discipline and the sanctity and authority of the religious leadership of the people, required his exemplary though terrible punishment. Alas! in what calamities may one involve a family, a community, a nation, by his sins! and how sure it is that our sins will find us out! J. P. T.

Subdivisions of the Tribes (7 : 14, 16-18).

The tribes were divided into clans. The clans were divided into families or houses. The next in order were the individual men, with their wives and children. This fourfold division, exhibited in Josh. 7 manifestly existed in the Mosaic time and before. At the head of the tribes, and sections of the tribes, there were princes and heads, who represented the unity of the tribe, or of the section, and in that capacity had undoubtedly corresponding magisterial rights and duties. The common name for these chiefs of every grade was heads of fathers’ houses. Those of them who stood at the head of a whole tribe were called princes. The elders are mentioned in connection with the heads of the tribes, and are much more frequently referred to than the latter. Kurtz.—The principles of the Mosaic law of families are the following:—Each family forms a self-contained whole, which as far as possible is to be preserved in its integrity. Each Israelite is a citizen of the theocracy only by being a member of a certain clan of the covenant people; hence the value of genealogical trees. The representation of the family descends in the male line, and therefore marriages between the various tribes and families are of course allowed. On the contrary, if the male line has died out, the female line receives independent recognition for the preservation of the family, in order that no family in Israel may perish. The separation of family possessions is based on the separation of the families themselves. O.

16-18. To make the strongest possible impression upon all minds, both of the enormity of this sin, of the purity of their own holy Lord God, and of his all-searching eye before which no sin, however concealed from men, can be hidden, the whole people are brought up standing before him, and by the sacred lot, first, from all the tribes Judah is taken; then onward by families, by households, and lastly man by man, until at length the guilty offender stood out before the assembled hosts of Israel—Achan, by name; the sinner who had brought this great trouble upon Israel. H. C.

19. My son, give, I pray thee.** What needed any other evidence, when God had accused Achan? Yet Joshua will have the sin out of his mouth, in whose heart it was hatched, “My son, I beseech thee, give glory to God.” Whom God had convinced as a malefactor, Joshua beseeches as a son. Bp. H.—Give glory to God. That is “confess” is the only torture read of in the Old Testament, applied by a judge to a criminal. It was the most sacred appeal which could be addressed to a wrong-doer’s conscience. Sime.—How gentle are these words! There is no harshness, no severity, but a true paternal pity for the man who has placed himself in so fearful and perilous a position. “By this example,” observes Calvin, “judges are taught that, while they punish crimes, they ought so to temper their severity as not to lay aside the feelings of humanity, and, on the other hand, that they ought to be merciful without being reckless and remiss; that, in short, they ought to be as parents to those they condemn, without substituting undue mildness for the sternness of justice.” T. Smith.

In confessing sin, as we take shame to ourselves so we give glory to God, as a righteous God, owning him justly displeased with us, and as a good God, who will not improve our confessions as evidences against us, but is faithful and just to forgive when we are brought to own that he would be faithful and just if he should punish. By sin we have injured God in his honor, Christ by his death has made satisfaction for the injury; but it is required that we by repentance show our good will to his honor, and as far as in us lies give glory to him. Bishop Patrick quotes the Samaritan Chronicle, making Joshua to say here to Achan, Lift up thine eyes to the King of heaven and earth, and acknowledge that nothing can be hid from him who knoweth the greatest secrets. H.

