The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Sin of Achan
Joshua 7:16–26 — The Sin of Achan. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
16So Joshua arose early the next morning and had Israel come forward tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was selected.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ way·yaš·kêm bab·bō·qer yiś·rā·’êl way·yaq·rêḇ ’eṯ- liš·ḇā·ṭāw šê·ḇeṭ yə·hū·ḏāh way·yil·lā·ḵêḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Joshua rose-early in-the-morning and-brought-near Israel by-its-tribes — and-the-tribe-of Judah was-caught.
Where the English smooths the original
Which showed his readiness and diligence to obey the command of God; and as there was much work to do, it required that he should rise early
The lot being appealed to (Pr 16:33), he proceeded in the inquiry from heads of tribes to heads of families, and from heads of households in succession to one family, and to particular persons in that family, until the criminal was found to be Achan
Discovery of the guilty man through the lot.
17He had the clans of Judah come forward, and the clan of the Zerahites was selected. He had the clan of the Zerahites come forward, and the family of Zabdi was selected.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
miš·pa·ḥaṯ yə·hū·ḏāh way·yaq·rêḇ ’eṯ- miš·pa·ḥaṯ haz·zar·ḥî way·yil·kōḏ ’êṯ miš·pa·ḥaṯ haz·zar·ḥî way·yaq·rêḇ ’eṯ- lag·gə·ḇā·rîm zaḇ·dî way·yil·lā·ḵêḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-brought-near the-clan-of Judah, and-he-caught the-clan-of the-Zerahites; and-he-brought-near the-clan-of the-Zerahites man-by-man, and-Zabdi was-caught.
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The plural mishpachoth is adopted in the lxx and Vulgate, and also to be met with in seven MSS; but this is a conjecture rather than the original reading
Man by man; not every individual person, as is evident from Joshua 7:18 , but every head of the several houses or lesser families of that greater family of the Zarhites
he took the family of the Zarhites: which descended from Zerah the son of Judah; that was taken by lot
18And he had the family of Zabdi come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bê·ṯōw way·yaq·rêḇ ’eṯ- lag·gə·ḇā·rîm ‘ā·ḵān ben- kar·mî ḇen- zaḇ·dî ben- ze·raḥ lə·maṭ·ṭêh yə·hū·ḏāh way·yil·lā·ḵêḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-brought-near his-household man-by-man, and-Achan son-of-Carmi, son-of-Zabdi, son-of-Zerah, of-the-tribe-of Judah, was-caught.
Where the English smooths the original
however secretly we may conceal our wickedness, yet God knoweth it, and sooner or later will bring it to light and due condemnation. There is nothing secret which shall not be made manifest, neither any thing hid that shall not be known.
Sometimes in taking the sacred lot dice were thrown; comp. the expression “ to cast lots ” ( Joshua 18:10 ); to “ throw ” them ( Joshua 18:6 ); “the lot falls ” ( Jonah 1:7
Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken; the lot fell upon him, and he was laid hold on, and detained.
19So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him. I urge you to tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ way·yō·mer ’el- ‘ā·ḵān bə·nî śîm- ḵā·ḇō·wḏ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl wə·ṯen- ṯō·w·ḏāh lōw nā wə·hag·geḏ- nā lî meh ‘ā·śî·ṯā ’al- tə·ḵa·ḥêḏ mim·men·nî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Joshua said to-Achan, “My-son, set, please, glory to-YHWH, the-God-of Israel, and-give to-him confession; and-tell, please, to-me what you-have-done — do-not hide from-me.”
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We can hardly read these words of Joshua without being reminded of his great Antitype. In New Testament language, to tell Joshua is to “tell Jesus “—the only way in which confession of sin can bring glory.Ellicott also notes the Hebrew word for “confession” (tôdâh) “also means ‘thanksgiving’” — the lexical fact the parse confirms.
My son. This is no mere hypocritical affectation of tenderness. Joshua feels for the criminal, even though he is forced to put him to death.
"And give Him praise:" the meaning is not, "make confession," but give praise, as Ezra 10:11 clearly shows. Through a confession of the truth Achan was to render to God, as the Omniscient, the praise and honour that were due.
