King James Version · Entering the land
Joshua 7
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But the committed a trespass in the thing: for , the son of Carmi, the son of , the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the thing: and the of was kindled against the . And sent men from to , which is beside Beth–aven, on the east side of Beth–el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed . And they returned to , and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite ; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few. So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of . And the men of smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the of the people melted, and became as water. And rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon before the until the eventide, he and the , and put upon their heads. And said, Alas, O , wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to us into the hand of the , to destroy us? would to we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O , what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their ! For and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And said unto , Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy ? Israel hath , and they have also transgressed my which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the could not stand before their , but turned their backs before their , because they were : neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the from among you. Up, the people, and say, yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith of Israel, There is an thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine , until ye take away the thing from among you. In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which shall take shall come by households; and the household which shall take shall come man by man. And it shall be, that he that is taken with the thing shall be burnt with , he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed of , and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. So rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and was taken: And he brought his household man by man; and , the son of Carmi, the son of , the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. And said unto , My son, give, I thee, to of Israel, and make unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. And answered , and said, Indeed I have against of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. 22So sent , and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. 23And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto , and unto all the , and laid them out before . And , and all Israel with him, took the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And said, Why hast thou troubled us? shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with , after they had stoned them with stones. And they over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So turned from the fierceness of his . Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Entering the land, 1250 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel crossing into Canaan and contending with fortified city-states, each with its own king, in a land Egypt had recently dominated and was now losing its grip on.
- The collapse
- The whole eastern Mediterranean is coming apart. Within about fifty years the Hittite empire falls, its capital burns, the Mycenaean palaces are destroyed, Ugarit is wiped out mid-correspondence, and Egypt is fighting for its life against seaborne invaders. Nobody fully knows why. Drought, earthquake, migration, and the failure of interlocking trade are all in the explanation.
- Egypt
- Still strong enough to record a victory over a people called Israel on a stone monument around 1207 BC, the earliest mention of the name outside the Bible. But Egyptian control of Canaan is slipping, and within a generation it is gone.
- Canaan
- Not a country but dozens of walled towns, each with its own king, its own god, and its own quarrel with the next valley. This is why the book of Joshua reads as a list of kings rather than a war with a nation.
- Further afield
- Iron is beginning to replace bronze across the region, partly because the tin trade that made bronze possible has broken down. The Olmec are building San Lorenzo. The Zhou are about to overthrow the Shang in China.