⁶ Then Joshua ^(A)tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they ^(B)put dust on their heads. ⁷ And Joshua said, “Alas, Lord ^[a]God, ^(C)why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan! ⁸ O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its ^[b]back before its enemies? ⁹ For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and ^(D)cut off our name from the earth. Then ^(E)what will You do for Your great name?”

The Sin of Achan

¹⁰ So the Lord said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? ¹¹ Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. ^(F)For they have even taken some of the ^[c]accursed things, and have both stolen and ^(G)deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. ^12 (H)Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because ^(I)they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you. ¹³ Get up, ^(J)sanctify^[d] the people, and say, ^(K)‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel: “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.” ¹⁴ In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which ^(L)the Lord takes shall come according to families; and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households; and the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man. ^15 (M)Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has ^(N)transgressed^[e] the covenant of the Lord, and because he ^(O)has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’ ”

¹⁶ So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. ¹⁷ He brought the clan of Judah, and he took the family of the Zarhites; and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man, and Zabdi was taken. ¹⁸ Then he brought his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, ^(P)was taken.

¹⁹ Now Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, ^(Q)give glory to the Lord God of Israel, ^(R)and make confession to Him, and ^(S)tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

²⁰ And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed ^(T)I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: ²¹ When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I ^[f]coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.”