A form of solemn adjuration by which the person addressed was called upon before God to declare the truth. The phrase assumes that the glory of God is always promoted by manifestation of the truth
20“It is true,” Achan replied, “I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I did:
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ā·mə·nāh ‘ā·ḵān ’eṯ- way·ya·‘an yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ way·yō·mar ’ā·nō·ḵî ḥā·ṭā·ṯî Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê yiś·rā·’êl wə·ḵā·zōṯ wə·ḵā·zōṯ ‘ā·śî·ṯî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Achan answered Joshua and-said, “Truly I myself have-sinned against-YHWH, the-God-of Israel — and-thus-and-thus I-have-done.
Where the English smooths the original
He seems to make a sincere and ingenuous confession, and loads his sin with all just aggravations. Against the Lord — Against his express command, and glorious attributes.
He made a free and open confession of his sin: indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel; against him who had been so good to Israel in many instances
Achan then acknowledge his sin, and confessed that he had appropriated to himself from among the booty a beautiful Babylonish cloak, 200 shekels of silver, and a tongue of gold of 50 shekels weight.
21When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wå̄·ʾɛr·ʾɛh ḇaš·šā·lāl ’a·ḥaṯ ṭō·w·ḇāh ’ad·de·reṯ šin·‘ār ū·mā·ṯa·yim šə·qā·lîm ke·sep̄ ’e·ḥāḏ ū·lə·šō·wn zā·hāḇ miš·qā·lōw ḥă·miš·šîm šə·qā·lîm wā·’eḥ·mə·ḏêm wā·’eq·qā·ḥêm wə·hin·nām ṭə·mū·nîm bā·’ā·reṣ bə·ṯō·wḵ hā·’ā·ho·lî wə·hak·ke·sep̄ taḥ·te·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-saw among-the-spoil one beautiful cloak-of Shinar, and-two-hundred shekels-of silver, and-one tongue-of gold weighing fifty shekels — and-I-coveted them and-took them; and-behold-they-are hidden in-the-ground inside my-tent, with-the-silver underneath.”
Where the English smooths the original
Achan's sin began in the eye. He saw these fine things, as Eve saw the forbidden fruit. See what comes of suffering the heart to walk after the eyes, and what need we have to make this covenant with our eyes, that if they wander they shall be sure to weep for it. It proceeded out of the heart.
The very word employed, not only in the tenth commandment ( Deuteronomy 5:21 ), but also in Deuteronomy 7:25 , the passage which forbids Israel to desire the spoils of idolatry. This coincidence of terms makes it somewhat probable that the whole were found in some idol’s temple
He accurately describes the progress of his sin, which began at his eye, which he permitted to gaze and fix upon them, which inflamed his desire, and made him covet them; and that desire put him upon action, and made him take them; and having taken, resolve to keep them
memento, quia Jesus anathema jussit esse omni aurum quod in Jericho fuerit inventum.The Pulpit Commentary preserves Origen’s homily on this verse: the “golden tongue” of Jericho he reads as the eloquence of false teaching — remember, he warns, that Jesus (Joshua) put under the ban all the gold found in Jericho. An ancient figural reading, recorded here, not asserted as the verse’s plain sense.
22So Joshua sent messengers who ran to the tent, and there it all was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ way·yiš·laḥ mal·’ā·ḵîm way·yā·ru·ṣū hā·’ō·hĕ·lāh wə·hin·nêh ṭə·mū·nāh bə·’ā·ho·lōw wə·hak·ke·sep̄ taḥ·te·hā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Joshua sent messengers, and-they-ran to-the-tent — and-behold, it-was hidden in-his-tent, with-the-silver underneath.
Where the English smooths the original
Joshua sent messengers — That the truth of his confession might be unquestionable, which some, peradventure, might think was forced from him. And they ran — Partly longing to free themselves and all the people from all the curse under which they lay; and partly, that none of Achan’s relations might get thither before them, and take away the things.
Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent—from impatient eagerness not only to test the truth of the story, but to clear Israel from the imputation of guilt.
and they ran unto the tent; either for joy that the iniquity was discovered, as Kimchi; or that none of the tribe of Judah or of Achan's family or relations should get there before them
23They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out before the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yiq·qā·ḥūm mit·tō·wḵ hā·’ō·hel way·ḇi·’ūm ’el- yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ wə·’el kāl- bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl way·yaṣ·ṣi·qum lip̄·nê Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-took them from-inside the-tent and-brought-them to-Joshua and-to all the-sons-of Israel, and-they-poured-them-out before YHWH.
Where the English smooths the original
The silver and the gold, by His order, should have been brought into His treasury ( Joshua 6:19 ). The spoils of Canaan might have been consecrated as holiness to Jehovah. But in this instance the spoil of Jericho had become the sin of Israel, and it must therefore be no longer preserved, but consumed.
This shows the directly religious nature of the proceeding. God had directed the lot, the offender was discovered, and now the devoted things are solemnly laid out one by one
laid them out ] Literally, poured them out. before the Lord ] i.e. before the ark of Jehovah, where He was enthroned.
24Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen and donkeys and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned, and brought them to the Valley of Achor.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ ’eṯ- ‘im·mōw wə·ḵāl yiś·rā·’êl way·yiq·qaḥ ‘ā·ḵān ben- ze·raḥ wə·’eṯ- hak·ke·sep̄ wə·’eṯ- hā·’ad·de·reṯ wə·’eṯ- lə·šō·wn haz·zā·hāḇ wə·’eṯ- bā·nāw wə·’eṯ- bə·nō·ṯāw wə·’eṯ- šō·w·rōw wə·’eṯ- ḥă·mō·rōw wə·’eṯ- ṣō·nōw wə·’eṯ- ’ā·ho·lōw wə·’eṯ- kāl- ’ă·šer- lōw way·ya·‘ă·lū ’ō·ṯām ‘ê·meq ‘ā·ḵō·wr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Joshua, and-all Israel with-him, took Achan son-of-Zerah, and-the-silver, and-the-cloak, and-the-tongue-of gold, and-his-sons, and-his-daughters, and-his-ox, and-his-donkey, and-his-flock, and-his-tent, and-all that-was his — and-they-brought-up them to-the-Valley-of-Achor.
Where the English smooths the original
But in this case, warning had been given that the man who took of the accursed thing, or ch ê rern, would be an accursed thing like it, if he brought it into his house ( Deuteronomy 7:26 ), and would make the camp of Israel chêrem also ( Joshua 6:18 ), and thus Achan’s whole establishment was destroyed as though it had become part of Jericho.Ellicott also records the wordplay of Hosea 2:15 — the valley of trouble (Achor) made “a door of hope,” and Carmi (“my vineyard”) answered by “her vineyards.” A reading rooted in the shared rare lexeme ʻÂkôwr, not imposed.
The sin had been national ( Joshua 7:1 note), and accordingly the expiation of it was no less so. The whole nation, no doubt through its usual representatives, took part in executing the sentence.
This judgment belonged only to God, and to whom he will reveal it. He had commanded man not to punish the child for the father's sins, De 24:16.
25“Why have you brought this trouble upon us?” said Joshua. “Today the LORD will bring trouble upon you!” And all Israel stoned him to death. Then they stoned the others and burned their bodies.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
meh ‘ă·ḵar·tā·nū way·yō·mer yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘ bay·yō·wm haz·zeh Yah·weh ya‘·kor·ḵā ḵāl yiś·rā·’êl way·yir·gə·mū ’ō·ṯōw ’e·ḇen way·yis·qə·lū ’ō·ṯām bā·’ă·ḇā·nîm way·yiś·rə·p̄ū ’ō·ṯām bā·’êš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-Joshua said, “Why have-you-troubled us? YHWH will-trouble you this day!” And-all Israel stoned him with-stone(s), and-they-burned them with-fire and-stoned them with-stones.
Where the English smooths the original
It has been suggested that the former word signifies to stone a living person, the second to heap up stones upon a dead one; and this derives confirmation from the fact that the former word has the signification of piling up, while the latter rather gives the idea of the weight of the pile.
