יהושע - Joshua 6-8 - 2024-25

(1) (Now Jericho was shut up tight because of the Israelites; no one could leave or enter.) (2) GOD [the captain of 5.14–15, on GOD’s behalf; cf. Kimhi/Radak] said to Joshua, “See, I will deliver Jericho into your hands—its king and warriors. (3) Let all your troops march around the city and complete one circuit of the city. Do this six days, (4) with seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns preceding the Ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. (5) And when a long blast is sounded on the horn—as soon as you hear that sound of the horn—all the troops shall give a mighty shout. Thereupon the city wall will collapse, and the troops shall advance, every man straight ahead.”

(6) Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said to them, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and let seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns precede the Ark of GOD.” (7) And he instructed the troops, “Go forward, march around the city, with the vanguard marching in front of the Ark of GOD.” (8) When Joshua had instructed the troops, the seven priests carrying seven ram’s horns advanced before GOD, blowing their horns; and the Ark of GOD’s Covenant followed them. (9) The vanguard marched in front of the priests who were blowing the horns, and the rear guard marched behind the Ark, with the horns sounding all the time. (10) But Joshua’s orders to the rest of the troops were, “Do not shout, do not let your voices be heard, and do not let a sound issue from your lips until the moment that I command you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout.”

(24) They burned down the city and everything in it. But the silver and gold and the objects of copper and iron were deposited in the treasury of the House of GOD. (25) Only Rahab the prostitute and her family were spared by Joshua, along with all that belonged to her, and she dwelt among the Israelites—as is still the case. For she had hidden the messengers that Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. (26) At that time Joshua pronounced this oath: “Anyone who undertakes to fortify this city of Jericho is hereby under GOD’s curse: its foundations shall be laid at the cost of their first-born, and its gates set up at the cost of their youngest.” (27) GOD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

(10) But GOD answered Joshua: “Arise! Why do you lie prostrate? (11) Israel has sinned! They have broken the covenant by which I bound them. They have taken of the proscribed and put it in their vessels; they have stolen; they have broken faith! (12) Therefore, the Israelites will not be able to hold their ground against their enemies; they will have to turn tail before their enemies, for they have become proscribed. I will not be with you anymore unless you root out from among you what is proscribed. (13) Go and purify the people. Order them: Purify yourselves for tomorrow. For thus says the ETERNAL, the God of Israel: Something proscribed is in your midst, O Israel, and you will not be able to stand up to your enemies until you have purged the proscribed from among you. (14) Tomorrow morning you shall present yourselves by tribes. Whichever tribe GOD indicates shall come forward by clans; the clan that GOD indicates shall come forward by ancestral houses, and the ancestral house that GOD indicates shall come forward man by man. (15) Then he who is indicated for proscription, all that is his, shall be put to the fire, because he broke the Covenant of GOD and because he committed an outrage in Israel.”

(16) Early next morning, Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes; and the tribe of Judah was indicated. (17) He then had the clans of Judah come forward, and the clan of Zerah was indicated. Then he had the clan of Zerah come forward by ancestral houses, and Zabdi was indicated. (18) Finally he had his ancestral house come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was indicated.

(19) Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, pay honor to the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, by making confession. Tell me what you have done; do not hold anything back from me.” (20) Achan answered Joshua, “It is true, I have sinned against the ETERNAL, the God of Israel. This is what I did: (21) I saw among the spoil a fine Shinar mantle, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, and I coveted them and took them. They are buried in the ground in my tent, with the silver under the mantle.”

(22) Joshua sent messengers, who hurried to the tent; and there was the mantle, buried in his tent, with the silver underneath. (23) They took them from the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and displayed them before GOD. (24) Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan son of Zerah—and the silver, the mantle, and the wedge of gold—his sons and daughters, and his ox, his donkey, and his flock, and his tent, and all his belongings, and brought them up to the Valley of Achor. (25) And Joshua said, “What calamity you have brought upon us! GOD will bring calamity upon you this day.” And all Israel pelted him with stones. They put them to the fire and stoned them. (26) They raised a huge mound of stones over him, which is still there. Then GOD’s anger subsided. That is why that place was named the Valley of Achor is still the case.

(9) Joshua then sent them off, and they proceeded to the ambush; they took up a position between Ai and Bethel—west of Ai—while Joshua spent the night with the rest of the troops. (10) Early in the morning, Joshua mustered the troops; then he and the elders of Israel marched upon Ai at the head of the troops. (11) All the combat troops that were with him advanced near the city and encamped to the north of Ai, with a hollow between them and Ai.— (12) He selected about five thousand men and stationed them as an ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. (13) Thus the main body of the army was disposed on the north of the city, but the far end of it was on the west. (This was after Joshua had spent the night the valley.—

(14) When the king of Ai saw them, he and all his troops, the townsmen, rushed out in the early morning to the meeting place, facing the Arabah, to engage the Israelites in battle; for he was unaware that a force was lying in ambush behind the city. (15) Joshua and all Israel fled in the direction of the wilderness, as though routed by them. (16) All the troops in the city gathered to pursue them; pursuing Joshua, they were drawn out of the city. (17) Not a man was left in Ai or in Bethel who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open while they pursued Israel.

(18) GOD then said to Joshua, “Hold out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will deliver it into your hands.” So Joshua held out the javelin in his hand toward the city. (19) As soon as he held out his hand, the ambush came rushing out of their station. They entered the city and captured it; and they swiftly set fire to the city. (20) The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising to the sky; they had no room for flight in any direction.
The people who had been fleeing to the wilderness now became the pursuers. (21) For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that smoke was rising from the city, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. (22) Now the other [Israelites] were coming out of the city against them, so that they were between two bodies of Israelites, one on each side of them. They were slaughtered, so that no one escaped or got away. (23) The king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

(30) At that time Joshua built an altar to the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, (31) as Moses, the servant of GOD, had commanded the Israelites—as is written in the Book of the Teaching of Moses —an altar of unhewn stone upon which no iron had been wielded. They offered on it burnt offerings to GOD, and brought sacrifices of well-being. (32) And there, on the stones, he inscribed a copy of the Teaching that Moses had written for the Israelites. (33) All Israel—stranger and citizen alike—with their elders, officials, and magistrates, stood on either side of the Ark, facing the levitical priests who carried the Ark of GOD’s Covenant. Half of them faced Mount Gerizim and half of them faced Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of GOD had commanded them of old, in order to bless the people of Israel.

(34) After that, he read all the words of the Teaching, the blessing and the curse, just as is written in the Book of the Teaching. (35) There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, including the women and children and the strangers who accompanied them.