Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 7:26
And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
26. a great heap of stones ] As a memorial and a warning of his sin and its punishment. The custom of casting stones on certain graves was not unknown among other nations also, as the Arabs and the Romans. Compare Propertius 4:5. 74.
So the Lord turned ] “Even to Achan himself,” remarks Bp Wordsworth, “the valley of Achor may have been made a door of hope (Hos 2:15), because he confessed his sin, and there is reason to hope and believe that he listened to the words of Joshua, ‘My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel,’ and submitted to the punishment due to his sin.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A great heap of stones – As a memorial of Achans sin and its punishment. (Compare Jos 8:29; 2Sa 18:17.)
The valley of Achor – Compare the marginal references. This valley formed part of the northern border of Judah Jos 15:7; and must therefore have lain among the ridges which cross the plain to the south of Jericho. But its exact site is uncertain. (Conder identifies it with Wady Kelt.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. They raised over him a great heap of stones] The burial-places, both of heroes and eminent culprits, were anciently thus distinguished; and transactions of this kind gave rise to those great piles of stones called cairns, that are so frequently to be met with, especially in northern countries.
FROM the whole of this account we may see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the great danger of not withstanding its first approaches. By covetousness many lives and many souls have been destroyed, and yet the living lay it not to heart! Who fears the love of money, provided he can get riches? Through the intensity of this desire, every part of the surface of the earth, and as far as possible its bowels, are ransacked in order to get wealth; and God alone can tell, who sees all things, to how many private crimes, frauds, and dissimulations, this gives birth; by which the wrath of God is brought down upon the community at large! Who is an enemy to his country? The sinner against his God. An open foe may be resisted and repelled, because he is known; but the covetous man, who, as far as his personal safety will admit, is outraging all the requisitions of justice, is an unseen pestilence, sowing the seeds of desolation and ruin in society. Achan’s covetousness, which led him to break the law of God, had nearly proved the destruction of the Israelitish camp, nor would the Lord turn away from his displeasure till the evil was detected, and the criminal punished.
Reader, is the face of God turned against thee, because of some private transgression? Are not thy circumstances and family suffering in consequence of something in thy private life? O search and try thy ways, return to God, and humble thyself before him lest thy iniquity instantly find thee out.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A great heap of stones; as a monument of the sin and judgment here mentioned, that others might be instructed and warned by the example; and as a brand of infamy, as Jos 8:29; 2Sa 18:17.
The valley of Achor; or, the valley of trouble, from the double trouble expressed Jos 7:25.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. they raised over him a greatheap of stonesIt is customary to raise cairns over the gravesof criminals or infamous persons in the East still.
the name of that place wascalled, The valley of Achor(“trouble”),
unto this daySopainful an episode would give notoriety to the spot, and it is morethan once noted by the sacred writers of a later age (Isa 65:10;Hos 2:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day,…. That is, at the place where he suffered, or where they laid his ashes, they heaped up a pile of stones over him, as a monument whereby it might be known hereafter where he was executed and was buried; and which pile continued to the writing of this history: such sort of funeral monuments were usual with the Heathens s also as well as with the Jews, see Jos 8:29; so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger; or the effects of it ceased; the outward face of things was altered, the dealings of God in his providence with Israel were changed; though, properly speaking, there is no change in God, nor such affections and passions in him as in man:
wherefore the name of the place was called the valley of Achor unto this day; from the trouble Achan met with, and the people of Israel on his account, see Jos 7:24; and so it was called in the days of Isaiah and Hosea, Isa 65:10; and where it is prophesied of as what should be in time to come: according to Bunting t, it was twelve miles from Jerusalem; Jerom u says it was at the north of Jericho, but Lamy w, following Bonfrerius, places it to the south; see
Jos 15:7.
s Vid. Pausan. Arcadica, sive, l. 8. p. 477. & Phocica, sive, l. 10. p. 616, 617. t Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 98. u De loc. Heb. fol. 88. B. w Apparat. Geograph. p. 61.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
26. And they raised over him a great heap of stones A monument of everlasting reproach. Michaelis says it is still a prevalent custom in the East to throw stones, as a mark of reproach and disgrace, upon the graves of criminals.