20,21. Achan’s confession, though late, yet was it free and full; for he doth not only acknowledge the act, but the ground of his sin, “I saw, and coveted, and took.” The eye betrayed the heart; and that, the hand; and now all conspire in the offence. Evil is uniform, and beginning at the senses, takes the inmost fort of the soul, and then arms our own outward forces against us. The over-prizing and over-desiring of these earthly things carries us into all mischief, and hides from us the sight of God’s judgments. Bp. H.—“I saw—I coveted—I took,” strikingly express the rise, progress, and consummation of crime. The inward corruption of the heart is first drawn forth by some enticing object. The desire of gratification is then formed, and the determination to attain it fixed. Then comes the act itself, followed by its bitter consequences. In this instance the temptation entered by the eye; he saw those fine things as Eve saw the forbidden fruit; and he allowed his eyes to gaze and feast upon the interdicted objects. The sight inflamed his desire; and he coveted them. The next step was to carry out the feeling into act; the desire prompted him to take them, as he did and thus accomplished the fearful deed. So naturally does lust when it hath conceived bring forth sin, and sin when finished bringeth forth death. Bush.—See what comes of suffering the heart to walk after the eyes, and what need we have to make this covenant with our eyes, that if they wander they shall be sure to weep for it. Look not thou upon the wine that is red, upon the woman that is fair; close the eye that thus offends thee, to prevent the necessity of plucking it out and casting it from thee (Matt. 5 : 28, 29). He owns, I coveted them. Had Achan looked upon these things with an eye of faith he would have seen them accursed things and would have dreaded them, but looking upon them with an eye of sense only he saw them goodly things and coveted them. 23. When the stolen goods were brought, they were laid out before the Lord, that all Israel might see how plain the evidence was against Achan, and might adore the strictness of God’s judgments in punishing so severely the stealing of such small things, and yet the justice of his judgments in maintaining his right to devoted things, and might be afraid of ever offending in the like kind. In laying them before the Lord, they acknowledged his title to them, and waited to receive his directions concerning them. Those that think to put a cheat upon God do but deceive themselves; what is taken from him he will recover (Hos. 2 : 9), and he will be a loser by no man at last. H.

24. While they learned from his mercies how greatly he was to be loved, they needed also to learn from his judgments how greatly he was to be feared. This lesson would be effectually taught them by the present act of severity, and the death of a single individual might, by its admonitory influence, be the means of afterward preventing the death of many thousands. Bush.—God’s first revenges are so much the more fearful, because they must be exemplary. Bp. H.

25. Joshua passes sentence upon him, Why hast thou troubled us? He refers to what was said when the warning was given not to meddle with the accursed thing (ch. 6 : 18), lest ye make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. He that is greedy of gain, as Achan was, troubles his own house (Prov. 15 : 27), and all the communities he belongs to. H.—That which is ill-gotten must be restored. Put it out of thy house, out of thy family; it will be a fire to burn, a moth to consume, a canker to fret all thy comforts. That which is ill-gotten will poison that which is well-gotten. Caryl.

All Israel stoned him. According to the sentence of Jehovah, the whole congregation was to be regarded as participating in the crime of the individual, because every one was a living member of the whole. For this reason the punishment was committed to the whole congregation. By this punishment the congregation was to give back to the criminal its share of the guilt, and having led him out of the camp and put him to death, to wipe off the sin from Israel. That this was the light in which the punishment was viewed is especially apparent from the fact that the witnesses who heard the blasphemy, and therefore were more immediately concerned than the rest of the congregation, were required to lay their hands upon the head of the sinner, and thus by their own act and deed to cast off the guilt which they had involuntarily contracted, and transfer it to the head of the sinner. In this way the outward punishment became a moral act, performed by the whole congregation, and entered into such an inward relation to the crime that it could really be regarded as an extermination of the sin. Baum.

Most commentators read verses 24, 25, as implying that the sons and daughters of Achan were stoned with him, supposing that his family could not have been ignorant of their father’s sin. Of the latter there is, however, no indication in the text. It will also be noticed that in verse 25 the singular number is used: “All Israel stoned him;” “and they raised over him a great heap of stones.” In that case, the plural number which follows (“and burned them,” etc.) would refer only to the oxen, asses and sheep, and to all that Achan possessed. A. E.

When indignation strikes at criminals, it strikes not for the advantage of society only, but as well for righteousness and for God. In such indignation there is no hatred. It is clear from malign breath as the steel sword of justice. It is at its core charitable, for it springs from the love of the good; and against the bad it bears no ill-will, but a most tender and pure pity. Dykes.—Many have ventured life and limb and many a better thing to gain the things of this world, and yet, after all, they have got nothing at all. Achan’s golden wedge proved a wedge to cleave him; and his garment a garment to shroud him. Thomas Brooks.

