Joshua 6, 7
6 JERICHO WAS BOLTED AND BARRED against the Israelites; no one went
out, no one came in. The Lord said to Joshua, 'Look, I have delivered
Jericho and her king into your hands. You shall march round the city with
all your fighting men, making the circuit of it once, for six days running.
Seven priests shall go in front of the Ark carrying seven trumpets made
from rams' horns. On the seventh day you shall march round the city
seven times and the priests shall blow their trumpets. At the blast of the
rams' horns, when you hear the trumpet sound, the whole army shall raise
a great shout; the wall of the city will collapse and the army shall advance,
every man straight ahead.' So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests
and gave them their orders: 'Take up the Ark of the Covenant; let seven
priests with seven trumpets of the ram's horn go in front of the Ark of the
Lord.' Then he said to the army, 'March on and make the circuit of the
city, and let the men drafted from the two and a half tribes go in front of
the Ark of the Lord.' When Joshua had spoken to the army, the seven
priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horn before the Lord passed
on and blew the trumpets, with the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord
following them. The drafted men marched in front of the priests who blew
the trumpets, and the rearguard followed the Ark, the trumpets sounding
as they marched. But Joshua ordered the army not to shout, or to raise their
voices or utter a word, till the day came when he would tell them to shout;
then they were to give a loud shout. Thus he caused the Ark of the Lord
to go round the city, making the circuit of it once, and then they went back
to the camp and spent the night there. Joshua rose early in the morning and
the priests took up the Ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the
seven trumpets of ram's horn went marching in front of the Ark of the
Lord, blowing the trumpets as they went, with the drafted men in front
of them and the rearguard following the Ark of the Lord, the trumpets
sounding as they marched. They marched round the city once on the
second day and returned to the camp; this they did for six days. But on the
seventh day they rose at dawn and marched seven times round the city in
the same way; that was the only day on which they marched round seven
times. The seventh time the priests blew the trumpets and Joshua said to
the Army, 'Shout! The Lord has given you the city. The city shall be under
solemn ban: everything in it belongs to the Lord. No one is to be spared
except the prostitute Rahab and everyone who is with her in the house,
because she hid the men whom we sent. And you must beware of coveting
anything that is forbidden under the ban; you must take none of it for
yourselves; this would put the Israelite camp itself under the ban and
bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold, all the vessels of copper and iron,
shall be holy; they belong to the Lord and they must go into the Lord's
treasury.' So they blew the trumpets, and when the army heard the
trumpet sound, they raised a great shout, and down fell the walls. The
army advanced on the city, every man straight ahead, and took it. Under
the ban they destroyed everything in the city; they put everyone to
the sword, men and women, young and old, and also cattle, sheep, and
asses.
But the two men who had been sent out as spies were told by Joshua to
go into the prostitute's house and bring out her and all who belonged to
her, as they had sworn to do. So the young men went and brought out
Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and all who belonged to her.
They brought out the whole family and left them outside the Israelite
camp. They then set fire to the city and everything in it, except that they
deposited the silver and gold and the vessels of copper and iron in the
treasury of the Lord's house. Thus Joshua spared the lives of Rahab the
prostitute, her household and all who belonged to her, because she had
hidden the men whom Joshua had sent to Jericho as spies; she and her
family settled permanently among the Israelites. It was then that Joshua
laid this curse on Jericho:
My the Lord's curse light on the man who comes forward
to rebuild the city of Jericho:
the laying of its foundations shall cost him his eldest son,
the setting up of its gates shall cost him his youngest.
Thus the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the
country.
7 But the Israelites defied the ban: Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son
of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the forbidden things, and the
Lord was angry with the Israelites.
Joshua sent men from Jericho with orders to go up to Ai, near Beth-
aven, east of Bethel, and see how the land lay; so the men went up and
explored Ai. They returned to Joshua and reported that there was no need
for the whole army to move: 'Let some two or three thousand men go
forward to attack Ai. Do not make the whole army toil up there; the popula-
tion is small.' And so about three thousand men went up, but they turned
tail before the men of Ai, who killed some thirty-six of them; they chased
them all the way from the gate to the Quarries and killed them on the
pass. At this the courage of people melted and flowed away like water.
Joshua and the elders of Israel rent their clothes and flung themselves face
downwards to the ground; they lay before the Ark of the Lord till evening
and threw dust on their heads. Joshua said, 'Alas, O Lord God, why didst
thou bring this people across the Jordan only to hand us over to the
Amorites to be destroyed? If only we had been content to settle on the
other side of the Jordan! I beseech thee, O Lord; what can I say, now that
Israel has been routed by the enemy? When the Canaanites and all the
natives of the country hear of this, they will be swarming around us and
wipe us off the face of the earth. What wilt thou do then for the honour of
thy great name?'
The Lord said to Joshua, 'Stand up; why lie prostrate on your face?
Israel has sinned: they have broken the covenant which I laid upon them,
by taking forbidden things for themselves. They have stolen them, and
concealed it by mingling them with their own possessions. That is why the
Israelites cannot stand against their enemies: they are put to flight because
they have brought themselves under the ban. Unless they destroy every
single thing among them that is forbidden under the ban, I will be with
them no longer. Stand up; you must hallow the people; tell them they must
hallow themselves for tomorrow. Tell them, These are the words of the
Lord the God of Israel: You have forbidden things among you , Israel;
you cannot stand against your enemies until you have rid yourselves of
them. In the morning come forward tribe by tribe, and the tribe which the
Lord chooses shall come forward clan by clan; the clan which the Lord
chooses shall come forward family by family; and the family which the
Lord chooses shall come forward man by man. The man who is chosen as
the harbourer of forbidden things shall be burnt, he and all that is his,
because he has broken the covenant of the Lord and committed outrage in
Israel.' Early in the morning Joshua rose and brought Israel forward tribe
by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was chosen, He brought forward the clans
of Judah, and the clan of Zerah was chosen; then the clan of Zerah family
by family, and the family of Zabdi was chosen. He brought that family
forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of
Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was chosen. Then Joshua said to Achan, 'My
son, give honour to the Lord the God of Israel and make your confession
to him: Tell me what you have done, hide nothing from me.' Achan answered
Joshua, 'I confess, I have sinned against the Lord the God of Israel. This
is what I did: among the booty I caught sight of a fine mantle from Shinar,
two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I
coveted them and I took them. You will find them hidden in the ground
inside my tent, with the silver underneath.' So Joshua sent messengers,
who ran to the tent, and there was the stuff hidden in the tent with the
silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to
Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out before the Lord. Then
Joshua took Achan son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar
of gold, together with his sons and daughters, his oxen, his asses, and his
sheep, his tent, and everything he had, and he and all Israel brought them
up to the Vale of Achor. Joshua said, 'What trouble you have brought on
us! Now the Lord will bring trouble on you.' Then all the Israelites stoned
him to death; and they raised a great pile of stones over him, which remains
to this day. So the Lord's anger was abated. That is why to this day that
place is called the Vale of Achor.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Apr 15, 2018, 10:14 PM UTC
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