Achan hid stolen things beneath his tent, but the consequences reached the whole camp of Israel. Men died at Ai, and the judgment that followed reached his household. Joshua 7 is difficult to read, especially when we come to the mention of his sons and daughters.
The Sin Achan Hid
Joshua 6 and 7 take place near the beginning of Israel’s entrance into Canaan. God had brought the people through the Jordan, and Jericho stood before them as a fortified city. They marched around it according to His command for seven days. On the final day, the priests sounded the trumpets, the people shouted, and the walls fell. Their victory came from God, not superior siege equipment or military ingenuity.
Joshua had already explained what was to happen to the city. It was devoted to the LORD, with Rahab and those in her house spared because she had protected the messengers. Silver, gold, bronze, and iron were to enter His treasury, while the other devoted things were not available as personal plunder (Joshua 6:17-19). No Israelite had permission to take what caught his eye and treat it as a reward for helping capture the city.
The Hebrew word herem, often translated “accursed” or “devoted,” concerns what was set apart to the LORD for judgment or for His treasury. Israel had a particular commission in the conquest of Canaan: God was judging Canaanite wickedness and giving His people the land He had promised. Christians have no commission to seize property or destroy enemies by declaring them devoted to destruction. We must understand what God commanded Israel without claiming He has given us the same assignment.
Achan, a man of Judah and the son of Carmi, took from those devoted things. Although he took the property, the chapter describes the offense as Israel’s:
But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi… took of the accursed things
The offense is called Israel’s trespass, although Achan is identified as the man who took the property. Israel stood before God as a covenant nation, and his violation affected the camp God had warned them to protect. Achan could hide the objects from his neighbors, but he could not free himself or the camp from that covenant responsibility. Nothing he buried escaped God’s sight.
After Jericho, Joshua sent scouts to Ai. They reported that its people were few and advised sending only two or three thousand men. About three thousand went, but they fled before the defenders, who killed about thirty-six Israelites (Joshua 7:4-5). The people’s hearts melted and became like water. The nation whose God had terrified Jericho now faced defeat and fear.
Joshua and the elders tore their clothes and fell before the ark of the LORD until evening, with dust on their heads. Joshua feared that the surrounding peoples would hear of the defeat and destroy Israel. He also pleaded with God concerning His great name. The LORD answered by telling him to rise and identifying Israel’s sin:
Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them
God said that devoted things had been stolen, concealed, and placed among the people’s own possessions. He explained that this trespass was why they could not stand before their enemies. Victory at Jericho had not made disobedience harmless. Israel had to address the violation God named. His earlier deliverance gave them no reason to expect success while disregarding His command.
God Brought the Trespass Into the Light
The LORD instructed Joshua to sanctify the people and prepare them to appear before Him the next morning. They would come forward by tribe, family, household, and individual. He also announced the judgment that would fall on the offender and all that he had. Achan was exposed through a process God directed. This was no leader guessing whom to blame for a failed campaign.
Joshua rose early and brought the people forward. The selection narrowed to Judah, the family of the Zarhites, the household of Zabdi, and finally Achan. Joshua then addressed him:
My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him
Giving glory to God required Achan to stop concealing what he had done. He acknowledged that he had sinned against the LORD and identified the objects:
When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them
Achan also told Joshua that the objects were buried in the earth inside his tent, with the silver beneath the garment. Messengers ran there, found them as he described, and brought them before Joshua and the people. The stolen property was laid out before the LORD. The theft could no longer be concealed.
Achan confessed after he had been identified. By then Israel had already suffered defeat, and about thirty-six men had lost their lives. His admission could not undo those losses. The passage does not tell us everything about his remorse or give a complete account of his eternal condition. It does show that admitting the theft did not remove the judgment God had announced.
Judgment in a Holy Nation
Joshua and all Israel brought Achan to the Valley of Achor with the stolen objects, his sons and daughters, his livestock, his tent, and all that he had. Joshua spoke of the trouble Achan had brought on Israel. Achan was stoned to death, and Israel raised a great heap of stones over him. The LORD then turned from the fierceness of His anger (Joshua 7:24-26).
The mention of Achan’s sons and daughters raises an especially difficult question. The wording of verses 24-26 first speaks of stoning “him,” then of burning “them” after stoning “them.” Many readers understand the household to have shared the execution. Others understand the children to have been brought as witnesses and take the later plural wording to concern what was destroyed with Achan. We need to account for the household’s inclusion in verse 24 and the change in pronouns. The passage does not use only one form.
The chapter does not give the children’s ages or describe their individual participation in the theft. Some infer that they were complicit because the objects were buried in the family tent. The passage does not state that inference as fact, nor does it describe them as innocent victims punished for their father’s personal guilt. I cannot settle the question by inventing what they knew or did. Their presence in this terrible judgment shows how far the consequences reached into Achan’s household.
We must also retain Israel’s ordinary judicial rule. Deuteronomy 24:16 forbids putting fathers to death for their children’s sins or children for their fathers’ sins. Each person is accountable for his own sin, as Ezekiel 18 also teaches. Joshua 7 records a particular judgment God directed within His covenant nation. It gives us no authority to transfer one family member’s guilt to another or take revenge on a household.
