Joshua 7:12

7:10-15 God awakens Joshua to inquiry, by telling him that when this accursed thing was put away, all would be well. Times of danger and trouble should be times of reformation. We should look at home, into our own hearts, into our own houses, and make diligent search to find out if there be not some accursed thing there, which God sees and abhors; some secret lust, some unlawful gain, some undue withholding from God or from others. We cannot prosper, until the accursed thing be destroyed out of our hearts, and put out of our habitations and our families, and forsaken in our lives. When the sin of sinners finds them out, God is to be acknowledged. With a certain and unerring judgment, the righteous God does and will distinguish between the innocent and the guilty; so that though the righteous are of the same tribe, and family, and household with the wicked, yet they never shall be treated as the wicked.

Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies,.... Being forsaken of God for the sin committed among them: but turned their backs before their enemies: had not courage to face them, but fled as soon as they appeared: because they were accursed; of God for the accursed thing that had been taken, as was threatened would be their case, should they take any of it; Joshua 6:18, neither will I be with you any more, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you; that is, until they had put to death the person who had taken of the accursed thing, and made himself thereby accursed, and even all the camp of Israel; till this was done, the Lord would not be with them to protect and defend them, and give them success against their enemies.

12 . except ye destroy the accursed from among you ] The LXX. translate, “Except ye remove the accursed thing, the Anathema, from among you,” using the identical word for remove that St Paul uses respecting the incestuous Corinthian, “therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person,” 1 Corinthians 5:13 .

Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye {f} destroy the accursed from among you. (f) Then to allow wickedness unpunished, is to refuse God willingly.

10-15. the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up—The answer of the divine oracle was to this effect: the crisis is owing not to unfaithfulness in Me, but sin in the people. The conditions of the covenant have been violated by the reservation of spoil from the doomed city; wickedness, emphatically called folly, has been committed in Israel (Ps 14:1), and dissimulation, with other aggravations of the crime, continues to be practised. The people are liable to destruction equally with the accursed nations of Canaan (De 7:26). Means must, without delay, be taken to discover and punish the perpetrator of this trespass that Israel may be released from the ban, and things be restored to their former state of prosperity.

Verse 12. - Therefore . This plain statement disposes of the idea that the repulse before Ai was simply the result of Joshua's rashness in sending so small a body of troops. The vivid narrative of the detection of Achan, obviously taken from contemporary records, precedes the account of the final capture of the city, although Joshua, who, as we have seen, does not neglect to employ human means, resolves to take greater precautions before making a second attack. Not a hint is dropped that the former number of men was insufficient, or that Joshua had been misled by the information brought by the reconnoitring party. In the mind of the historian the defect is entirely owing to the existence of secret sin in the Israelitish camp. Except ye destroy the accursed from among. Dr. Maclear, in the 'Cambridge Bible for Schools,' calls attention to the fact that 1 Corinthians 5:13 is a quotation from the LXX. here, substituting, however, τὸν πονηρὸν for το ἀνάθεμα . Joshua 7:12

Verse 29. - The places mentioned in this verse were assigned to Manasseh. Bethshean was on the west of Jordan, and was within the borders of Issachar ( Joshua 17:11-13 ; 1 Kings 4:11, 12 ). Dor was within the borders of Asher ( Joshua 11:1, 2 ; Joshua 12:23 ; Joshua 17:11 ; Judges 1:27, 28 ). Taanach . This place also lay within the borders of Issachar or Asher ( Joshua 17:11, 12 ; Joshua 21:25 ; Judges 5:19 ). Megiddo . This place is constantly coupled with the preceding. It lay on the south of the plain of Esdraelon ( Joshua 12:21 ; Joshua 17:12 ; Judges 1:27 ; 1 Kings 4:12 ). 1 Chronicles 7:29

31 . The effects of the great deliverance thus wrought for Israel: an increased fear of God, and belief in God, and also in Moses’ Divine commission. work ] Heb. hand , fig. for act or work ; cf. Deuteronomy 34:12 , Psalm 78:42 . believed in ] ‘The idiom rendered “he believed in” ( האמין ב ) is a very striking one: the belief intended is, not merely a crediting of a testimony concerning a person or a thing (this would be האמין ל ), but a laying firm hold morally on a person or a thing, without the help of any intermediate agency’ (Cheyne, s.v. Faith in EB. ). Cf. Genesis 15:6 . The root idea of האמין is to shew firmness or steadiness towards ( ל ) or on ( ב ) a person or a word: cf. Job 39:24 RVm., and the cognate subst. in ch. Exodus 17:12 ( Lex. ‘Moses’ hands were firmness ’). his servant ] A title applied to Moses elsewhere in the Pent. only Numbers 12:7-8 , Deuteronomy 34:5 (both JE). It is very common in the book of Joshua (mostly in parts which are the work of the Deuteronomic editor): Joshua 1:1-2 ; Joshua 1:7 ; Joshua 1:13 ; Joshua 1:15 , Joshua 8:31; Jos 8:33 , Joshua 9:24 , Joshua 11:12; Jos 11:15 , Joshua 12:6 , Joshua 13:8 , Joshua 14:7 , Joshua 18:7 , Joshua 22:2 ; Joshua 22:4-5 .