A new name was given to the place; it was called, the Valley of Achor, or Trouble. This was a perpetual brand of infamy upon Achan’s name, and a perpetual warning to all people not to invade God’s property. By this severity against Achan, the honor of Joshua’s government, now in the infancy of it, was maintained, and Israel, at their entrance upon the promised Canaan, were minded to observe, at their peril, the provisoes and limitations of the grant by which they held it. The Valley of Achor is said to be given for a door of hope, because when we put away the accursed thing, then there begins to be hope in Israel (Hos. 2 : 15 ; Ezra 10 : 2). H.

There are striking points of analogy between this case of Achan at the opening of the Canaan dispensation, and the case of Ananias and Sapphira at the opening of the Christian age. Covetousness, the love of money, was the root-sin in each case. The demand for fearful judgment and vigorous retribution in the outset to head off a great temptation and to protect the people of God in scenes of fearful peril, constitute yet other points of obvious analogy. There are times and seasons when justice of the sternest type toward individual offenders is the only real mercy to the masses.

In regard to the case of Achan, it is within our limited vision to see that the Hebrew people were just entering upon a scene of great and searching temptation. The people and cities of Canaan were rich; the Israelites were poor. Canaan had the resources of a somewhat high civilization; gold, silver, vessels of brass and of iron; goodly Babylonish garments—all dazzling before the eyes of a people forty years in a barren wilderness, and antecedently four hundred years afflicted in Egypt. With a free license to plunder, and appropriate all they could lay hands on, this movement for the conquest of Canaan would have become a marauding expedition, not a whit above the demoralizing wars of all barbarous tribes upon nations largely in advance of themselves in wealth and luxury. Could the God of Israel become a party to such a war of plunder? Would such avarice, and theft, and selfishness have improved the morals and the piety of the children of Israel? Would such license to his people have inured to the honor of Israel’s God? And yet further; these fascinating spoils—these glittering prizes of gold and silver and these ornaments of the cultured Canaanites—were linked in on every hand with idolatry. Art and wealth, in Canaan as in every other heathen nation, lent their power to augment the attractions toward idol-worship. If God would shut this flood-gate of idolatrous influence sharply down, he could not have done less than he did in the case of Achan—make the first offender a fearful example of severe and terrible, but just and righteous, punishment.

But these considerations, though in point and of great force to show the aggravation of Achan’s sin, yet fall far short of the whole truth. The strongest points of the case appear in the special features as given in the history. God lent his miraculous power for the destruction of Jericho on the special stipulation (“covenant” he calls it in 7 : 11) that the city should be devoted—it and all therein to the Lord; the sense of this devotement being that whatever was appropriate should go into the treasury of the Lord, and all else be given up to absolute destruction. The Hebrew word (cherem), translated either “devoted” or “accursed,” is used continually in this record (6 : 17, 18, and 7 : 1, 11). Moreover it was most explicitly stipulated that all the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron were consecrated wholly unto the Lord (6 : 19); “they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.” Joshua and the people so understood it, and acted accordingly, for the history is definite. “They burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein; only the silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord” (6 : 24). Yet further; the utmost pains were taken to have this matter well understood beforehand. The preliminary precautions ran—“And ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing lest ye make yourselves accursed when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it” (6 : 18). The sin of Achan had, therefore, these points of highest criminality: It was a “presumptuous sin,” against known and most explicit prohibition, and in contemptuous defiance of God’s authority. It was sacrilege—stealing from God; taking property that was devoted to God by special stipulation. By all right-thinking men in every age, this sin has been accounted as of the highest enormity. To this it may be added that all the wealth of Jericho and the city itself fell into the hand of Israel by special miracle, wrought of God under these express stipulations. God being their Supreme King, the sin of Achan had the crowning element of being high treason. H. C.

1. Fear not.** The Lord repeats the words which gave courage to Joshua at the beginning of his administration. He needed the comforting exhortation after the bitter experiences he had just passed through. Crosby.

