Joshua 7

Joshua 7:1

JtSUT the children of Israel. That is, one among them. Which is an usual form of speech in the Holy Scriptures, to ascribe that to many indefinitely wherein one alone is concerned; because, where men are united in a society, they are all to partake in the good or ovil that every of their members doth. Instance of which we find in Gen. viii. 4. xix. 29. xxiii. G. Judges xii. 7..Matt. xxvi. 8. See Bochart in his Ilierozoicon, par. i. lib. ii. cap. 17. p. 212. and a great many more instances he heaps up, par. ii. lib. v. cap. 3. p. GC9. Committed a trespass in the accursed thing.’] Offended God by purloining to his own use some of the spoils which were devoted to destruction, or appropriated to God’s treasury, with a curse upon him that meddled with them. For Achan the son of Carmi.] Who is called Achar in 1 Chron. ii. 7. because he having troubled Israel (as the word Achar signifies, ver. 25. of this chapter), it is likely, that, in aftertimes, they turned his name into Achar, instead of Achan. The son ofZabdi.] Who is called Zimri, 1 Chron. ii. G. The son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah.] For we find Zerah was the son of Judah, and came with him into Egypt, wlien he was very young; for we read of no children he had, (Gen. xlvi. 12.) And if we suppose him to have Microsoft® CHAP. VII.] UPON JOSHUA. begotten Zabdi when he was seventy years old, and allow as many years before Zabdi begat Carrni, and as many before Carmi begat Achan; we may make account (with Bonfrerius) that Achan was now about fifty years old; an age wherein many men begin to be more covetous than they were in their youth. Took of the accursed thing.’] What it was he himself confesses, ver. 21. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against the chiU dren of Israel.] The sin of one member of the body provoked the Divine Majesty to express his displeasure against them all (which they deserved upon other accounts), that they might be awakened to find out, and to punish him who had brought them into great danger. This preface is made to this chapter, to shew whence the ill success they had at Ai proceeded.

Joshua 7:2

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai. Called Hai in Abraham’s time, (Gen. xii. 8.) Which Joshua, I suppose, had summoned to surrender, according to the precept in Deut. xx. 10. but they had refused. It was a city about three miles distant from Jericho, as the Jews say in Semoth Rabbah; which Masius takes to signify three leagues. JVhich is beside Beth-aven.] Whether Beth-aven here signify a city, or a wilderness, is uncertain. (Seexviii.12.) On the east side of Beth-el.] A place w r hich was but one league from Ai, as Masius computes, and lay westward of it, (Gen. xii. 8.) for the war was carried on from the cast, where Jericho was, to. the western parts of the country. It was called Beth-aven in future times, by way of reproach, when the golden calves were set up in it; which made it not a house of God (as Beth-el signifies), but a house of iniquity; i. e. idolatry, which is the import of Beth-aven. But it is plain from hence, that these were two distinct places. And spake unto them, saying. Go up aiid view tJie country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.] How it lay, and how it was fortified, &c. And it seems to have been seated in the hilly country; and belonged to the Amorites, (ver. 7.)

Joshua 7:3

And they returned unto 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, &c. They thought this number would be sufficient, because, as it follows in the end of the verse, they tvere but few; and therefore they would not have all Israel put to the trouble of marching thither. In which counsel a good providence of God interposed; for if the flight of three thousand men put the Israelites into such a consternation, (as we read, ver. 5, C.) what a condition would they have been in, if all the people had been put to the worse? as they would have been, if they had attacked Ai, while this guilt remained among them.

Joshua 7:4

So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men; and they fled before the men ofAL. Who seeing so small a number, came out and engaged the Israelites; whose courage quite failed them, so that they seem not to have struck a stroke, but immediately ran away. For God had left them; to whom they owed all their valour and victories.

Joshua 7:5

And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and For they chased them from before the gate. Of the city Ai. Unto Shebarim.] A place, I suppose, between Ai and Jericho; which the Targum thinks had its name from the rout of the Israelites there. And smote them in the going down.] Till they came to the plains of Jericho. For Ai standing on a hill, there was a descent from thence thither. Wlierefore the hearts of the people melted.] As wax doth before the fire, (Psal. lxviii. 2.) or as ice before the sun. And became as water.] Weak and wavering, in uncertain resolutions, not knowing what to do.