That place was called, The valley of Achor This name signifies trouble, disturbance, and is derived from the verb which Joshua uses twice in Jos 7:25. Hence the propriety of the name.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And they raised over him a great heap of stones, to this day, and YHWH turned from the fierceness of his anger, for which reason the name of the place was called the valley of Achor to this day.’
The heap of stones, partly gathered from the stones hurled in execution, was a witness (Jos 4:21-22; Genesis 32:48). It testified to the holiness and severity of God, and yet of His mercy to the children of Israel. Compare the heap of stones piled over the body of the king of Ai (Jos 8:29), an everlasting reminder of YHWH’s triumph over disaster. And it warned of what would happen to those who treated YHWH and His covenant lightly. They remained there ‘to this day’. These constant references to ‘to this day’ confirm that the Book was written not too long after the events.
“And YHWH turned from the fierceness of his anger.” Compare Deu 13:17. This language is anthropomorphic. It meant that the barrier that man had erected against God was now again broken down. Thus God no longer had to deal with them in judgment. He was able once more to show mercy and act for them without endangering man’s recognition of the awfulness of sin.
“For this reason the name of the place was called the valley of Achor to this day.” ‘Achor’ comes from the same root as the word for ‘trouble’ in Jos 7:25. Thus ‘the valley or plain of troubling’ was a reminder of the troubling of Israel. Whether it was renamed at this time, or simply had its name given a new meaning, is unimportant. What mattered was what it meant for the future. And the name lasted ‘to this day’. Then they all returned to their camp at Gilgal.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 26. Wherefore the name of that place, &c. From the day of the punishment of Achan, or Achor, the disturber of the public repose, the Israelites called the place where he was stoned Achar. What confirms this etymology is, that Achan is always called Achar in the Syriac version, and by Josephus, Athanasius, Basil, and other authors, at the head of whom we may place Esdras, 1Ch 2:7. See Bochart on the subject, Hieroz. part i. lib. ii. c. 32. Mr. Saurin observes, that the design of raising this heap of stones was, to place before the eyes of all Israel a perpetual memorial of the crime of Achan, and of their indispensable obligation to pay an entire deference to the command of God. Happy if they had always followed this lesson; if they had not, by surpassing Achan in his crimes, drawn down upon their nation the greatest punishments! Dr. Shaw tells us, that many heaps of stone are seen in Barbary, the Holy Land, and Arabia, which have been gradually erected as so many signs over murdered travellers; the Arabs, according to a superstitious custom among them, contributing each of them a stone whenever they pass by them: something like this, he thinks, are the present event, and those recorded, ch. Jos 8:9 and 2Sa 18:17. See the preface to his Travels, p. 17.
REFLECTIONS.God having directed Joshua in the method of procedure, he rises very early in the morning, in haste purge the camp from the abominable thing which was hidden in it.
