Episode 80: Achan and is family are stoned and burned to death

Joshua 7

The Amorites defeat the Israelites (because someone took the accursed thing)

7 ¹ Achan, the son of Carmi, took the accursed thing. So God was angry with all the Israelites.

² Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, saying to them, "Go look at Ai."

³ When the men returned, they said to Joshua,

You don't need to send all of the soldiers to Ai.

Two or three thousand men would be enough to capture it, since not many live there.

⁴ So about 3000 men went to Ai.

⁵ But they were defeated by the men of Ai, and 36 Israelite soldiers were killed.

This melted the hearts of the Israelites.

⁶ Joshua tore his clothes and fell on his face until evening.

Then he and the elders put dust on their heads.

⁷ Joshua said to God,

Why did you deliver us into the hand of the Amorites?

⁸ What am I going to say when everyone hears about it?

Achan and his family are stoned and burned to death (for taking the accursed thing)

¹⁰ God said to Joshua,

Get up! Why are you lying on your face?

¹¹ Israel has sinned by taking the accursed thing.

They have even put it among their own stuff.

¹² They were defeated by their enemies because they were accursed.

I won't be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed people among you.

¹⁴ Tomorrow morning, gather all the tribes together. I'll identify the accursed person's tribe,

the accursed person's family within that tribe, the accursed person's household within that family, and, finally, I'll identify the accursed person in that household.

¹⁵ The one who has taken the accursed thing shall be burned. He and everything he has.

¹⁶ So the next morning, Joshua gathered all of the tribes of Israel.

God identified the tribe (Judah), ¹⁷ the family (Zarhites), the household (Zabdi), ¹⁸ and finally the man who took the accursed thing (Achan).

¹⁹ Joshua said to Achan, “Confess what you have done. Don't hide it from me.”

²⁰ Achan answered,

I sinned against God. I did thus and thus.

²¹ I saw among the spoils a nice garment, 200 shekels of silver, 50 shekels of gold. I took them and hid them in a hole under my tent.

²² Joshua sent some men to check, and they found it under Achan's tent.

²³ They brought the things to Joshua and laid them in front of God.

^24-25 Joshua took Achan, his sons and daughters, animals, and all that he had and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

²⁶ They put up a heap of stones to mark the place.

And God turned from the fierceness of his anger.