The use of the singular here and in the following verse is deserving of notice. It suggests that it does not necessarily follow that the sons and daughters of Achan were burned with him.
this day thou shalt be troubled, but thou shalt not be troubled in the world to come;''suggesting that though temporal punishment was inflicted on him, yet his iniquity was forgiven, and he would be saved with an everlasting, salvationGill relays the Mishnah’s reading of “this day”: Achan’s trouble is for this world only — a hope, recorded among the sources, that his confession secured the age to come.
26And they heaped over Achan a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. So the LORD turned from His burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yā·qî·mū ‘ā·lāw gā·ḏō·wl gal- ’ă·ḇā·nîm ‘aḏ haz·zeh hay·yō·wm Yah·weh way·yā·šāḇ mê·ḥă·rō·wn ’ap·pōw ‘al- kên ha·hū ham·mā·qō·wm qā·rā šêm ‘ê·meq ‘ā·ḵō·wr ‘aḏ haz·zeh hay·yō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-raised over-him a-great heap-of stones unto this day; and-YHWH turned from-the-burning-of his-nostril. Therefore the-name-of that place is-called the-Valley-of-Achor unto this day.
Where the English smooths the original
And the Lord turned from the heat of His anger. There is no contradiction between this and such passages as 1 Samuel 15:29 ; James 1:17 . It is not God, but we who turn. Our confession and restitution, by uniting our will with His, of necessity turn His wrath away.
“Even to Achan himself,” remarks Bp Wordsworth, “the valley of Achor may have been made a door of hope ( Hosea 2:15 ), because he confessed his sin, and there is reason to hope and believe that he listened to the words of Joshua, ‘My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel,’ and submitted to the punishment due to his sin.”
the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor—("trouble"), unto this day—So painful an episode would give notoriety to the spot, and it is more than once noted by the sacred writers of a later age (Isa 65:10; Ho 2:15).
so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger; or the effects of it ceased; the outward face of things was altered, the dealings of God in his providence with Israel were changed; though, properly speaking, there is no change in God
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The chapter’s second half opens at dawn: Joshua way·yaš·kêm, “loaded up early,” shouldering a task no one would relish (Gill: “his readiness and diligence to obey the command of God”). The procedure is liturgical, not forensic — Israel is brought near (√ qârab, the altar-verb) tribe by tribe before the LORD. The recurring verb is lâkad (H3920), “to be caught in a net, trap, or pit” — four times the snare closes (vv. 16, 17, 17, 18), tribe to clan to household to man. The means is hidden — JFB ties it to Proverbs 16:33, “the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” — and the result is certain. There is a real exegetical knot at v. 17: the Hebrew reads mishpaḥat (“the clan,” singular) where one expects the plural; Keil & Delitzsch records that “the plural mishpachoth is adopted in the lxx and Vulgate, and also to be met with in seven MSS; but this is a conjecture rather than the original reading.” We follow the harder Masoretic singular. The funnel ends on a name recited in full — Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah — and Benson draws the plain lesson: “however secretly we may conceal our wickedness, yet God knoweth it… There is nothing secret which shall not be made manifest.”
Joshua’s address is the tenderest line in the unit: bənî, “my son.” The Pulpit Commentary insists “this is no mere hypocritical affectation of tenderness… Joshua feels for the criminal, even though he is forced to put him to death.” The charge “give glory (kâbôd, ‘weight’) to the LORD” is, per Barnes and JFB, “a form of solemn adjuration” — and it is the same oath-idiom flung at the blind man’s accusers in John 9:24 — an idiomatic echo across the Testaments, not a shared-Strong’s link. The word for “confession,” tôdâh (H8426), is itself two-edged: Ellicott notes “the Hebrew word for ‘confession’ also means ‘thanksgiving,’” and Keil & Delitzsch presses it — “the meaning is not, ‘make confession,’ but give praise, as Ezra 10:11 clearly shows.” To own one’s sin truthfully is to render God His due weight. Ellicott reaches past Joshua to “his great Antitype”: “to tell Joshua is to ‘tell Jesus.’”
