Joshua 7–12

Chapter 7

But the children of Israel transgressed the commandment, and took to their own use of that which was accursed. For Achan, the son of Charmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zare, of the tribe of Juda, took something of the anathema: and the Lord was angry against the children of Israel.

²And when Josue sent men from Jericho against Hai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of the town of Bethel, he said to them: Go up, and view the country: and they fulfilled his command, and viewed Hai.

³And returning, they said to him: Let not all the people go up, but let two or three thousand men go, and destroy the city: why should all the people be troubled in vain, against enemies that are very few?

⁴There went up therefore three thousand fighting men: who immediately turned their backs,

⁵And were defeated by the men of the city of Hai, and there fell of them six and thirty men: and the enemies pursued them from the gate as far as Sabarim, and they slew them as they fled by the descent: and the heart of the people was struck with fear, and melted like water.

⁶But Josue rent his garments, and fell flat on the ground, before the ark of the Lord, until the evening, both he and all the ancients of Israel: and they put dust upon their heads.

⁷And Josue said: Alas, O Lord God, why wouldst thou bring this people over the river Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorrhite, and to destroy us? would God we had stayed beyond the Jordan, as we began.

⁸My Lord God, what shall I say, seeing Israel turning their backs to their enemies?

⁹The Chanaanites, and all the inhabitants of the land, will hear of it, and being gathered together will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do to thy great name?

¹⁰And the Lord said to Josue: Arise, why liest thou flat on the ground?

¹¹Israel hath sinned, and transgressed my covenant: and they have taken of the anathema, and have stolen and lied, and have hid it among their goods.

¹²Neither can Israel stand before his enemies, but he shall flee from them: because he is defiled with the anathema. I will be no more with you, till you destroy him that is guilty of this wickedness.

¹³Arise, sanctify the people, and say to them: Be ye sanctified against tomorrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel: The curse is in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thy enemies, till he be destroyed out of thee, that is defiled with this wickedness.

¹⁴And you shall come in the morning, every one by your tribes: and what tribe soever the lot shall find, it shall come by its kindreds, and the kindred by its houses and the house by the men.

¹⁵And whosoever he be that shall be found guilty of this fact, he shall be burnt with fire, with all his substance, because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and hath done wickedness in Israel.

¹⁶Josue, therefore, when he rose in the morning, made Israel to come by their tribes, and the tribe of Juda was found.

¹⁷Which being brought by in families, it was found to be the family of Zare. Bringing that also by the houses, he found it to be Zabdi:

¹⁸And bringing his house man by man, he found Achan, the son of Charmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zare, of the tribe of Juda.

¹⁹And Josue said to Achan: My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and confess, and tell me what thou hast done, hide it not.

²⁰And Achan answered Josue, and said to him: Indeed I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done.

²¹For I saw among the spoils a scarlet garment, exceeding good, and two hundred sicles of silver, and a golden rule of fifty sicles: and I coveted them, and I took them away, and hid them in the ground in the midst of my tent, and the silver I covered with the earth that I dug up.

²²Josue therefore sent ministers: who running to his tent, found all hid in the same place, together with the silver.

²³And taking them away out of the tent, they brought them to Josue, and to all the children of Israel, and threw them down before the Lord.

²⁴Then Josue, and all Israel with him, took Achan, the son of Zare, and the silver, and the garment, and the golden rule, his sons also, and his daughters, his oxen, and asses, and sheep, the tent also, and all the goods: and brought them to the valley of Achor:

²⁵Where Josue said: Because thou hast troubled us, the Lord trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him: and all things that were his, were consumed with fire.

²⁶And they gathered together upon him a great heap of stones, which remaineth until this present day. And the wrath of the Lord was turned away from them. And the name of that place was called the Valley of Achor, until this day.

Chapter 8

And the Lord said to Josue: Fear not, nor be thou dismayed: take with thee all the multitude of fighting men, arise, and go up to the town of Hai: Behold I have delivered into thy hand the king thereof, and the people, and the city, and the land.