Joshua 7:6

And Joshua rent his clothes. As the manner was when they were full of grief, upon occasion of any great calamity, or the commission of any great crime. Which custom was very ancient, (Gen. xxxvii. 34. xliv. 13.) and continued in the times of the prophets, who make it a crime that men did not rend their clothes when grievous sins were committed… And fell to the earth upon his face.] To make his supplication to God for mercy. Before the ark of the Lord.] Not in the sanctuary, but with his face towards it. In imitation of which, the precentor in the Jewish synagogue, at this day, falls down before the chest, wherein they keep the book of the law, when he takes it out to read; as Buxtorf observes in his Synag. Judaica. And on solemn fast-days, as the Mischna tells, such prostrations were usual. Until the even-tide.] Continued all day in fasting and prayer to God. He and the elders of Israel.] Who rent their clothes, I suppose, as he had done;. and then presented themselves in this mournful manner before God to implore his mercy. And put dust upon their h#ads.] This was still a higher expression of great grief, and of a deep sense of their unworthiness to be relieved. AVhich was very usual in this nation, (1 Sam. iv. 12. 2 Sam. i. 2, &c.) and was imitated by the gentiles: as we see in the example of theNinevites, (Jonah iii. G.) and of Achilles, who bewailed the death of Patroclus by throwing dust on his head, and lying down in the dust, as Homer describes it in Iliad S. ver. *

Joshua 7:7

And Joshua said, Alas! O Lord God. A form of speech dolefully bewailing their forlorn condition: which did not misbecome so great a captain as Joshua was; for the most generous spirits have the most-tender sense of humanity, as Arius Montanus excellently discourses upon this place. Wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jbrdan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us?] This is not a sinful expostulation with God (for Joshua is not reprehended for it, but graciously instructed), but only a confession of his ignorance, why God should do such wonders for them as he had done, and now let them fall into the hands of those enemies whom they had conquered on the other side of Jordan. And it is as if he had said, I. am confounded in my thoughts, being unable to understand why, &c. and consequently, he humbly desired to be informed in the reason of this change of his providence. Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the six men.’] Of the hindmost of them, it is most likely, who Wither side Jordan!] As far as he could apprehend, thcyhad could not run away so fast as the rest. fletterhave rested satisfied with what they had in posses- L 2 [chap. VII. sion, than bo thus defeated in their attempt to acquire more.

Joshua 7:8

O Lord, what shall I say. What course shall I take? or, how shall I answer the reproaches of our insulting enemies? JVJien Israel timieth their backs before their enemies?’] What hope is there of conquering them or preserving ourselves?

Joshua 7:9

For the Canaanites, and all the inhabitants of the land, will hear of it. They that are at the greatest distance, by the sea-side, will hear the report of our defeat, which will soon be spread over the whole country. And shall environ us round about.] Be encouraged thereby to gather all their forces together and surround us. And cut off our name from the earth.] Utterly destroy us. And what xtilt thou do unto thy great name?] And, which was worse, God would lose the glory of all the miracles he had wrought, and be thought unable to accomplish what he had begun to do for his people.. This argument Moses had formerly pressed, (Exod. xxxii. 12. Numb.xiv. 16. Deut. ix. 28.) and God himself, in the song which he bade Moses teach the people, makes use of it. (Deut. xxxii. 20, 27.)

Joshua 7:10

And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; why liest thou thus upon thy face?. These words are not a reproof, but a gracious answer to his prayers; for when a person who supplicates a prince is commanded to rise up from his knees, it is a token of acceptance.