1. The tribes are convoked. Judah is taken, the first in dignity, yet now exposed to shame by one bad branch of this noble family. By repeated trials, from families to houses, and from houses to individuals, the criminal is discovered, and Achan, confounded with conscious guilt, stands forth the troubler of Israel. Note; When God is contending with us, we need well to examine our ways, and see if there be any way of wickedness in us: whilst Achan’s wedge, any allowed sin remains, the curse must be upon us. 2. The divine lot having discovered the offender, Joshua, as judge, exhorts him to give glory to God by an open and unreserved confession. He does not fly out into anger or reviling against him; but, pitying his misery, beseeches him to repent of his great sin, and take to himself the deserved shame of such a guilty conduct. Note; (1.) Even the vilest of criminals deserve our pity, not reproach. (2.) The only retribution we can make to God for our sins, is an open acknowledgment. They cannot be true penitents, who shrink from the shame they have deserved, and seek to excuse and exculpate themselves, instead of glorifying God by an unreserved confession. 3. Hopes of concealment had hardened his heart before; but now that God has found him out, he bows under the conviction, acknowledges his great sin, and discloses the particular fact in all the circumstances of it. Note; (1.) A burdened conscience can only find ease by self-accusation, and owning its aggravated sin against God. (2.) The more deeply we are affected, the more particular will be our confessions, and the more sharp our self-upbraidings in the review of the process of our sin. (3.) The advances to sin are here laid down; concupiscence is at the root; Satan presents the bait to the eye, the heart is caught by it, the hand is stretched out, and the crime completed. How strict a guard should we keep upon our eyes! How severely repress the first motions of evil desire! (4.) It is the devil’s grand deceit, “No eye shall see thee; thy sin may be easily concealed;” but God can make the sinner turn self-accuser, and vomit up the riches he hath swallowed, Job 15:4. He receives his just condemnation. The goods are instantly fetched, his confession is affirmed by the accursed spoils, and sentence passes upon him. God will have the trouble fall upon his own head, which he had brought on the innocent people. Note; (1.) Sin will bring trouble: the conscience must be humbled under it in time, or be tormented for it to eternity. (2.) What we get by injustice, will in the end prove our plague. 5. He is instantly executed, dragged from the judgment-seat without the camp, and all Israel in just indignation rise up to stone him. Note; (1.) We cannot be in too great haste to get rid of our sins. (2.) We see that nothing is got by stealing or sacrilege: not only the ill-gotten gain perishes, but the fire of the curse spreads to all our substance. (3.) Wicked parents are the heaviest plague to their families, and by their bad examples usually involve them in ruin. (4.) When sin is repented of, and washed away with the blood of Jesus, shed as a curse for us, then we may expect God’s love and mercy will be restored to us. 6. A monument is raised on these ashes, as a warning to others, and a name given to the place, corresponding with the occasion, The valley of Achor, or Trouble. Note; (1.) We need to raise a memorial over our sins, and the places where they were committed, that we may continually remember and lament them. (2.) The valley of Achor is a door of hope to true penitents, Hos 2:15 and they who go down thither in sorrow, shall be brought up from thence with joy.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
BEHOLD, my soul, in the dreadful example of Achan, the ruined state of our corrupt nature: and, while justly condemning him, learn to search thyself. Oh! who can stand in God’s sight, and challenge strict enquiry. Lord! I would say; Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight can no man living be justified! Teach me, thou blessed Spirit of all truth, teach me to look into myself; to lay my hand with trembling and godly fear upon my heart, and ask how my God is sanctified? How are his commands reverenced? And how his name and majesty honoured? Alas! I fear from the principle of self-love and self-deception, I shall make no discovery equal to what the state really is. Teach me then, thou Holy Spirit, so to stand convinced, of the multitude of transgressions which are secret to my own knowledge, but which are all open to the light of God’s countenance, that solemnly condemned in my own heart I may fly to Jesus, take refuge in his all-atoning blood and justifying righteousness; that I may plead this, and this only, before the throne, under all the self-reproaches of my own mind, the charges of Satan, the curses of God’s broken law, and the holy demands of his justice. Here, dearest Jesus, do I fix my hope. On thee do I hang all my expectations of pardon, mercy, and peace, through thy blood. And when the demand is made, what I have to say, this shall be all my plea: Thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jos 7:26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
Ver. 26. And they raised over him. ] For a warning to others. Aliorum perditio tua sit cautio. It is a just presage and desert of ruin, not to be warned.
The valley of Achor.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the fierceness.Figure of speech Anthropopatheia (App-6).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
raised: Jos 8:29, Jos 10:27, 2Sa 18:17, Lam 3:53
So the Lord: Deu 13:17, 2Sa 21:14, Isa 40:2, Joe 2:13, Joe 2:18, Joh 3:9, Joh 3:10, Zec 6:8
The valley: Jos 7:24, Isa 65:10, Hos 2:15
Achor: that is, Trouble, Jos 7:25
Reciprocal: Gen 31:46 – Gather Exo 32:12 – Turn from Num 25:4 – that the fierce Num 25:11 – turned my Jos 7:15 – he that is Jos 15:7 – the valley Jdg 2:5 – Bochim Jdg 7:25 – rock Ezr 10:14 – the fierce Act 5:4 – why Heb 12:15 – trouble