2. Only the spoil thereof—shall ye take to yourselves.** This was the grand point of difference in the prescribed manner of treating the two cities. In the one case, the spoil was granted to the people; in the other not. There was, therefore, no danger of their committing the same trespass here that they had there. Bush.—Observe how Achan, who caught at forbidden spoil, lost that, and life, and all, but the rest of the people, who had conscientiously refrained from the accursed thing were quickly recompensed for their obedience with the spoil of Ai. The way to have the comfort of what God allows, is, to forbear what he forbids us. No man shall lose by his self-denial. H.

12. Between Et Tell and Bethel there is a fine irregular plain, affording room for the military evolutions described in Josh. 8. Between this and Bethel, in the ravine of the Wady Harith, Joshua placed his ambush. H. B. T.—Toward the east the ground falls at first abruptly, and then passes off in a long, gentle slope to the edge of the steep descent to the Jordan valley, a feature which answers to the “Arabah” or plain (8 : 14) over which the men of Ai followed the feigned flight of the Israelites. On the west side of Et Tell, and entirely concealed from it by rising ground, is a small valley, well suited for an ambush, which falls into the deep ravine that protects the northern face of the old town; into this latter valley the Israelites descended the night before the capture of Ai, and it was probably on the heights above, where the camp was pitched, that Joshua took his stand during the battle; in this position he would be able to control the movements of the main body of the Israelites, and at the proper moment give the signal for the ambush to rise up quickly and seize the city. Wilson

17. Or Bethel. This city, situated at three miles distance from Ai, was confederate with it and aiding it with forces on the present occasion. 18. Stretch out the spear that is in thine hand. That is, hold extended or stretched out, continue it in that position. This was probably agreed upon as the signal to be given by Joshua to the men in ambush, to notify them of the precise moment when to issue forth from their retreat and rush into the city. Conjoined with this there might have been another object in thus elevating the spear on this occasion; viz. that it should serve like the lifting up of Moses’ hands in the battle with Amalek, as a token of the divine presence and assistance, a pledge of the secret efficacy of the almighty arm in securing them the victory. This seems highly probable from verse 26. Bush.

28. Between these two forces the men of Ai were literally crushed. Not one of them escaped from that bloody plain and slope. The slaughter extended to the district around. But of what had been Ai “they made a Tell (or heap) forever.” Never was Scripture saying more literally fulfilled than this. For a long time did modern explorers in vain seek for the site of Ai, where they knew it must have stood. “The inhabitants of the neighboring villages,” writes Canon Williams, to whom the merit of the identification belongs, “declared repeatedly and emphatically that this was Tell, and nothing else. I was satisfied that it should be so when, on subsequent reference to the original text of Josh. 8 : 28, I found it written, that ‘Joshua burned Ai, and made it a Tell forever, even a desolation unto this day!’ There are many Tells in modern Palestine, each Tell with some other name attached to it to mark the former site. But the site of Ai has no other name ‘unto this day.’ It is simply Et Tell—the heap, ‘par excellence.’” A. E.—The modern name of the knoll on which Ai stood is a most remarkable incidental confirmation of sacred history. It is to be noted that the word Tell only occurs three or four times in the Hebrew Bible, while it is one of the most universal and familiar words in the Arabic, every place on a rising ground having this prefix, as Tell Arad, Tell Hum, Tell Kadi. But nowhere else do we ever find it standing alone. Et Tell—the heap, the one made and cursed by the leader of Israel. H. B. T.

Lessons of Achan’s Story.

God’s soldiers must be pure. The conditions of God’s help are the same to-day as when that panic-stricken crowd ignominiously fled down the rocky pass, foiled before an insignificant fortress, because sin clave to them, and God was gone from them. It is true to-day, and will always be true, that the victories of the church are won by its holiness far more than by any gifts or powers of mind, culture, wealth, eloquence, or the like. Its conquests are the conquests of an indwelling God, and he cannot share his temples with idols. When God is with us, Jericho is not too strong to be captured; when he is driven from us by our own sin, Ai is not too weak to defeat us. If Christian effort seems ever fruitless, the first thing to do is to look for the Babylonish garment and the glittering shekels hidden in our tents. Nine times out of ten we shall find the cause in our own spiritual deficiencies. Our success depends on God’s presence, and God’s presence depends on our keeping his dwelling-place holy. When the church is “fair as the moon,” reflecting in silvery whiteness the ardors of the sun which gives her all her light, and without such spots as dim the moon’s brightness, she will be “terrible as an army with banners.” This page of Old Testament history has a living application to the many efforts and few victories of the churches of to-day, which seem scarce able to hold their own amid the natural increase of population in so-called Christian lands, and are so often apparently repulsed when they go up to attack the outlying heathenism. “His strength was as the strength of ten, because his heart was pure,” is true of the Christian soldier.