²And thou shalt do to the city of Hai, and to the king thereof, as thou hast done to Jericho, and to the king thereof: but the spoils, and all the cattle, you shall take for a prey to yourselves: lay an ambush for the city behind it.

³And Josue arose, and all the army of the fighting men with him, to go up against Hai: and he sent thirty thousand chosen valiant men in the night,

⁴And commanded them, saying: Lay an ambush behind the city: and go not very far from it: and be ye all ready.

⁵But I, and the rest of the multitude which is with me, will approach on the contrary side against the city. And when they shall come out against us, we will flee, and turn our backs, as we did before:

⁶Till they pursuing us be drawn farther from the city: for they will think that we flee as before.

⁷And whilst we are fleeing, and they pursuing, you shall rise out of the ambush, and shall destroy the city: and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands.

⁸And when you shall have taken it, set it on fire, and you shall do all things so as I have commanded.

⁹And he sent them away, and they went on to the place of the ambush, and abode between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the city of Hai. But Josue staid that night in the midst of the people,

¹⁰And rising early in the morning, he mustered his soldiers, and went up with the ancients in the front of the army, environed with the aid of the fighting men.

¹¹And when they were come, and were gone up over against the city, they stood on the north side of the city, between which and them there was a valley in the midst.

¹²And he had chosen five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the same city:

¹³But all the rest of the army went in battle array on the north side, so that the last of that multitude reached to the west side of the city. So Josue went that night, and stood in the midst of the valley.

¹⁴And when the king of Hai saw this, he made haste in the morning, and went out with all the army of the city, and set it in battle array, toward the desert, not knowing that there lay an ambush behind his back.

¹⁵But Josue, and all Israel gave back, making as if they were afraid, and fleeing by the way of the wilderness.

¹⁶But they shouting together, and encouraging one another, pursued them. And when they were come from the city,

¹⁷And not one remained in the city of Hai and of Bethel, that did not pursue after Israel, leaving the towns open as they had rushed out,

¹⁸The Lord said to Josue: Lift up the shield that is in thy hand, towards the city of Hai, for I will deliver it to thee.

¹⁹And when he had lifted up his shield towards the city, the ambush, that lay hid, rose up immediately: and going to the city, took it, and set it on fire.

²⁰And the men of the city, that pursued after Josue, looking back, and seeing the smoke of the city rise up to heaven, had no more power to flee this way or that way: especially as they that had counterfeited flight, and were going toward the wilderness, turned back most valiantly against them that pursued.

²¹So Josue, and all Israel, seeing that the city was taken, and that the smoke of the city rose up, returned, and slew the men of Hai.

²²And they also that had taken and set the city on fire, issuing out of the city to meet their own men, began to cut off the enemies who were surrounded by them. So that the enemies being cut off on both sides, not one of so great a multitude was saved.

²³And they took the king of the city of Hai alive and brought him to Josue.

²⁴So all being slain that had pursued after Israel, in his flight to the wilderness, and falling by the sword in the same place, the children of Israel returned and laid waste the city.

²⁵And the number of them that fell that day, both of men and women, was twelve thousand persons, all of the city of Hai.

²⁶But Josue drew not back his hand, which he had stretched out on high, holding the shield, till all the inhabitants of Hai were slain.

²⁷And the children of Israel divided among them, the cattle and the prey of the city, as the Lord had commanded Josue.

²⁸And he burnt the city, and made it a heap forever:

²⁹And he hung the king thereof on a gibbet, until the evening and the going down of the sun. Then Josue commanded, and they took down his carcass from the gibbet: and threw it in the very entrance of the city, heaping upon it a great heap of stones, which remaineth until this present day.

³⁰Then Josue built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Hebal,

³¹As Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the children of Israel, and it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of unhewn stones, which iron had not touched: and he offered upon it holocausts to the Lord, and immolated victims of peace offerings.

³²And he wrote upon stones, the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he had ordered before the children of Israel.

³³And all the people, and the ancients, and the princes, and judges, stood…