Achan’s confession opens with ʼomnâh (H546, a kin of “amen”), “truly” — the particle of faithfulness on the lips of the faithless — and the emphatic ’ānōkî, “I, even I, have sinned.” Then comes the anatomy of the fall. The Verifier confirms that verse 21 shares with Genesis 3:6 the exact lexical chain râʼâh (saw) → ṭôwb (good) → châmad (coveted) → lâqach (took); Matthew Henry heard it three centuries before the concordance: “He saw these fine things, as Eve saw the forbidden fruit.” Poole maps the descent step by step: the sin “began at his eye… inflamed his desire… made him take them.” The decisive verb châmad (H2530, only 22 verses) is the verb of the tenth commandment (Ex 20:17) and of Deuteronomy 7:25, the very statute forbidding Israel to covet idol-gold and take it; Ellicott notes “the very word employed,” and reasons “the whole were found in some idol’s temple.” Achan, confessing, unwittingly quotes the law he broke. The object of his desire is a cloak of Shinar — a robe of Babel (Gen 11:2), the city of pride — and a “tongue of gold.” The Pulpit Commentary preserves Origen’s ancient figural homily on that golden tongue, reading it as the seductive eloquence of false teaching that defiles the whole camp if carried into one’s tent — offered here as a recorded ancient reading, not the verse’s plain sense.
Justice here is careful to be seen as just: Joshua sends runners “that the truth of his confession might be unquestionable, which some, peradventure, might think was forced from him” (Benson). They run (√ rûts) with the whole nation’s longing to be loosed from a curse it unknowingly bore — JFB: “to clear Israel from the imputation of guilt.” The narrator repeats Achan’s own word ṭâman (“hidden,” v. 21) back as bare fact: “and behold, hidden.” Then the goods are poured out (√ yâtsaq, H3332 — not merely “spread,” as the BSB has it) before the LORD. Cambridge confirms the verb is “literally, poured them out,” before the ark “where He was enthroned.” Ellicott catches the tragic inversion: this silver and gold, by God’s own order, “should have been brought into His treasury (Joshua 6:19)… But in this instance the spoil of Jericho had become the sin of Israel.” What was taken (lâqach, v. 21) is now taken back (lâqach, v. 23) and emptied like a libation at God’s feet.
Then the long, dreadful inventory: Achan, the treasure, his sons and daughters, ox and donkey and flock, his tent, “all that he had,” led up (√ ʻâlâh — the valley sits on higher ground) to a place named by anticipation. Joshua’s sentence is a chiasm of one root, ʻâkar (H5916, “to trouble, to roil water”): “you have troubled (ʻăkartānû) us — YHWH will trouble (yaʻkorḵā) you this day.” The name of the man (1 Chronicles 2:7 calls him Achar, “troubler”) and the name of the place (Achor) are spelled with the crime’s own letters. We do not soften the gravest crux: the death of the children seems to collide with Deuteronomy 24:16. The sources divide, and we record the division rather than resolve it falsely. Ellicott grounds it in the ḥērem — whoever brought the devoted thing into his house “would be an accursed thing like it… Achan’s whole establishment was destroyed as though it had become part of Jericho.” Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary, weighing the slide from singular “him” to plural “them” in v. 25, hold open that the family may have been brought only as witnesses. We leave the tension visible. The unit closes by reversing its own opening: the burning of YHWH’s nostril against Israel (v. 1) now turns back (v. 26). The Pulpit Commentary’s honest gloss: “It is not God, but we who turn.” And over the cairn the prophets will one day stand — for Achor, the valley of trouble, becomes in Hosea 2:15 “a door of hope.”
Read under Sola Scriptura, this passage refuses to let sin be private. It opens with a national verb for a single hand (ch. 7:1) and ends with a single valley bearing a single man’s name — the whole arc insisting that what one tent buries, the whole camp carries. The machinery is deliberate and slow: the lot narrows by stages, the confession is itemized, the runners verify, the goods are poured out, the sentence is pronounced before it is executed. None of it is hasty; all of it is before the LORD. And the deepest mark in the Hebrew is the rerun of Eden in verse 21 — saw, good, coveted, took — which says that Achan’s crime is not exotic but archetypal, the oldest sin in the canon wearing a Babylonian cloak. Yet the same text that buries a man under stones plants a hope in the soil: the name it gives the place, Achor, is the very word Hosea will seize to promise a door of hope, and the wrath that flares in verse 1 is, by verse 26, turned away. My fallible reading: the Valley of Trouble is named not only to warn but to be redeemed — the place where coveting was judged becomes, in prophetic hands, the threshold of a restored covenant. This is offered to be tested against the whole counsel of God, not asserted over it.