Joshua 7:11

Israel hath sinned. See ver. 1. And they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them.] They had promised obedience to all God’s commands, (Exod. xxiv. 7.) and assured Joshua they would do whatsoever he bade them, (i. 16 — 18.) And this was a late command delivered by him from God, that they should not meddle with any thing devoted to God, with a solemn curse. For they have even taken of tlie accursed thing.] That which belongs to me, ver. 1. And have also stolen, and dissembled also.] Not only purloined that which God reserved to himself, but denied it after the fact w T as done. For I suppose Joshua, after the destruction of Jericho, had made inquiry, whether the silver and gold, &c. were brought into the treasury, and whether they had destroyed all other things, as God commanded; and they all answered, that they had. And they have put it even amongst their own stuff.] To conceal it from discovery: or, it is an expression of his impudent transgression of God’s command, in converting it immediately to his own private use. For in this verse the crime is aggravated in a gradual manner, in that Achan had not only sinned, but against the covenant they had solemnly made with him; and that in a matter of great importance, in which he had lately laid his injunctions upon them: having not only taken to himself what belonged to God, but done it by way of stealth, as if he could not see it; and likewise denied the doing of it; and persisting in the sin, by mixing what he had stolen with his own proper goods. A r er. 12. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed.] By having a man among them who waS fallen under the curse of God..-. Neither will I be with you any more, except’you destroy the accursed from among you.] These words shew that only one man among them was accursed, though they all suffered for it; and were to continue to suffer, till he was destroyed. For now that they knew there had been such a crime committed among them, they had been as guilty as Achan if they had not punished it.

Joshua 7:13

Up. He was not still lying on the ground, for God had bid him rise before, and he, I suppose, had obeyed him: but this is a word whereby he quickens him to make all the speed he could, to do as he now directed him. Sanctify the people.] Call upon them to sanctify themselves; as it here follows. Arid say unto them, Sanctify yourselves.] As they did when they were to meet the Lord at Mount Sinai, (Exod. xix. 10, &c.) and as they were lately commanded to do when he led them over Jordan, (iii. 5.) For now they were to appear before his majesty, that an inquisition might bo made who he was that had been guilty of this foul crime. To-morroiv.] For he would not have the guilt remain any longer upon them. For tints saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Isi-ael.] He speaks in this style, both to awaken them to sanctify themselves, and also to appear before the Lord next morning. Tliou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.] Both the person that had violated the anathema, and the thing he had purloined.

Joshua 7:14

In the morning therefore ye shall be brought. Before the Lord. According to your tribes.] Some principal persons of every tribe, representing the rest, were set before the Lord. And it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord sluxll take shall come by • households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man.’] There is no difficulty in these w r ords, but only to understand how this inquisition was made, and the author of the fact discovered: which is not here expressed, there being no words to signify how the Lord took one tribe, and family, and household, and person, from the rest. The Jews (who are never at a loss in these matters) tell us,. that when they stood before the sanctuary, the high-priest, was in it with the urim and thummhn; wherein were twelve stones, with the names of the children of Israel engraven in them. And when that tribe, suppose, to which the guilty person belonged, was called, that stone in w f hich was the name of that tribe changed colour; and so it did when the family, and the household, and the person, were called* But this is a mere fancy, of the stones shining, or becoming duskish; by which, I have shewn elsewhere, answers could not be given to inquiries by urim and thuinmim. And what others of them say is not much better: for instance, Kimchi, who tells us some are of opinion, that they being made to pass before the ark, the guilty could not stir a foot. (See several other conceits in Buxtorf’s Historia Urim et Thummim, p. 304, &c.) But the plainest account of this matter is this, that they were discovered by casting of lots, in the presence of God; Microsoft® CHAP. VII.] UPON JOSHUA. which was an usual way in aftertiines of discovering noxious persons, (1 Sam. xiv. 41, 42. Jonah i. 7.) So Josephus, lib. v. cap. 1. and Ralbag. Ver. 15- And it sluill be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire.] After they had stoned him to death with stones, (ver. 25.) He and all that he hath.] His children, and his cattle; his tent, and all his goods; as it is explained ver. 24. Because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord.] See ver. 11. And because he hath wrought folly in Israel.] Committed a very heinous sin.

Joshua 7:16

So Joshua rose up early in the morning. It is probable he acquainted nobody with these orders; but made all the haste he could to put them in execution: for if they had been known abroad, Achan’s guilt might have made him flee from so terrible a sentence. And brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken.] Who, if we may believe the Jews, immediately stood to their arms, and would not lay them down, till they saw the man apprehended and punished who had done this thing.

