Get thee up. Not puerile lamentation, but action, is ever the duty of the soldier of the Lord. If defeat assails either the individual or the cause, there is a reason for it, and this must be promptly searched out, and with God's aid be discovered. The sin or error once found out and put away, the combat may be renewed and brought to a successful issue. read more
Israel hath sinned. A simple but satisfactory explanation. It is not God who changes. It is we who frustrate His counsels of love and protection against our enemies. We have here another assertion of the principle that if one member suffer all the members suffer with it. Achan's sin was the sin of all Israel. So the sin of one man is still the sin of the whole Church. And have also stolen. The accusation is cumulative. Israel, which was all involved in the sin of one among their number,... read more
Therefore . This plain statement disposes of the idea that the repulse before Ai was simply the result of Joshua's rashness in sending so small a body of troops. The vivid narrative of the detection of Achan, obviously taken from contemporary records, precedes the account of the final capture of the city, although Joshua, who, as we have seen, does not neglect to employ human means, resolves to take greater precautions before making a second attack. Not a hint is dropped that the former... read more
Sanctify the people. See note on Joshua 3:5 . Thou canst not stand before thine enemies. Observe the singular number here, intensifying the testimony of the whole history to the fact that Israel was one body before the Lord. And observe, moreover, how the existence of secret sin, even though unknown to and undetected by him in whom it lurks, has power to enfeeble the soul in its conflict with its enemies. Hence we learn the duties Of watchfulness and careful examination of the soul by... read more
Taketh , i.e; by lot, as in 1 Samuel 14:42 ( הַפִילוּ make it fall; cf. 1 Samuel 10:20 ) (cf. Jonah 1:7 ; also Proverbs 18:18 ). According to the families. The gradual centering of the suspicion upon the offender is one of the most striking features of the history. The genealogies of the children of Israel were very strictly kept, as the Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah show. Achan's name is carefully given in the genealogy of Judah in 1 Chronicles if. 7. The... read more
Sin discovered. This leads us to remark that— I. EVERY SIN IS KNOWN TO GOD . Joshua was ignorant that Achan had secreted spoil, but the searching glances of God reached further than the most watchful oversight of the leader. As afterwards, when the disciples did not suspect the character and intents of Judas, the Lord discerned the sinister proposes of his heart. The omniscience and omnipresence of the Almighty have been strangely disregarded even by His own servants.... read more
He that is taken with the accursed thing; or, according to Keil, "he on whom the ban falls." He and all that he hath (cf. Joshua 7:24 ). The opinion that Achan's family had in some way become participators in his sin would seem preferable to the idea that his sin had involved them in the ban. The destruction of their possessions is due to the fact that all the family had come under the ban. Folly נְבָלָה used of the heart as well as the head (cf. Genesis 34:7 : Deuteronomy 22:21... read more
EXPOSITION THE DISCOVERY OF ACHAN 'S SIN .— The family of Judah. The expression מִשְׁפַתַת is remarkable. Many commentators would read מִשְׁפְחֹת , not without some MSS . authority. Keil objects that the Chaldee and Syriac have the singular. But the LXX . has κατὰ δήμους , and the Vulgate juxta familias. On the whole it seems more probable that as מִשְׁפַחַת occurs twice in this passage, it has been so pointed where the same letters occur for the third... read more
The detection. Objections have been raised to the morality of the whole narrative. We will deal first with this subject, and then turn to the religious and moral questions involved. I. WHY DID GOD NOT REVEAL THE OFFENDER WHEN HE REVEALED THE OFFENCE ? The answer is, that He might still further display the hardness of Achan's heart. He did not at once come forward and confess his crime. He not only had offended against God's laws, but he persisted in his offence.... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 7:9
For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it. The invariable argument of Moses ( Exodus 32:12 ; Numbers 14:13-16 ; Deuteronomy 9:28 ; Deuteronomy 32:26 , Deuteronomy 32:27 ). The disgrace which the sin of man brings upon the cause of the Lord is a real and very terrible thing (cf. 2 Samuel 12:14 ; Ezekiel 36:23 ). read more