The oldest sin in the canon — saw, coveted, took — was buried in a tent and named a whole valley.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Achan’s confession in 7:21 reproduces, word for word in the original, the sequence of Eve’s in Genesis 3:6: she saw (rāʼâh) that the tree was good (ṭôwb), desired/coveted (the cognate longing), and took (lāqach). The Verifier records the shared lexemes H7200 rāʼâh, H2896 ṭôwb, H2530 châmad, and H3947 lāqach — the same four-link chain of the eye, the heart, and the hand. Matthew Henry made the connection on the plain sense: “He saw these fine things, as Eve saw the forbidden fruit.” The pattern is structural and thematic — a shared anatomy of temptation — not a quotation either way.
Genesis 3:6
basis: Verifier-shared lexemes H7200 râʼâh (saw), H2896 ṭôwb (good), H2530 châmad (coveted), H3947 lâqach (took) — the same saw/good/covet/take chain; pattern, not quotation
The hinge verb of 7:21, châmad (“to covet,” only 22 verses canon-wide), is the verb of the tenth commandment (Exodus 20:17) and, more pointedly, of Deuteronomy 7:25 — the statute forbidding Israel to covet the silver and gold of idols and take it. The Verifier confirms 7:21 shares with Deut 7:25 the lexemes H2530 châmad, H2091 zâhâb (gold), H3701 keseph (silver), and H3947 lâqach (take): the same four nouns and verbs as the prohibition. Ellicott saw it: “the very word employed… in Deuteronomy 7:25, the passage which forbids Israel to desire the spoils of idolatry.” Achan’s sin is the exact statute reversed. Shared common-Hebrew vocabulary, not a citation — hence structural/thematic.
Deuteronomy 7:25 · Exodus 20:17
basis: Verifier-shared lexemes with Deut 7:25: H2530 châmad, H2091 zâhâb, H3701 keseph, H3947 lâqach (covet/gold/silver/take); with Ex 20:17: H2530 châmad — the tenth-commandment word
Joshua’s sentence in 7:25 turns on ʻâkar (“to trouble, to roil water,” 13 verses): “you have troubled us — the LORD will trouble you.” The valley is named Achor (ʻÂkôwr) from it (vv. 24, 26), and 1 Chronicles 2:7 renames the man himself Achar, “the troubler of Israel.” The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme H5916 ʻâkar between 7:25 and 1 Chronicles 2:7. Name, deed, and place collapse into a single Hebrew root. We tier this structural, not verbal: ʻâkar at 13 verses is not rare enough, and the Chronicler is not quoting Joshua but reapplying the same word-play to fix Achan’s memory as “Achar, the troubler.” The link is a shared motif spelled with one root, honestly the strongest kind of thematic tie short of citation.
Joshua 7:25 · 1 Chronicles 2:7
basis: Verifier-shared lexeme H5916 ʻâkar (to trouble — 13 vv) between Josh 7:25 and 1 Chron 2:7, where Achan becomes Achar; Verifier returns structural (ʻâkar is not rare-rare, no quotation) — downgraded from verbal
The corporate destruction of 7:24 is recalled at Joshua 22:20, where Phinehas asks, “Did not Achan son of Zerah commit a trespass… and that man perished not alone in his iniquity?” The Verifier confirms the shared rare names H5912 ʻÂkân (only 6 verses) and H2226 Zerach (21 verses) between 7:24 and 22:20 — the later passage citing this very event by name and lineage. A confirmed verbal/named link, recording how the episode became a standing warning in Israel’s memory.
