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Joshua 7 Bible study: Why have you troubled us?
Achan's "I saw… I coveted them and took them" (7:21) uses the same three Hebrew verbs, in the same order, as Genesis 3:6 at the tree. And the place of his judgment was named Achor, from the word for the trouble he brought (7:25-26), the valley the LORD later promised to make "a door of hope" (Hosea 2:15).
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“Joshua said to Achan, “My son, please give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done! Don’t hide it from me!””
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“Joshua 7 tells of Achan taking the devoted things before it tells of the defeat at Ai.”
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What's really going on
You're told before Joshua is
The chapter opens with what Joshua doesn't yet know: "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 the LORD’s anger burned against the children of Israel" (7:1) (tap trespass). Only then comes Ai. So when Joshua falls on his face and asks, "why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all" (7:7), you already know the answer the LORD gives him: "Israel has sinned" (7:11). The chapter begins and ends with the LORD's anger. It "burned" in 7:1, and at the end, "The LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger" (7:26). In Hebrew both verses have af, anger.
Where it leads to Jesus
Where your treasure is
Joshua 7:21leads toMatthew 6:19-21
Achan says, "When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent" (7:21). Jesus said, "Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal" (Matthew 6:19), and "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). Jesus doesn't cite Joshua 7, so setting them side by side is a reading. Some hear in Jesus' words what Achan's story shows: silver and gold wanted, taken and buried, with the heart following them. Others keep them apart: Achan took what was devoted and "holy to the LORD" (Joshua 6:19), which the LORD had forbidden, while Jesus is teaching his disciples about ordinary treasure and where the heart is, and says nothing of devoted things.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Joshua 7
That was a taste
The rest of Joshua 7 is waiting in Favor
- Now Israel's hearts melt
- Rahab and Achan
- I saw, I coveted, I took
- The valley of Trouble, and a door of hope
- The LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger
- 11 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Joshua 7 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
עָכַרakharsay a-KHAR
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "stir up, disturb, trouble". Strong's: "properly, to roil water". Joshua says it twice in one breath: "Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you today" (7:25). In Joshua it had come first as a warning at Jericho: take of the devoted thing, "so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it" (6:18). The place is then named Achor (7:26) (tap it), from the same root. Chronicles calls Achan "Achar, the troubler of Israel" (1 Chronicles 2:7), and Ahab uses the same word of Elijah: "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?" (1 Kings 18:17). Its only use in Genesis is Jacob's "You have troubled me" (Genesis 34:30).
For your group
Joshua 7 Bible study questions
- 1"I saw… I coveted them and took them" (7:21). Where do you notice seeing turning into wanting in your own life, and what helps you stop before the taking?
- 2"Tell me now what you have done! Don’t hide it from me!" (7:19). What makes it hard to tell the truth about something you've hidden, and what makes it easier?
- 3The chapter treats one man's wrong as trouble for the whole camp (7:1, 7:11-12). How does what one person does, hidden or open, affect a family or group you're part of?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Joshua 7 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home