Глава 7

1. The defeat of the Israeli detachment by the residents of Ai. 6. Deep sorrow of Joshua and the elders. 10. Divine revelation to the Israeli leader. 16. Discovery of the culprit by lot. 19. Confession of Achan. 24. Punishing him. Joshua 7:1. But the children of Israel committed a [great] crime [and took] from the accursed thing. Achan the son of Charmiah the son of Zabdi the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took from the accursed thing, and the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. The high feeling that was expressed in the dedication of Jericho to the Lord was not so universal among the Israeli people that not a single exception appeared. Such an exception was in the person of Achan, who took “from the accursed,” i.e. committed sacrilege. This grave crime was imputed to the children of Israel, as they constituted one “people of the Lord” (Num. 11:29), one society (Lev. 10:6, Num. 1:53), which was therefore subject to responsibility for the misdeeds of its members, which is why it had to destroy evil from among itself (Deut. 13:5–17, 17:7, etc.), if it wanted to avoid punishment from God. Therefore, the biblical narrator, intending to talk about the crime of Achan, begins with the words: “And the children of Israel committed a crime...”, meaning to indicate not the participation of the people in the commission of the crime, but their guilt before God for the sin of one of its members. The words “[great]... [and took]” are brought from the Greek-Slavic translation; The first is not readable, however, in the Alexandrian and other lists. Achan - this is the name of this descendant of Judah according to the Hebrew text in this place and in Joshua 22:20; and in 1 Chronicles 2:7 - Achar. This difference in the style of the name was also reflected in the Greek copies, from which in the Vatican the book is read in this place. Joshua's name is Ahar, in the Alexandrian and other lists Achan. This latter must be recognized as primary, as indicated identically in two places by the Hebrew text; the letter “r” probably appeared later, under the influence of the name of the valley of Achor, in which he was stoned. According to his genealogy, Achan belonged to the fifth generation of descendants of Zerah, the son of Judah (1 Chronicles 2:7), but in view of the great length of time separating Patriarch Judah from Achan, one can think that this genealogy is incomplete. Joshua 7:2. Joshua from Jericho sent men to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, on the east side of Bethel, and said to them, “Go and search the land.” They went and examined Ai. Joshua 7:3. And they returned to Jesus and said to him, “Let not all the people go, but let about two thousand or about three thousand men go and smite Ai; Do not bother the whole people there, for they are few [there]. Joshua 7:4. So about three thousand people went there from the people, but they fled from the inhabitants of Ai; Joshua 7:5. the inhabitants of Ai killed up to thirty-six of them, and pursued them from the gate to Sevarim, and defeated them on the descent from the mountain, which is why the heart of the people melted and became like water. Achan's crime was not discovered immediately after it was committed, but after some time, during which an unexpected misfortune befell the Israelites, which served as punishment for his crime. It became known not before the failure of the Israeli weapons, so that through this it would be clearly revealed not only the importance of the sin committed, but also the need for the strict fulfillment of the divine commandments in order to receive divine help in the conquest of Canaan, without which the Israeli weapons could not have any success. The misfortune occurred during the conquest of the small city of Ai, located not far from Jericho, “near Beth-Aven, on the east side of Bethel.” That after the capture of Jericho Joshua directed his weapons to that part of the land of Canaan in which Ai was located and which constitutes its middle strip, this rightly sees 64 a remarkable strategic plan, which consisted in taking possession of this strip, separating the southern and northern parts of the country and then acting against each of them separately. The known location of Bethel on the site of what is now Beitin, north of Jerusalem, makes the general location of Ai known. Researchers of biblical geography indicate the location of this city to the east of Beitin, on a hill near the village of Deir Duvan, currently bearing the name Tell (“pile of stones”), which recalls the conversion of Ai into eternal ruins indicated in Joshua 8:28 65 . What kind of area is meant by Beth-aven in Joshua 18:12, called “desert”, remains unknown with accuracy; it is assumed that the area that bore this name, meaning “house of emptiness”, i.e. “idols”, was so close to Bethel that in subsequent times its name began to be replaced by the name Bethel (“house of God”), as it did not correspond, according to the view of the prophets (Hos. 4:15,5:8), to the idolatry taking place in Bethel. Such a replacement of one name with another will not, however, give the right to look at the name Beth-Aven as having been introduced into the text of the book of Joshua by someone at a later time 66 . The incorrectness of such an assumption is evident from the fact that Beth-Aven is named in Joshua 18:12 when describing the border of the tribe of Benjamin as a completely definite and known area; just as in 1 Samuel 13:5, 14:23 it is named in the same meaning when describing Saul’s war with the Philistines. Despite the