Joshua 7:24 · Joshua 22:20
basis: Verifier-shared rare names H5912 ʻÂkân (6 vv) and H2226 Zerach (21 vv); Josh 22:20 explicitly recalls Achan’s trespass by name
The rare place-name ʻÂkôwr (only 5 verses canon-wide) binds this scene to its two prophetic afterlives. Isaiah 65:10 promises “the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds,” and Hosea 2:15, “I will give her… the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.” The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes H5911 ʻÂkôwr and H6010 ʻêmeq (valley) linking 7:24/26 to both prophets. Because ʻÂkôwr occurs in so few verses, the verbal link is firm: the prophets deliberately reclaim Joshua’s valley of judgment as a place of pasture and renewed covenant.
Joshua 7:26 · Isaiah 65:10 · Hosea 2:15
basis: Verifier-shared rare lexeme H5911 ʻÂkôwr (only 5 vv) plus H6010 ʻêmeq (valley); Isa 65:10 and Hos 2:15 name the same valley to reverse its meaning
The lot snares the clan of the Zarhites (7:17), descendants of Zerah son of Judah, whose census standing is fixed at Numbers 26:20. The Verifier records the shared lexemes H2227 Zarchîy (the Zarhites, 5 vv), H4940 mishpâchâh (clan), and H2226 Zerach between 7:17 and Numbers 26:20 — the narrative narrowing through Israel’s own genealogical register. A confirmed structural link of clan and census, not a quotation claim.
Joshua 7:17 · Numbers 26:20
basis: Verifier-shared lexemes H2227 Zarchîy (5 vv), H4940 mishpâchâh, H2226 Zerach between Josh 7:17 and the Num 26:20 census of Judah
Achan opens his confession with ʼomnâh (H546, “truly, surely,” a kin of amen) — a word that occurs in only two verses in the whole Hebrew Bible. The other is Genesis 20:12, where Abraham defends his deception of Abimelech: “and yet indeed she is my sister.” The Verifier records the shared rare lexeme H546 ʼomnâh between Joshua 7:20 and Genesis 20:12. The same particle of confirmed faithfulness frames opposite uses of truth: Abraham deploys it to half-justify a deception; Achan, the man caught in the net, uses it to assent wholly to the verdict against him. Because ʼomnâh is so rare, the lexical link is firm; it is a shared rare word, not a quotation, so we tier it verbal on the strength of the rarity while noting no citation is claimed.
Joshua 7:20 · Genesis 20:12
basis: Verifier-shared rare lexeme H546 ʼomnâh (only 2 vv canon-wide) between Josh 7:20 and Gen 20:12 — a rare-word link, not a citation; rarity (2 vv) carries the verbal tier
The first thing Achan covets is an ʼaddereth (H155, “an ample/glorious cloak,” from ʼâdar, “to be wide, glorious”) of Shinar (7:21). The same rare noun (12 verses) clothes Esau at birth — “red, all over like a hairy garment” (Genesis 25:25) — and, far more weightily, is the prophet’s mantle: Elijah’s cloak with which he calls Elisha (1 Kings 19:19) and which parts the Jordan (2 Kings 2:13–14). The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme H155 ʼaddereth between Joshua 7:21 and both Genesis 25:25 and 1 Kings 19:19. The Pulpit Commentary makes the link on the plain sense — the ʼaddereth “was an ample cloak, sometimes of hair or fur” — and cites Genesis 25:25 and 1 Kings 19:13, 19 as the parallels. The tragic irony: the garment-word that elsewhere marks election (Esau’s birthright, the prophetic call) here marks a man’s undoing — a glorious robe coveted into a grave. Shared moderately-rare vocabulary across distinct scenes; a structural/thematic tie, not a quotation.
Joshua 7:21 · Genesis 25:25 · 1 Kings 19:19
basis: Verifier-shared lexeme H155 ʼaddereth (12 vv) between Josh 7:21 and Gen 25:25 (Esau’s garment) and 1 Kings 19:19 (Elijah’s mantle); shared garment-word, no quotation — structural
The early church read Achan’s secret theft and sudden death as the type of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11): in each case a hidden act of covetousness at the founding of a new covenant people brings death and “great fear” upon the whole assembly. This is a figural/typological reading across Testaments — Greek and Hebrew share no Strong’s number, so it cannot be a verbal link. It is widely held in the tradition (the LXX of 7:1 even uses the verb Luke applies to Ananias), recorded here as a typology to be tested, not asserted as the text’s plain sense.
