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Joshua 7

Joshua book home•Chapter 7 of 24•26 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Joshua 7 Overview

Israel’s first attack on Ai ends in humiliating defeat because Achan secretly took items devoted from Jericho. Joshua mourns before the LORD, but God tells him that Israel has sinned and must remove the accursed thing. The guilty household is identified through a public process, Achan confesses what he took and hid, and judgment falls at the valley of Achor.

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Before you read Joshua 7

Coming from

Chapter 6 ended with Jericho destroyed under the ban and an explicit warning that taking devoted property would bring trouble on Israel.

In this chapter

The narrative shows that Israel cannot presume on God’s presence while violating his command; hidden covenant breach has public consequences and must be exposed.

Leads into

Chapter 8 returns Israel to Ai after judgment is carried out; this time the LORD gives a battle plan, Ai falls, and Joshua later renews the covenant at Ebal.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Achan’s act is not ordinary theft alone. He takes what God had specifically devoted, bringing Israel into breach of the conquest command. The chapter speaks corporately—'Israel hath sinned'—because the nation acts as one covenant people, yet the investigation narrows responsibility to the guilty man and his household/property. The text’s corporate language should not be used to erase individual accountability, and its severe judgment belongs to Israel’s covenant-national setting.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Past victory does not guarantee present victory when Israel disregards God’s command.

Truth 2

Hidden sin can produce consequences larger than the private act because covenant life is corporate.

Truth 3

Joshua’s grief must give way to obedient action once God reveals the cause of defeat.

Truth 4

Confession after exposure does not necessarily remove temporal consequences in a civil-judicial setting.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Joshua 6:18–19 gave the precise command Achan violated.

Connection 2

Hosea 2:15 later uses the 'valley of Achor' as an image of hope, deliberately transforming a place remembered for trouble.

Connection 3

1 Corinthians 5 uses corporate-community reasoning in a different covenant setting when Paul warns that tolerated sin can affect the congregation, though the church’s discipline is not Israel’s civil execution.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not conclude that the soldiers killed at Ai were eternally lost because of Achan’s sin; the narrative concerns temporal national judgment.

Keep this clear 2

Do not use Achan’s punishment as a church-discipline template for physical violence; Israel was a covenant nation with civil authority.

Keep this clear 3

The chapter should not be reduced to the slogan 'one secret sin always causes every defeat.' It explains this specific defeat because God explicitly reveals the cause.

Read Joshua 7 watching for…

The contrast between Israel’s confidence before Ai and the actual result.

Joshua’s prayer and the LORD’s answer.

The process by which the guilty party is identified.

The items Achan admits taking and where he hid them.

The naming of the valley of Achor after the judgment.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-5Achan’s sin brings defeat at Ai 6-9Joshua mourns before the LORD after the defeat 10-15The LORD reveals that Israel has sinned and commands the guilty one to be found 16-26Achan is identified, confesses, and is judged

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.

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed 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; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:

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:

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.