Israel was a theocratic nation, meaning it was governed directly under God’s covenant law. The church has not been given the sword to enforce religious purity. Civil government has its own duty of public justice, while a congregation must address sin through the responsibilities Christ gave it. Pastors cannot use this account to justify punishing hidden sin violently or claim that an untested personal revelation proves another person’s guilt.
This account does not establish that every illness, bereavement, or defeat reveals someone’s concealed sin. God expressly explained the reason for Israel’s defeat. Job’s friends wrongly accused a suffering man, and Jesus rejected the assumption that a man’s blindness had to be caused by his own sin or his parents’ sin (John 9:1-3). We should heed God’s explanation of this defeat without inventing explanations for other people’s suffering.
From the Valley of Trouble to a Door of Hope
Achor means trouble. The valley’s name preserved the memory of the judgment. Israel later returned to Ai and prevailed, as explored in The Battles at Ai.
Centuries later, God used that same valley in a promise to unfaithful Israel. Through Hosea He said:
I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope
Hosea promised restoration to God’s people after their unfaithfulness and judgment. That promise did not cancel what had happened to Achan. God would bring His people into renewed fellowship with Him and hope in the place remembered for trouble. He had not abandoned His purposes for Israel, even though He would not overlook the nation’s disobedience.
That hope should move us to repent rather than imagine that concealed wrongdoing will become harmless. Achan named the desire that preceded his theft: he coveted what he saw. Genesis 3 likewise describes Eve seeing the forbidden fruit as desirable before taking it. James 1:14-15 explains how our own desire draws us into temptation and, when indulged, gives birth to sin. The study Covetousness examines that desire and the contentment we should learn before God.
I need to examine that progression before desire becomes an outward act. Noticing something attractive differs from deciding I must have it despite God’s command. I should refuse that sinful desire rather than keep entertaining it. Hiding what I have done cannot protect others from its harm. An addiction can drain a household’s money and trust. Dishonesty can injure customers or coworkers. Concealed sexual sin, bitterness, and deception can destroy the confidence a spouse or congregation has placed in someone. Those people can suffer the effects before they know the cause.
Proverbs directs us toward honesty and a change of conduct:
He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy
Confession means agreeing with God about the wrong instead of arranging an explanation that makes us look better. Forsaking sin means turning from it. Where repair is possible, we should make restitution and accept wise accountability. Regretting the cost of being caught does not by itself amount to that change. The study What Sin Is develops the nature of sin and our need for forgiveness.
The church cannot ignore the influence of known rebellion either. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for tolerating a man’s public sexual immorality and told them to remove him from their fellowship (1 Corinthians 5). He described the danger through the picture of leaven:
A little leaven leavens the whole lump
When a congregation protects or celebrates what God forbids, others can learn to tolerate it too. The church should seek the offender’s repentance and restoration while protecting its purity and the people being harmed. Galatians 6:1 tells spiritual believers to restore a person caught in a trespass with gentleness, watching themselves lest they also be tempted. These responsibilities are examined further in Church Discipline.
Wise shepherding does not mean becoming suspicious of every private detail of another believer’s life. It does mean addressing established wrongdoing, refusing cover-ups, and protecting vulnerable people. A church should be a place where someone can seek trustworthy help before temptation becomes a public collapse. Neither cruelty toward the offender nor indifference toward those harmed is faithful care.
Christ, Confession, and Cleansing
Returning stolen property cannot undo the sin of stealing it. Restitution may repair a material loss, but it cannot purchase forgiveness before God. Achan had sinned against the LORD, and the same is true of every sinner. We need the Savior who can deal with guilt rather than merely help us manage its consequences.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man. He obeyed the Father perfectly where every one of us has failed. His atonement rests on His sinless perfection and His voluntary giving of Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men inflicted real torture and punishment on His innocent body. His shed blood and death completed His saving sacrifice for the whole world before His burial and bodily resurrection on the third day. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were united in providing salvation.
His resurrection confirms His victory over death. God’s offer of grace is genuine for every person, though people can resist it and reject Christ. Everyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith receives forgiveness and cleansing and is born again. The Holy Spirit indwells every genuinely born-again believer and permanently seals him as God’s own. A deceiver, a covetous person, and a hypocrite can be forgiven. They need to turn to the crucified and risen Lord rather than find a more convincing way to conceal sin.
As a Christian, I do not confess because Christ’s mercy has run out or because I must earn forgiveness again. 1 John 1:9 says that God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse those who confess their sins. Jesus has made that cleansing possible through His blood. Obedience is the fruit of new life; it neither earns salvation nor keeps us saved. His grace gives me reason to stop hiding and walk honestly before Him, not permission to protect a secret life of disobedience.
Psalm 139 says darkness and light are alike to God. He saw Achan’s heart and the things buried beneath the tent, and He knows the truth about us. If you know you are hiding sin, bring it to Him now. Seek help from a mature, trustworthy believer, turn from the conduct, and make repair where possible. The Spirit’s conviction calls us toward truth and repentance. We do not need to answer it with despair or keep defending what Christ can forgive.
My Final Thoughts
Achan could conceal stolen property from people, but he could not conceal it from God or confine its consequences to himself. I need to bring my own sin honestly before God, without accusing every sufferer or imitating Israel’s judicial punishment. He sees the wrongdoing we are tempted to excuse, and Christ has provided cleansing through His blood. We should turn to Him now, seek trustworthy help, and walk in the light with the hope His mercy gives.