insignificance of Ai, which Joshua first inquired about through specially sent persons, the attack was completely unsuccessful; The Israeli detachment was repulsed with the loss of 36 people and was pursued “to Sevarim,” as the quarries on the descent from the mountain were probably called. In the Greco-Slavic translation, the words “before Sevarim” correspond to “dondezhe crushing” (συνέτριψαν), which shows that the Hebrew word “sevarim” was read differently and taken for the form “shavar” - “to break, break.” The inaccuracy of this translation was recognized already in ancient times, as shown by one of the Greek lists, in which, instead of the given Greek translation, εως Σεβαρεμι - “until Sevarim” (Field) is placed in the field. Blessed Jerome reads ad Sabarin in the same way. “The heart of the people melted and became like water” is a figurative expression similar to that used in Joshua 2:11, but even stronger, indicating a complete loss of spirit, likened to spilled water: as the latter disappears, so the courage disappeared from the heart of the people. Joshua 7:6. Jesus tore his clothes and fell with his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord and lay there until evening, he and the elders of Israel, and they sprinkled dust on their heads. Joshua 7:7. And Jesus said: O Lord Sovereign! Why did You bring this people across the Jordan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and destroy us? Oh, if only we could stay and live beyond the Jordan! Joshua 7:8. Oh my God! What should I say after Israel has turned its rear to its enemies? Joshua 7:9. The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the earth will hear and surround us and destroy our name from the earth. And what will you do then for Your great name? Such strong despondency of the people was not caused by the defeat itself, as it was insignificant in terms of the number of killed, but by its abandonment by God, the deprivation of divine help, which he rightly saw in this defeat. Therefore, Joshua and the elders of the people, plunged into extreme sadness and with its usual external signs on their clothes and on their heads (Lev.10:6; Num.20:6), turned to the Lord: in the Tabernacle of the Meeting “they fell with their faces to the ground before the Ark of the Lord.” The prayer of Joshua serves as an expression of a shocked soul, lost in bewilderment before the sad event that has taken place, tormented by fear for the future, but a believing soul, zealous for the glory of God, and therefore boldly and sincerely expressing its anxious thoughts before God. The defeat that he had just experienced led the Israeli leader into such despondency that the purpose of the great works of God that had taken place before his eyes was no longer clear to him, and he was able to turn to the Lord with a question reminiscent of the complaints of the previous generation (Num. 14: 2,3) about why the Lord transferred the people across the Jordan. The purpose of this for him at that time became so unclear that when thinking about it, the possibility of the Israelites being delivered into the hands of the Amorites is not excluded, which is why they even express regret that the people did not remain beyond the Jordan. Expressing such gloomy thoughts, Joshua feels, however, all their incongruity and, as if to justify himself, says: “Oh, Lord! What should I say after Israel has turned its rear to its enemies?” This defeat was so unexpected and so little consistent with what had happened before that it involuntarily gave rise to gloomy thoughts and made one fear for the future fate of the people. Fear has so taken possession of the soul of the one praying that he already imagines as inevitable the consequences of defeat, consisting in the fact that, having heard about this, the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of this land will surround the Israeli people and destroy them. But this idea of ​​the consequences of defeat, despite all the depressed spirit of Joshua, did not completely take possession of his soul, since it did not agree with the great name of God, i.e. with His divine greatness!.. The prayer ends with the awareness of this discrepancy, expressed in the form of a question: “and what will you do to your great name,” i.e. How, if the people of Israel are destroyed, will You preserve Your great name, which You showed in the events of Israeli history, from reproach from other nations? Moses also pointed out the greatness of the name of God in his intercessions for the people (Num. 14:15; Deut. 9:28). Joshua 7:10. The Lord said to Jesus: Arise, why did you fall on your face? Joshua 7:11. Israel has sinned, and they have transgressed My covenant which I commanded them; and they took from the accursed thing, and stole, and hid, and put it among their things; Joshua 7:12. therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies and turned their backs to their enemies, for they fell under the spell; I will no longer be with you unless you destroy the accursed one from among you. Joshua 7:13. Arise, sanctify the people and say: Sanctify yourself in the morning, for thus says the Lord God of Israel: “The accursed thing is in your midst, O Israel; therefore you cannot stand before your enemies until you remove the accursed from you”; Joshua 7:14. tomorrow come [all of you] according to your knees; The tribe that the Lord will indicate, let it come up according to tribes; let the tribe that the Lord designate be suitable according to their families; Let the family that the Lord designate be suitable one person at a