Joshua 7

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Joshua 7

1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed 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 Bethaven, on the east of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.

3 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; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.

4 So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.

5 And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.

7 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 destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!

8 O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!

9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

10 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?

11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man.

15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed 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 by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:

17 And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken:

18 And he brought his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

19 And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.

20 And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:

21 When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, 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, and the silver under it.

23 And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.

24 And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, 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 unto the valley of Achor.

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

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

Notes

Cross Reference

Commentary

Rashi

Verse 2

<html>Adjacent to Beis Aven. Near Beis Aven.</html>

Verse 5

<html>Until Shevarim, until they were broken.¹The place was called Shevarim lit. broken.</html>

Verse 7

<html>We should have been content. We should have decided to dwell on the eastern side of the Jordan, in the land of Sichon and Og which has already been captured.</html>

Verse 9

<html>And what will you do for Your Name, which is associated with our name?²God’s Name, אֵל is part of our name יִשְׂרָאֵל. This is the Aggadic interpretation. The simple meaning is, What will you do for your mighty Name, that has already achieved such fame; and now they will be able to say, His strength has become lessened.</html>

Verse 10

<html>Get yourself up. [Even though we read the word as קֻם], it is written קם [which could be read קָם]. [The explanation therefore would be as follows]: Your prayers to Me have stood up for you, and [everything] you mentioned.³Your prayers and everything you said have accomplished their purpose. I will not permit the people to be defeated. Another explanation: you stood yourself in the camp and did not go out with them,⁴When you sent the men to capture the city of Ai, you remained at the camp and did not lead them. and I had said, ‘Who will take them out [to war] and who will bring them [back].’⁵Bamidbar 27:17. ‘For you will bring the Bnei Yisroel— and I will be with you.’⁶Devorim 31:23. ‘For he will cross over before this people, and he will spur them on to inherit.’⁷Devorim 3:28. If you go before them, they will succeed, and if not, they will not succeed. Another explanation: Get yourself up, it is your fault [because of you] that this has happened to them. I did not tell you to sanctify the booty of the city.</html>

Verse 14

<html>Households. In one family grouping there can be many individual households.</html>

<html>Men Individualy, man by man. Each man of the household was to come to the choosing of lots.</html>

Verse 15

<html>Burned with fire. His tent and movable property [shall be burned].</html>

<html>He and all that he possesses. [This should be understood] according to the law explained below— he and his livestock [are put to death] by stoning.⁸See below v. 25. The zakeif accent, appearing over the word, בָּאֵשׁ indicates that the word בָּאֵשׁ (with fire) is separated from the word אוֹתוֹ, (he). We find other verses in which the accent divides the verse, such as, ‘אַחַרֵי דֶרֶך מְבוֹא הַשֶׁמֶשׁ’⁹Devorim 11:30. See Rashi and Sifsei Chachomim there. (Far past the Jordan, the direction in which the sun sets). The word אַחַרֵי is separated from the word דֶרֶך by virtue of the [pashta] accent. Thus the interpretation of our verse is: He who is convicted [by the Ark] because of his taking of the condemned, shall be burned with fire, [which means] that which is fit to be burned [shall be burned], as is explained below.¹⁰V. 25.</html>

<html>He and all that he possesses. [This should be understood.] According to the law explained below.¹¹Ibid. This is an abbreviated verse, and there is a similar verse to it: ‘Whoever strikes the Jebusites and reaches the tower.’¹²II Shmuel 5:8. The verse does not explain what will be done to him,¹³We are not told what reward will be given to the one who reaches the tower. but in Sefer Divrei Ha Yomim,¹⁴I Divrei Hayumim 11:5. it is explained ‘that he will become a leader.’ Here too, it is not explained what will be done to him ‘and to all that he possesses,’ but everything is explained below.¹⁵V. 25.</html>

Verse 16

<html>And brought the Bnei Yisroel near. He brought them in front of the Choshen¹⁶The Choshen was one of the sacred garments worn by the Kohein Gadol. The Divine decisions were given through the letters inscribed on the Choshen. on which the names of the tribes were inscribed. The Holy One, blessed is He, gave him a sign— the stone of the sinning tribe will fade, and the stone inscribed with Yehudah’s name, faded.</html>