We learn the power of one man to infect a whole community, and to inflict disaster on it. The effects of the individual’s sin are not confined to the doer. Achan was the sinner, all Israel suffered. We are knit together by a mystical but real bond, so that no man, be he good or bad, liveth to himself, and no man’s sin terminates in himself. We see the working of that unity in families, communities, churches, nations. Men are not merely aggregated together like a pile of cannon-balls, but are knit together like the myriad lives in a coral rock. Put a drop of poison anywhere, and it runs by a thousand branching veins through the mass, and tints and taints it all. No man can tell how far the blight of his secret sins may reach, nor how wide the blessing of his modest goodness may extend. We should seek to cultivate the sense of being members of a great whole, and to ponder our individual responsibility for the moral and religious health of the church, the city, the nation. We are not without danger from an exaggerated individualism, and we need to realize more constantly and strongly that we are but threads in a great network, endowed with mysterious vitality and power of transmitting electric impulses, both of good and evil.

We have one more illustration in this story of the well-worn lesson,—never too threadbare to be repeated, until it is habitually realized,—that God’s eye sees the hidden sins. Nobody saw Achan carry the spoil to his tent, or dig the hole to hide it. No doubt he held his place in his tribe as an honorable man, and his conscience traced no connection between that recently disturbed patch on the floor and the helter-skelter flight from Ai; but when the lot began to be cast he would have his own thought, and when the tribe of Judah was taken some creeping fear would begin to coil round his heart, which tightened its folds and hissed more loudly as each step in the lot brought discovery nearer home; and when at last his own name fell from the vase, how terribly the thought would glare in on him.—“And God knew it all the while, and I fancied I had covered it all up so safely.”

God’s judgments may be long of being put on our tracks, but, once loose, they are sure of scent and cannot be baffled. It is an old, old thought, “Thou God seest me;” but kept well in mind, it would save from many a sin, and make a sunshine in many a shady place.

We have in Achan a lesson which the professing Christians of great commercial nations, like America and England, need sorely. Covetousness was the sin of Achan and Ananias and Sapphira. It is the sin of the church to day. The whole atmosphere in which some of us live is charged with the subtle poison of it. Men are estimated by their wealth. The great aim of life is to get money or to keep it, or to gain influence and observation by spending it. Did anybody ever hear of church discipline being exercised on men who committed Achan’s sin? He was stoned to death, but we set our Achans in high places in the church. Perhaps if we went and fell on our faces before the ark, when we are beaten, we should be directed to some tent where a very “influential member” of Israel lived, and should find that to put an end to his ecclesiastical life had a wonderful effect in bringing back courage to the army, and leading to more unmingled dependence on God. Covetousness was stoned to death in Israel, and struck with sudden destruction in the apostolic church. It has been reserved for the modern church to tolerate and almost to canonize it; and we wonder how it comes that we are so often foiled before some little Ai, and so seldom see any walls falling by our assault. Let us listen to that stern sentence, “I will not be with you any more, except ye destroy the devoted thing from among you.” A. M.

There is so much in the New Testament respecting love, liberty, and the abolition of old ordinances, that we allow ourselves sometimes to be betrayed into supposing that the old dispensation was the dispensation of man’s submission to God, and that the new dispensation is the dispensation of God’s submission to man; that the Gospel is a kind of giving up on God’s part, a sort of confession that He is not disposed to be particular about little things any more, and that it hardly avails Him to attempt to be particular about little things. Now, this conception of the Gospel as an economy of divine “relaxation,” divine “letting down,” divine “giving up,” is one that yields bitter fruit; it makes the Gospel contemptible by making it irresolute. And nowhere in the Scriptures do I find such evidence of God’s determination that He will be obeyed, as I do on Calvary. C. H. P.