time; Joshua 7:15. and let him who is convicted of stealing the accursed be burned with fire, him and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and committed iniquity among Israel. The divine answer to Joshua's prayer came directly to him. It begins with a command to him, as if he were innocent of what had happened, to rise from the ground, but at the same time with a reproach, expressed in the question: “Why did you fall on your face?” That is, why did such fear take hold of you, why did such gloomy thoughts appear? Is this consistent with a firm belief in divine promises? Then, in strong expressions consisting of similar words (“sinned, transgressed, took”) with the addition of a Hebrew particle (“gam” - even, - enhancing the meaning of the words), the great crime committed by the people is pointed out as the reason for the defeat that befell them, together with the threat to deprive the people of divine help if they do not “destroy the accursed from among them,” i.e. unless what is taken from what is dedicated to God is returned to its intended purpose (Joshua 6:18). The answer ends with the command to “rise up and sanctify the people” (Joshua 3:5) by the next morning, to announce to them about a crime committed by someone among them and about the method by which the culprit will be found. Joshua 7:14 is remarkable in that it indicates with particular clarity the composition of the Israelite people, as consisting of tribes, generations, houses, or clans, and individual families; the heads of the latter were “men” (according to the Hebrew text and the Greek-Slavic translation “by husband” instead of “by one person”). Where exactly and how the investigation of the perpetrator of the crime was carried out is not specifically indicated in the narrative. But since the people were commanded to sanctify themselves, and the appearance of the people at the place of investigation is expressed by the verb “to draw near” (according to the Hebrew text instead of “come up”), which was used, although not exclusively, about appearing before the Lord (Lev. 16:1), since the indication of the culprit belonged to God Himself (“the Lord will indicate”), then on the basis of this we can think that the place of this people’s meeting was the courtyard of the Tabernacle. The Hebrew verb “lakad”, corresponding to the word “will indicate,” helps to determine the very method by which the culprit is found. The point here is that this verb in other places in the Old Testament books is used to denote an indication received by lot. So, in 1 Samuel 14:42 Saul says: “cast lots between me and Jonathan” ... “and (according to the literal translation from the Hebrew) Jonathan is indicated (“illaked”), which in the Russian translation corresponds to: “The lot fell on Jonathan.” The same verb was used during the election of Saul to the kingdom in 1 Samuel 10:20,21, where it is said: “and the tribe of Benjamin was indicated... and the tribe of Matri was indicated...” This is the meaning of the Hebrew verb used in this place in the book. Joshua, makes it very plausible that when searching for the person guilty of sacrilege, lots were used, according to which the words “the Lord will show” (Josh. 7:14) and translated in the Vulgate (sors invenerit) “lot will show.” In this case, the decision by lot was accepted as the decision of God (cf. Proverbs 16:33). The casting of lots itself, not indicated anywhere in the sacred books, probably consisted in the fact that tablets with inscriptions of names or objects to be chosen or decided, or pebbles of various colors were placed in a box or floor (Prov. 16:33) and the taken out tablet or pebble, in accordance with the pre-agreed meaning, served as an indication of a positive or negative answer. Those guilty of sacrilege are assigned the most severe and shameful execution through burning (cf. Lev. 20:14), which, however, was carried out not over the living, but over the dead, as can be seen from Joshua 7:25. The reason for the appointment of this execution is indicated in the fact that the one who committed this crime committed a double sin: against God, boldly violating His commandments about the accursed as the great shrine of the Lord (Lev.27:28; Deut.13:17), and at the same time violating the covenant with God (Ex.19:8) and against his people, committing “lawlessness” among them, or - closer to the meaning of the Hebrew word used here “nevala” is a “shameful deed” that degrades his dignity as the people of God. Joshua 7:16. Jesus, getting up early in the morning, ordered Israel to approach according to their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was indicated; Joshua 7:17. then he ordered the tribes of Judah to approach, and the tribe of Zara was indicated; ordered the Zarina tribe to approach by family, and [the family] Zavdievo was indicated; Joshua 7:18. He ordered his family to approach one person at a time, and Achan, the son of Charmias, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zara, from the tribe of Judah, was indicated. Joshua 7:19. Then Jesus said to Achan: My son! Give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him and tell me what you have done; don't hide it from me. Joshua 7:20. In response to Joshua, Achan said: Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and have done this and that: Joshua 7:21. Among the spoils I saw one beautiful robe from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and an ingot of gold weighing fifty shekels; I liked it and took it; and behold, it is hidden in the ground in the midst of my tent, and the silver