Verse 17

<html>And when he brought near the family of Yehudah. To the initial casting of lots he brought the heads of families near, one man from each family, and they cast lots [to see] on whom it would fall. Afterwards lots were cast on each household— one man from each household came to the casting of lots, and then came all the men of that particular household.</html>

Verse 19

<html>I beseech you, give honor. Ochan began to defame the casting of lots.¹⁷As a means of establishing guilt. He said to Yehoshua, “On the basis of casting lots, Are you accusing me? You and Elozer, the Kohein, are the greatest of the generation. If a lot was cast between you, it would certainly fall on one of you.”¹⁸Therefore lots are not a definitive method of reaching a decision. Yehoshua then said to him, ‘I beseech you, give honor, (etc).’ “I ask you, please do not defame the method of casting lots, for this is the way the land will ultimately be divided.”¹⁹You are therefore casting doubt on the division of the land.</html>

Verse 20

<html>And Ochan answered. He saw the men of [the tribe of] Yehudah assembling for war,²⁰They were prepared to go to war to protect Ochan, who was one of their tribe. and he said, “It is better that I alone should die rather than have many thousands of Bnei Yisroel killed.”²¹There would have been a civil war between the tribe of Yehudah and the other tribes. This would have caused thousands of casualties.</html>

<html>And I have done the following. (Lit. and this and this have I done)²²The implication was that this was not the only time he had sinned regarding sacred things. I also sinned regarding other sacred things, during the days of Moshe, as it is said, ‘I will sanctify their cities.’²³Bamidbar 21:2. This occurred when the Bnei Yisroel took revenge against Midian and declared that some of the booty be considered sacred.</html>

Verse 21

<html>I saw amidst the spoils—I gave thought to what is written in the Torah,²⁴Rashi understands וָאֵרֶה as referring to intellectual comprehension. ‘and you shall consume, [the booty] etc.’²⁵Devorim 20:14. Ochan took this verse as a command to consume the booty captured from the enemy.</html>

<html>A Babylonian garment. This is translated according to the Targum. Any king who did not possess a palace in Eretz Yisroel, was not content with his kingship, as it is said, ‘And I will give you a desired land, and inheritance desired by many nations.’²⁶Yirmiahu 3:19. The verse obviously refers to Eretz Yisroel, which is the land desired many kings. The king of Babylonia had a palace in Yericho, and when he visited here he would wear them.²⁷This explains how a Babylonian garment was found in Yericho.</html>

Verse 22

<html>And they ran to [his] tent. They wanted to get there before the tribe of Yehudah had a chance to remove the articles and deny the accuracy of the lots.</html>

Verse 23

<html>And they spread them out. The Targum renders וַיַצִקָם as וְאַתִּיכוּנוּן [which implies, and they melted them] Our Sages said, ‘He [Yehoshua] came and cast them before the Omnipresent. He said before him, “Master of the universe, for these, shall the bulk of Sanhedrin fall?’”²⁸Because of these insignificant items, will You punish them.</html>

Verse 24

<html>His sons etc., and all of Yisroel.²⁹Why was it necessary to bring all of Yisroel? Rashi therefore explains—to witness his downfall. To witness his downfall, and to be forewarned against doing as he did.</html>

<html>His ox(en) and his mule(s) to destroy them, as it was said, ‘And he who is convicted by [his guilt in taking of] the sacred things, shall be burned with fire, he and all that he possesses.’³⁰See ==== Verse 15 above, and Rashi’s commentary there.</html>

Verse 25

<html>And [they] stoned him.³¹Why this particular death? Rashi answers. he desecrated the Shabbos. He had desecrated the Shabbos.</html>

<html>And they burned them. This refers to the tent, and all other movable objects.</html>

<html>And they stoned them. This refers to the ox(en) and other animals.</html>

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Table of Contents

Joshua 7

Joshua 7

Notes

Cross Reference

Commentary

Rashi

Verse 2

Verse 5

Verse 7

Verse 9

Verse 10

Verse 14

Verse 15

Verse 16

Verse 17

Verse 19

Verse 20

Verse 21

Verse 22

Verse 23

Verse 24

Verse 25