Joshua 7:17

And he brought the family of Judah, &c. Every family of that tribe, till that of the Zarhites was taken. And he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man.] That is, every head of their several households, as he was directed, ver. 14. And Zabdi was taken.] That is, the lot fell upon his household.

Joshua 7:18

And he brought his household man by man; and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son ofZerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. Here the Samaritan Chronicle tells the very same story with the Talmudists, that the stone in the breast-plate of the high-priest, in which was engraven the name of Judah, was darkened when Achan was named. (See Hottingcr’s Smegma Orientate, cap. 8. p. 505.)

Joshua 7:19

And Joshua said unto Achan, My son. All great minds are full of tenderness and compassion; and nothing more unbecomes a prince than violent passion: which Joshua was so far from expressing on this occasion, that he speaks to him with the greatest mildness imaginable. Give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel] The Samaritan Chronicle, beforcnamed, paraphrases this not amiss: Lift up thine eyes to the King of heaven and earth,- and acknowledge that nothing can be hid from him; who knows the greatest secrets. And make confession unto him, and tell me now what tJiou hast done.] Openly confess thy guilt; and relate to me what it is, that thou hast converted to thine own use. Hide it not from me.] Who thou seest have God at hand, to discover that which none of us know but thyself.

Joshua 7:20

And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I Itave sinned against the Lord God of Israel. Which the Samaritan Chronicle thus expresses; I acknowledge that Iliave grievously sinned before God, who knows all secret and hidden things: for I have prevaricated against the covenant of God, and against his ambassador. And thus and thus have I done.] Committed this sin, with such circumstances as here follow.

Joshua 7:21

When I saw among the spoils. He doth not say in what place; but the forenamed Chronicle saith, it was as he entered into one of their temples. A goodly Babylonish garment.] There are a great many opinions about this garment; which Bochartus most probably judges to have been a various garment, as the LXX. translate it; that is, of divers colours, wherein were several figures either woven or wrought with a needle: for which sort of work Babylon was famous, insomuch that they were called painted garments; which made a most glorious show, and therefore was very inviting to the eye of Achan: who was tempted by its lustre, to reserve one of these garments for his own use, or to sell; for they were of an immense price. See him in his Phaleg. lib. i. cap.. 6. where he hath a long dissertation about this garment..: And two hundred shekels of silver.] Which is as much as a hundred German dollars, as Masius observes. And a wedge of gold.] In the Hebrew a tongue; for it had that shape. Of fifty shekels’ weight.] This may be understood two ways; either that it was worth so many shekels in value,, that is, fifty dollars; or, that it weighed as much as fifty shekels, that is, three hundred dollars. The last sense; Masius thinks most probable. Then I coveted, and took them.] To his own use; when he should have brought them into God’s treasury, (Jamesi. 15.) And, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my. tent.] Till he could have time to dispose of them to hi«; best advantage. • And the silver under it.] The silver was immediately under the Babylonish garment, and the gold under that: for both silver and gold are here meant, though one only mentioned.

Joshua 7:22

Tlien Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent. Lest any 6ne should remove them, and render the fact dubious; and that the children of Israel might be speedily expiated. And, behold, it teas hid in his tent, and the silver under it.] They found the Babylonish garment (as was said before) hid in the earth, and the silver and gold under it. Thc> LXX. indeed, understand it, as if the gold and Babylonish garment were uppermost, and the silver under them: for so they translate these words, both here and in the foregoing verse, to apyipiov vTroKaruy avrQv, the silver tinder them. The wedge of gold, perhaps,‘was wrapped in the Babylonish garment; and so the silver might be said to lie either under it, or under them.

Joshua 7:23

And they took them out of the midst of the tent. Where he told them he had buried these things. And brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel.] For they were all assembled at the tabernacle,., waiting to see the issue of this matter. And laid them before the Lord.] That the fact might be manifest, and the Lord acknowledged to be omniscient.’

Joshua 7:24

And Joshua, and all Israel with him. By an. universal consent. Took Achan the son of Zerah.] He was Zcrah’s greatgrandchild. And the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold*],. Which God would not have put into his treasury, after, they had been thus perverted to a private use*