Achan’s greed and disobedience
7
📚But the children of Israel acted unfaithfully✭ concerning the accursed thing, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the accursed thing. And the anger✭ of the LORD burned against the children of Israel. 2 📚✭And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai✭, which is near Beth-Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and look at the land”. And the men went up and looked at Ai.
3 📚✭And they returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t have all the people go up, but have about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai, and do not make all the people toil up there, for they are few in number”. 4 📚So about three thousand men from the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. 5 📚And the men of Ai struck down among them about thirty-six men; for they chased them from in front of the gate to Shebarim, and struck them in the descent there. So the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
6 📚✭And Joshua tore his clothes and prostrated himself on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, both he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads. 7 📚✭And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why did you ever bring this people over the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we had been content and stayed on the other side of the Jordan. 8 📚O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turns their backs before their enemies! 9 📚For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us and cut our name off from the earth. And what will you do for your great name✭?”
10 📚✭And the LORD said to Joshua, “Get up! Why are you lying like this on your face? 11 📚✭Israel has sinned, and they have broken my covenant✭ which I commanded them; for they have taken some of the accursed thing✭ and have stolen and also used deception✭, and they have put it among their own things. 12 📚Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. And I will not be with you any more unless✭ you destroy the accursed among you.
13 📚✭“Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD God of Israel says, There is an accursed thing among you, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies, until you take away the accursed thing from among you. 14 📚Therefore in the morning you shall be brought near according to your tribes. Then it shall be that the tribe which the LORD takes shall approach, according to its families; and the family which the LORD takes shall approach by households; and the household which the LORD takes✭ shall approach man by man. 15 📚And it is to be like this: ‘the one who is caught with the accursed thing shall be burned in the fire, he and all that he has, because he has broken the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a disgraceful thing✭ in Israel.’ ”
16 📚So Joshua got 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 to Achan, “My son, please give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me”.
20 📚✭And Achan answered Joshua, and said, “Yes, I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done: 21 📚when I saw among the plunder a fine Babylonian garment, and two hundred shekels✭ of silver, and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them. And, look, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, and the silver is under it”.
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, and the silver was under it. 23 And they took them from the middle of the tent, and brought them to Joshua and to 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 bar of gold and his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his donkeys and his sheep and his tent and all that he had, and they brought them to the valley of Achor.
25 📚And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Today the LORD will trouble you”. And all Israel stoned him✭ with stones, and burned them with fire, after they stoned them with stones. 26 📚✭And they raised over him a great heap of stones. They are there to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called The Valley of Achor✭ to this day.