Joshua 7:1

Joshua 7:1-5. The Sin of Achan, and Assault on Ai

1. committed a trespass The word used here in the Septuagint Version is very striking. It is the same as that employed in Acts 5:1-2 to describe the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. They took for themselves, appropriated to themselves, sequestered from God, a portion of what had been devoted to Him at Jericho. Wyclif renders it "mystoken of the halewid thing."

for Achan Or, Achar, as he is called in 1 Chronicles 2:7.

the son of Zabdi Or, Zimri, as his name is given in 1 Chronicles 2:6.

took of the accursed thing What he took is more fully described in Joshua 7:21. His sin was rendered more heinous by the fact that he knew full well the ban which had been pronounced upon the doomed city, a ban extending to all time, and including even the whole family of any who should dare to restore the fortifications of Jericho. Cæsar in his account of the devotion of conquered towns to the gods amongst the Gauls, alluded to above, Joshua 6:17, goes on to say, "Multis in civitatibus harum rerum exstructos tumulos locis consecratis conspicari licet: neque sæpe accidit, ut neglecta quispiam religione, aut capta apud se occultare, aut posita tollere auderet; gravissimumque ei rei supplicium cum cruciatu constitutum est" (Bell. Gall. Joshua 6:17).