A man steals things that belong to the Lord
1The Israelites did not listen to the Lord. They were unfaithful with the things that were consecrated to the Lord to be destroyed. Achan, son of Karmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah was from the Judah tribe. He took some of the things that were consecrated to the Lord to be destroyed and the Lord became angry with the Israelites.
2From Jericho Joshua sent some men to the town of Ai, near the town of Beth-Awen, east of the town of Bethel, to be spies. He told them to go and look at the place and see where they could attack them. The men went and they looked at the town of Ai. 3They went back to Joshua and they said to him: ‘Do not send all the men to attack them. About 2 000 or 3 000 men will be enough to defeat the town of Ai. There are not many people living there. Don't send all the men.’
4About 3 000 men went to attack Ai, but the men of Ai defeated the Israelites and they had to run away from the men of Ai, 5who killed about 36 Israelites. They followed_and_chased the Israelite men from the town gate of Ai to the valleys in the mountains and they killed the Israelite men when they went down into the valleys. The Israelites lost courage and became afraid.
6Joshua and the leaders_of_Israel tore their clothes and lay down before the covenant box of the Lord with their faces on the ground until the evening. They put sand on their heads. 7Joshua prayed and said: ‘O Lord, my God, why did You bring these Israelites over the Jordan River? Why did you give us to the Amorites so that they could kill all of us? It would have been better if we had stayed on the other side of the Jordan River. 8Please, Lord, what can I say? The Israelites ran away before their enemies. 9The Canaanite people and the other people in the land will hear what happened and they will attack and catch and kill us. No one in the land will remember that we were here. What will You do to make sure that people will keep on respecting You?’
10The Lord answered Joshua and He said to him: ‘Get up. Why do you lie here with your face to the ground? 11The Israelites have sinned. They have done wrong against my covenant with them. They took some of the things that were consecrated that had to be destroyed. They stole them and put them with their own things thinking that no one had seen them. 12That is why the Israelites can not go to war_against their enemies. They will lose again and run away before their enemies, because they too are consecrated now and they will have to die. You must take away the things that were consecrated. If you don't do it, I will not be with you anymore. 13Get up and talk to the people. Tell them: “You must consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord, the God of Israel, says you have things with you that are consecrated to Him to be destroyed, and you will not defeat your enemies. You must first take away these things.”
14Tomorrow morning you must come, one tribe after the other tribe. The Lord will choose a tribe, and then every clan in that tribe must come. The Lord will choose a clan and then every family in that clan must come. The Lord will choose a family and then every man in that family must come. 15The Lord will then show who stole the consecrated things and you must burn that person in a fire, him and all his people, because he did wrong against the covenant of the Lord. He did a foolish thing among the Israelites.’
16Joshua got up early the next morning and he told the tribes_of_Israel to come. The Lord chose the Judah tribe. 17Then Joshua told the clans in the Judah tribe to come, and the Lord chose the Zerah clan. From the Zerah clan the Lord chose the family of Zabdi. 18Joshua then told the family of Zabdi to come, and the Lord chose Achan, son of Karmi, son of Zabdi.
19Joshua then said to Achan: ‘My son, you must respect the Lord, the God of Israel. Praise Him and say He does what is right. Please tell me what you did. Do not hide it from me.’
20Achan answered and said: ‘Yes, I have sinned_against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 21I saw a beautiful coat among the plunder that we took, a coat from the land of Sinar, and also 200 pieces_of_silver and a piece of gold that weighs 50 shekels. I wanted them for myself and I took them. I buried them in my tent. The silver is under the other things.’
22Joshua sent some people and they ran to the tent and found the things that were buried there. The silver was under the other things. 23They took the things from the tent and they brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites. They put them down in front of the covenant box. 24Joshua and all the Israelites then took Achan, son of Zerach and they brought him to the Achor Valley. They also brought everything that belonged to Achan to the Achor Valley: the silver, the coat and the gold, and the children of Achan, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep and his goats.
25Then Joshua said to Achan: ‘You brought death to us, and many of our people died. Today the Lord will bring death to you. You will die.’
All the Israelites then killed Achan and his children and his animals with stones and burnt them in a fire. 26They threw a big heap of stones on them. The stones are still there today. Then the Lord was not angry anymore. The name of that place is still Achor Valley.
