Achan's Sin and the Defeat at Ai
After Jericho, Ai looks easy. Scouts advise sending only two or three thousand men, and the small force is routed and chased downhill; thirty-six die and the people's courage melts.
Joshua tears his clothes and lies before the ark until evening, and is told to get up — Israel has sinned. Someone has taken goods devoted to destruction at Jericho. The culprit is found by a narrowing process, tribe to clan to household, and Achan confesses: a fine robe from Shinar, silver, and a bar of gold, buried under his tent because he saw them and wanted them.
The second assault on Ai succeeds by ambush — a feigned retreat draws the defenders out and a hidden force takes the empty city. The chapter pair is Joshua's argument that the campaign's outcome turned on obedience rather than numbers.
Where in scripture
[1] But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against the children of Israel. [2] Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai. [3] They returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t let all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don’t make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them.” [4] So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. …
Joshua 7:1–26 — opening verses
[1] Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed. Take all the warriors with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land. [2] You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.” [3] So Joshua arose, with all the warriors, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night. [4] He commanded them, saying, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. …
Joshua 8:1–29 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
