The Bible Says
Joshua 7:16-21 Meaning

In Joshua 7:16-21, Joshua discovers who has brought God’s judgment on the Israelites.

After the people of Ai defeated the Israelite army, forcing them to retreat and causing terror in their camp, Joshua grieved for the fatalities and prayed. He asked Yahweh to think about His reputation should the Canaanite nations destroy Israel (vv. 6-9). The LORD answered Joshua’s prayer and disclosed the cause of Israel’s defeat. He told Joshua that an Israelite soldier had stolen plunder from Jericho and brought a curse among the covenant community. He instructed Joshua to examine each tribe, clan, and family to identify the culprit and burn him with all his belongings to purge him from Israel (vv. 10-15).

Having received the divine instructions, Joshua rose early in the morning because of his eagerness to do God’s will (v. 16). He sought to deal with the guilty so God would forgive them and restore His fellowship among them. Thus, he followed the divine command and brought Israel near by tribes. Through this selection process, the tribe of Judah was taken (v. 16).

The tribe of Judah descended from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob (“Israel”) by Leah (Genesis 29:35). After the conquest of the Promised Land, it occupied most of the southern kingdom (1 Kings 12:21). Before Jacob died, he prophesied that Judah would be the ruler of the other tribes and that Judah’s brothers would praise him (Genesis 49:8-10). The writer of Chronicles states that “Judah prevailed over his brothers” (1 Chronicles 5:2). As history shows, Judah was a prominent tribe and produced many great kings such as David (1 Samuel 17:12). The Messiah later came from that tribe (Matthew 1:1-17).

As Joshua selected the tribe of Judah, he brought the family of Judah near (v. 17). The family of Judah refers to all the clans of that tribe. Once the leader of the Israelites brought them all near, he took the family of the Zerahites, a branch descended from Zerah, a son of Judah (Numbers 26:20). Next, he asked the family of the Zerahites to come forward man by man, and Zabdi was taken (v. 17). As Joshua continued the process of elimination, he brought Zabdi’s household near man by man (v. 18). Once he reached Zabdi’s nuclear family, he found the guilty man: Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was taken (v. 18). The author listed four generations before mentioning the culprit’s name. In so doing, he showed the gravity of the situation, showing how one person is connected to the whole community, and telling the reader that Achan was from the lineage of Judah, from which great kings like David and Solomon would come.

Once Joshua successfully identified the culprit, he addressed him politely via three imperatives: My son, I implore you, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me what you have done (v. 19). These three commands refer to one event. Joshua asked Achan to disclose his sin, confess to God, and glorify Him.

Joshua’s command to Achan shows the importance of confession for believers. We cannot praise Him with unconfessed sins. We must take the necessary steps to repent to honor Him. As God’s children, we must be honest and sincere as we seek His forgiveness. That is why Joshua told Achan to reveal his sinful act. He emphasized it by saying, Do not hide it from me. The perpetrator was to speak the truth.

After listening to Joshua’s commands, Achan answered and said: Truly, I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I did (v. 20). The culprit acknowledged his guilt and agreed that he missed God’s standard of holiness.  He disobeyed God’s commands and chose to follow his own will. He quickly confessed what he did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them (v. 21).

The place named Shinar refers to Babylonia (Genesis 10:10). According to Achan, someone in Jericho bought a beautiful mantle, a cloak, from Babylonia. That mantle was attractive, so Achan thought he would keep it for himself. The shekel was the standard unit of weight for coins in the Old Testament. One silver shekel measured about 8 grams, meaning that two hundred shekels of silver would be about two kilograms, and the bar of gold fifty shekels, about 0.5 kilograms. Thus, the spoils of war Achan coveted were valuable. The command for all precious metals recovered in Jericho was that they would be given to the treasury of God, to upkeep the tabernacle and support God’s priests, not be kept by individuals (Joshua 6:19).

The verb coveted or “to covet” describes someone’s desire to take something he has no right to possess. It occurs in the Ten Commandments, where the LORD commanded each Israelite not to covet his neighbor’s wife, servants, animals, or anything else (Exodus 20:17, Deuteronomy 5:20). In Joshua, Achan coveted these spoils and took them, violating the commandment about not stealing (Exodus 20:15). In this case he stole from the LORD. Having confessed, Achan told Joshua where he hid them: and behold, they are concealed in the earth beside my tent with the silver underneath it (v. 21).

The perpetrator thought he could hide the items stolen in the earth so nobody could see them. However, he forgot that the LORD sees everything and is everywhere; nothing can be hidden from Him (Psalm 139:7-12). Although God resides in heaven, “His eyes behold, and His eyelids test the sons of men” (Psalm 11:4). “He knows the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21). Therefore, He told Joshua about Achan’s guilt to ensure the Israelites knew the reason for their defeat before Ai. Once the people found the root of the problem and dealt with it, the LORD would continue to lead them and give them victory over their foes.