Joshua 7:21 · Acts 5:1 · Acts 5:11
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): no shared Strong’s possible; figural correspondence of hidden covetousness and death at a covenant founding — widely held, marked typological not verbal
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Ellicott reads Joshua’s words to Achan as pointing past himself: “We can hardly read these words of Joshua without being reminded of his great Antitype… to tell Joshua is to ‘tell Jesus.’” Joshua could name the sin and pronounce the sentence — “give glory to the LORD… and tell me” — but he could only put Achan to death. The same Greek name, Iēsous, belongs to the One who, hearing confession, says not “the LORD will trouble you” but “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us” (1 John 1:9). The tenderness of “my son” over a man he must execute foreshadows a Joshua who bears the trouble himself. Widely held in the Christian reading of this scene.
Joshua 7:19 · Joshua 7:25 · 1 John 1:9
Hosea 2:15 takes the place of Israel’s deepest shame, the Valley of Trouble, and makes it “a door of hope.” The Christian tradition (Bp Wordsworth, cited in Cambridge: “the valley of Achor may have been made a door of hope… because he confessed his sin”) reads this reversal as fulfilled where the place of curse becomes the place of entrance — the cross, where “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). The cairn of judgment over a covetous man becomes, in the gospel, the threshold of restored covenant. A typological reading grounded in the verbal Achor-link of Hosea, marked as such.
Joshua 7:26 · Hosea 2:15 · Galatians 3:13
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is Hebrew throughout; all word-level data (surface, translit, gloss, Strong’s, root, parse) is sourced from the Berean/Strong’s apparatus and is not contradicted here. Cross-reference tiers were computed with the project Verifier (engine/verifier.py); each thread’s badge cites the actual shared lexemes it returned. Five load-bearing links were re-run and confirmed live: Josh 7:21↔Genesis 3:6 (saw/good/covet/take), Josh 7:21↔Deuteronomy 7:25 (covet/gold/silver/take), Josh 7:24/26↔Isaiah 65:10 & Hosea 2:15 (the rare name Achor), Josh 7:20↔Genesis 20:12 (the rare adverb ʼomnâh, 2 vv), and Josh 7:21↔Genesis 25:25 & 1 Kings 19:19 (the cloak-word ʼaddereth). One badge was downgraded in this editorial pass: Josh 7:25↔1 Chronicles 2:7 (the ʻâkar word-play that turns Achan into “Achar, the troubler”) was previously tiered verbal, but the Verifier returns structural — ʻâkar at 13 verses is not rare-rare and the Chronicler is reapplying, not quoting; we corrected it to structural. The new ʼomnâh thread is tiered verbal on the strength of the word’s rarity (2 vv), with the honest caveat that it is a shared rare word and not a citation; the ʼaddereth thread is tiered structural (12 vv, no quotation). The Achan↔Ananias and Achor↔Galatians links are cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew) and therefore cannot rest on shared Strong’s numbers; they are tiered typological, not verbal, and labeled widely-held. Two textual/interpretive honesties are surfaced rather than smoothed: (1) the singular mishpaḥat in v. 17, where LXX, Vulgate, and seven MSS read the plural — we keep the harder Masoretic reading with Keil & Delitzsch; and (2) the death of Achan’s sons and daughters in v. 24, which stands in tension with Deuteronomy 24:16. On the latter the sources genuinely divide — Ellicott, Barnes, and K&D argue the ḥērem swept the whole household in; Cambridge, the Pulpit Commentary, and the Septuagint tradition note the slide from singular “him” to plural “them” in v. 25 and hold open that the children may have been only witnesses. We record the division and do not resolve it past what the text says. Note also: this unit does not contain Joshua 1:5, so the standing Joshua 1:5→Hebrews 13:5 flag does not apply here. Every ✦ voice is a verbatim contiguous excerpt of the sourced public-domain commentary; ⚙ synthesis is fallible and offered to be tested under Sola Scriptura.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)