is [hidden] under it. Joshua 7:22. Jesus sent men, and they ran into the tent [camp]; and behold, all this was hidden in his tent, and the silver under it. Joshua 7:23. They took it from the tent and brought it to Joshua and to all the children of Israel and laid it before the Lord. Joshua 7:24. Joshua and all the Israelites with him took Achan the son of Zarin, and the silver, and the garment, and the ingot of gold, and his sons and his daughters, and his oxen, and his donkeys, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them out into the valley of Achor. Joshua 7:25. And Jesus said, Because you have brought trouble upon us, the Lord will bring trouble upon you this day. And all Israel stoned him, and burned them with fire, and threw stones at them. Joshua 7:26. And they threw a large pile of stones on it, which has survived to this day. After this, the fury of the Lord’s wrath subsided. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor even to this day. Addressing the perpetrator of the crime indicated by lot with the words “my son” testifies to the philanthropy and meekness of the Israeli leader. “Give glory to the Lord” as the Omniscient One, from Whom no untruth can hide. These words, which were also used during the time of Christ the Savior (John 9:24), served as a special call on behalf of God to express the truth. “The beautiful clothing of Shinar”, i.e. made in Shinar (Gen.10:10), more precisely, in Babylonia (Gen.11:2,9), which was famous for the art of preparing multi-colored clothes. “Two hundred shekels of silver” for our money is about 160 rubles 67. "An Ingot of Gold Weighing Fifty Shekels". The word “ingot” in the Hebrew text corresponds to “leshon”, which means “tongue”, as translated in the LXX: γλῶσσαν, in the Slavic Bible - “vessel”. For commentators, of course, most of the decoration, household appliance or weapon is in the form of a tongue (the Romans called a long sword a “tongue”). 50 shekels of gold for our money is more than 500 rubles 68. The entire people, represented, of course, by their representatives, participated in the punishment of Achan, because by his crime he brought the wrath of the Lord upon the entire people. According to the law, the people of Israel had the responsibility to destroy evil from among them by punishing the guilty (Lev.20:1,24:16, Deut.17:7, etc.). That his sons and daughters were stoned along with Achan is not specifically stated in the biblical text; but this is rightly deduced from the fact that they were brought to the place of execution with all their father’s property (Josh. 7:24), and from the fact that after the words “they beat him,” i.e. Ahana, “all the Israelites stoned” immediately follows: “and they burned them with fire, and threw stones at them”; here the pronoun “their” instead of “his” in the words preceding them obviously refers to the previously named sons and daughters of Achan, who, therefore, were also stoned and then burned. And the basis for punishing children together with the father, who, in fact, committed the crime, given the existence of the law on punishment only for his crime (Deut. 24:16), is that the sons and daughters of Achan knew about these things stolen from the cursed things, stored in the tent, and saw when the father buried them in the ground. This explanation belongs to ancient Christian times and was expressed by Procopius of Gas 69. In the LXX, according to the most ancient copies (Vatican, Alexandria and other uncials), the last words of Joshua 7:25 “and they burned them with fire, and threw stones on them” were not read; in Origen's Hexaplas, the Greek translation of these words is marked with an asterisk, indicating the completion of the Greek translation here; this addition, corresponding to the Hebrew text, was preserved in some later Greek copies, and from editions - in the Complutensian Polyglot, which reads: αὐτοὺς ἐνλίθοις 70. - “they burned it in fire and stoned them.” This supplemented reading of Greek verses is followed by the Slavic translation with the peculiarity that “this” in it is replaced by the word “all”, which is read only in the Latin translation (et cuncta quae illius erant, igne consumpta sunt - “and everything that he had was burned with fire”). Thus, despite some hesitations in the transfer of this passage according to the lists of the Greek translation, by correcting the latter, agreement was achieved with the Hebrew text. The valley near Gilgal, in which Achan was executed, received the name Achor, which means “woe, trouble,” from the sad event that took place there, which served as the completion of a serious crime (Joshua 7:25). In the prophets (Hos. 2:15; Is. 65:10), in their predictions about future salvation, this valley of grief is transformed into a place of joy and is depicted as a place of hope and rest. Tristram. Bible Places, 10. Others indicate, however, the place of Ai on the top of another hill, also located near Beitin and called Tell el-Gajar (Keil. Iosua, 55). Prot. M. Kheraskov. Review of Historical Books of the Old Testament, 22. S. A. Bulatova. Ancient Hebrew coins. 1886, p. 140. According to studies by numismatists (Brandis, Schrader, etc.), gold in Western Asia in ancient times was valued 13 1/3 times higher than silver. (Riehm, pp. 482, 1000, 1450). Therefore, if a silver shekel cost 80 kopecks, then a gold shekel cost 10 rubles 66 kopecks, and 50 gold shekels cost 533 rubles. Migne. Patrologia. S. gr. t. LXXXVII, p. 1017: ? In the Moscow Greek Bible these words are read, although they are not in the Alexandrian list. You might be interested in: