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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 7:6

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And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.

6 15. The Defeat before Ai. Joshua’s Prayer

6. And Joshua rent his clothes ] in token of sorrow and distress (comp. Lev 10:6; Lev 21:10). The clothes were torn in front over the breast, yet for not more than a handbreadth. In Patriarchal times we read of Reuben rending his clothes, because “Joseph was not in the pit” (Gen 37:29); of Jacob rending his clothes, and “mourning for his son many days” (Gen 37:34); of Joseph’s brethren that they rent their clothes, when they found the cup in Benjamin’s sack (Gen 44:13). For the same custom among the Romans compare Juvenal xiii. 131

“Nemo dolorem Fingit in hoc casu, vestem diducere summam Contentus.”

and put dust upon their heads ] Likewise a sign of mourning. Comp. the young man of Benjamin running to Shiloh with tidings of the battle, his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head (1Sa 4:12); the man coming from the camp to David with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head (2Sa 1:2). See also 2Sa 13:19 ; 2Sa 15:32. Comp. Hom. Il. 18:25, 24:164.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

On these signs of mourning, compare the marginal references and Lev 10:6; Num 20:6; 1Sa 4:12.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jos 7:6-9

Joshua . . . fell . . . before the ark of the Lord.

Joshuas plea before the ark

The ark was the centre of mercy to Israel, and the glory of the tabernacle, their refuge in trouble, their security in danger, and their deliverance in distress. Here they mourned, and made supplication, where the cause only could be known, where relief only could come. From hence had proceeded all their pardons, their conquests, and possessions. But for the ark and the mercy-seat above, its propitiatory covering, Israel had been a lost people, and long had perished in want or conflict. No such seat of grace and habitation of mercy in At. The God of glory was still in the sanctuary of His people, though an accursed thing was in the camp. And where but to God in Christ, the true ark of the covenant and token of His gracious presence, can the afflicted, the oppressed, or the convicted go? This is their peculiar privilege, their constant need, and their never-failing resource. The pleadings of Joshua are a fine specimen and example of a true supplicatory spirit. It was before the ark, that grand and expressive type of Christ. Nothing in the worship of the spiritual sanctuary, no act of prayer or praise, no penitential pleadings or humiliations, can be acceptable, but as offered in the name, and through the mediation, of our Divine and glorious peace-maker, the Lord Jesus. Though the fears and apprehensions of unbelief mingle some infirmity with the pleadings of this great intercessor for Israel, yet there is impressive beauty and strength in his expressions, but in none so much as those which discover a mind tenderly affected for the glory of God, the honour of His name, and the prevalence of His truth. What wilt Thou do unto Thy great name? Oh! this was the grand point, the highest consideration, and beyond which pleading could not go. This failing, no other could avail. And still here is all the force of pleading, as from it all the cause of prevailing. This name, with all its glory and honour, is in Christ known to the Church and published to the world, a name ever dear to God, and dearer than a thousand worlds. This will prevail above all the distresses of the Church, all the triumphs of her enemies. Peace and pardon, and every blessing of providence, grace and glory, are insured to the believer, so that he who rests here can never perish or be conquered. (W. Seaton.)

Deep affliction

When Achilles heard of the death of Patrocius his grief was so great that he cast himself on the ground as one that could not be comforted.

With both his hands black dust he gathers now,

Casts on his head and soils his comely brow,
Foul ashes cling his perfumed tunic round,

His noble form lies stretched upon the ground.

Here we have a grief similarly expressed, but more pathetic and noble. Joshua shows here again that he was a perfect leader. In all the affliction of the people he is afflicted. All the feeling of dismay in the camp is concentrated, as it were, in him. His great capacity for leadership gives him greater capacity for suffering. Thus is it always. He who is most interested in the cause of Christ, he whose heart is most enthusiastic, will be most east down by defeat. The man whose soul is most sensitive to sin, most fully alive to the commandments of God and the demands of truth, has the keenest sensibility, and therefore suffers most in a region of rebellion. That is to say, the more real spiritual life there is in the soul, the more suffering must there be. The sorrow of Jesus is the deepest because the love of Jesus is the highest. Joshuas sorrow, it is very plain, was sincere and unfeigned. There was no acting here. And his grief was as unselfish as it was sincere. His chief sorrow is for the people. Their fate, their prospects, are his chief concern. Joshuas perplexity is very great. This indeed is the biggest element in his trouble, and two parallel questions manifest it–What shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? (verse 8), and What wilt Thou do unto Thy great name? (verse 9). If things continue as they are, and lead to their natural issues, in regard to Thy ways. What shall I say? What conclusion am I to come to? What construction am I to put on this event? Joshua makes no allowance for defeat. The chances of the glorious game of war have no place in his reckoning. Joshua cannot reconcile this defeat, unimportant though it may seem to some, with three grand facts wherein lay his chief confidence. The fact of the Divine presence–Is God with us after all? he might ask. The fact of the Divine promise–Has God indeed spoken? The fact of the Divine power–Is God able to give unbroken victory? The sad fact of defeat seemed to go in the face of these other facts. But to Joshua these other facts were as patent as that over which he mourned; hence his consternation. He is dumbfounded. And surely this noble sorrow, this believing consternation of Joshua, should be a reproof to many. We believe that there are individuals and congregations who would be more perplexed and confounded by a spiritual victory than by a spiritual disaster. But Joshua had a second question, which is the expression of a still deeper cause of perplexity. His first question, What shaft I say? rose from his faith in God. His second question, What wilt Thou do unto Thy great name? arose from his fidelity to God. Thus Joshuas second question becomes a powerful plea before God, commanding His attention and drawing forth a reply. And it is well to notice here for our encouragement in any spiritual emergency that in the very trouble of Joshuas soul there exists the germ of good hope. Joshua, just because he knows, feels, and owns his trouble before God, is every moment helping forward the solution of the difficulty. To know that we are beaten may be a bad thing in ordinary warfare; hence Napoleons complaint against the British troops; but it is not so in the spiritual fight; rather is it essential to continued success. Let us imitate Joshua in his godly sorrow. But trouble came upon Israel as well as upon their leader. As a single grain of colouring matter will tinge gallons of water, so one sin will affect a whole people. Achans transgression influenced for evil the whole of that nation. His little leaven leavened the whole lump. No man can confine the effects of any sin within the small compass of his own personal experience. Just as in the heart of a rich city a collection of squalid and filthy dens may spread disease and death in its finest mansions, so the wicked, wherever found, become centres of spiritual infection, and no soul near them is safe; hence, just as men wisely seek in self-defence to improve the physical conditions of the poorest dwellings, so should we, if for no other motive than the preservation of our own spiritual health, labour in all directions, and in every possible way, to improve and elevate the masses. And if this principle holds in the body politic, much more powerfully does it manifest itself in the body mystic, i.e., the Church of the living God. Here the influence of sin is most acutely and quickly felt. Hence the constant care that should be manifested in casting out every particle of the leaven of sin. He who takes heed to his own heart and life, keeping them clean and pure in the sight of God, edifies the brethren, and is health and strength and joy to all the body of Christ. He who is careless and sinful, must, like Achan, be a troubler of the house of God. Yes, and he himself must be miserable. What joy had Achan in all his ill-gotten gains? The rust of gold, like some strong Satanic acid, ate into his soul, to his unspeakable torture. Every transgressor sooner or later will find, like Achan, that in every sin lies its own punishment, and therefore escape is impossible. And Achans act had an evil influence upon the Canaanites as well as on himself and Israel. The effect of this defeat at Ai would be to harden their hearts, to make them persist in their rebellion. How often does the success of the wicked turn out their destruction. Applying these things to the work of the Lord in our days, we are reminded by the effect of Achans sin on these Canaanites of the evil that is brought on the world through the unfaithfulness of professing Christians. We must remember that not only the honour of the Master and the prosperity of the Church are connected with our faithfulness, but also, to no inconsiderable extent, the spiritual state of the world around. Therefore let us take heed as we name the name of Christ to depart from all iniquity, and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. (A. B. Mackay.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 6. Joshua rent his clothes, c.] It was not in consequence of this slight discomfiture, simply considered in itself, that Joshua laid this business so much to heart but

1. Because the people melted, and became as water, and there was little hope that they would make any stand against the enemy; and

2. Because this defeat evidently showed that God had turned his hand against them. Had it not been so, their enemies could not have prevailed.

Put dust upon their heads.] Rending the clothes, beating the breast, tearing the hair, putting dust upon the head, and falling down prostrate, were the usual marks of deep affliction and distress. Most nations have expressed their sorrow in a similar way. The example of the distressed family of King Latinus, so affectingly related by Virgil, may be adduced in illustration of many passages in the history of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, c.

Regina ut testis venientem prospicit hostem__

Purpureos moritura manu discindit amictus__

Filia prima manu flavos Lavinia crines,

Et roseas laniata genas.__

. . . . . . It scissa veste Latinus__

Canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans.

AEn. lib. xii., ver. 594.

“The queen, who saw the foes invade the town,

And brands on tops of burning houses thrown,

She raves against the gods, she beats her breast,

And tears, with both her hands, her purple vest.

The sad Lavinia rends her yellow hair,

And rosy cheeks the rest her sorrow share.

Latinus tears his garments as he goes,

Both for his public and his private woes;

With filth his venerable beard besmears,

And sordid dust deforms his silver hairs.”

DRYDEN.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Joshua rent his clothes, in testimony of great sorrow, as Gen 37:34; 44:13, for the loss felt, the consequent mischief feared, and the sin which he suspected.

Fell to the earth upon his face, in deep humiliation and fervent supplication.

Until the eventide; continuing the whole day in fasting and prayer.

Put dust upon their heads; as was usual in case of grief and astonishment, 1Sa 4:12; 2Sa 1:2 13:19; Jon 3:6; Mic 1:10.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6-9. Joshua rent his clothes, andfell to the earth . . . before the ark . . . he and the eldersItis evident, from those tokens of humiliation and sorrow, that asolemn fast was observed on this occasion. The language of Joshua’sprayer is thought by many to savor of human infirmity and to bewanting in that reverence and submission he owed to God. But,although apparently breathing a spirit of bold remonstrance andcomplaint, it was in reality the effusion of a deeply humbled andafflicted mind, expressing his belief that God could not, afterhaving so miraculously brought His people over Jordan into thepromised land, intend to destroy them, to expose them to the insultsof their triumphant enemies, and bring reproach upon His own name forinconstancy or unkindness to His people, or inability to resist theirenemies. Unable to understand the cause of the present calamity, heowned the hand of God.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And Joshua rent his clothes,…. As was usual in those ancient times, on hearing bad news, and as expressive of grief and trouble r; see Ge 37:29;

and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord, until the eventide; in a posture of adoration and prayer, in which he continued till even; how long that was cannot be said, since the time is not mentioned when the army returned from Ai; very probably it was some time in the afternoon: this was done before the ark of the Lord, the symbol of the divine Presence, not in the most holy place, where that usually was, and into which Joshua might not enter, but in the tabernacle of the great court, over against where the ark was:

he and the elders of Israel; either the elders of the people in the several tribes, or rather the seventy elders, which were the sanhedrim or council, and which attended Joshua, and assisted him as such;

and put dust upon their heads; another rite or ceremony used in times of mourning and distress, and that very anciently, before Joshua’s time and after, see Job 2:12; and among various nations; so when Achilles bewailed the death of Patroclus, he is represented by Homer s taking with both his hands the black earth, and pouring it on his head; so Aristippus among the Athenians is said t to sprinkle dust on his head in token of mourning on a certain account.

r “Tum pius”, Aeneas, &c. Virgil. Aeneid. l. 5. prope finem. s , &c. Iliad. 18. ver. 23. Vid. Odyss. 24. “Sparsitque cinis”, &c. Seneca, Troad. Act. 1. Chorus. t Heliodor. Aethiop. l. 1. c. 13.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Joshua and the elders of the people were also deeply affected, not so much at the loss of thirty-six men, as because Israel, which was invincible with the help of the Lord, had been beaten, and therefore the Lord must have withdrawn His help. In the deepest grief, with their clothes rent (see at Lev 10:6) and ashes upon their heads, they fell down before the ark of the Lord (vid., Num 20:6) until the evening, to pour out their grief before the Lord. Joshua’s prayer contains a complaint (Jos 7:7) and as question addressed to God (Jos 7:8, Jos 7:9). The complaint , “Alas, O Lord Jehovah, wherefore hast Thou brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?” almost amounts to murmuring, and sounds very much like the complaint which the murmuring people brought against Moses and Aaron in the desert (Num 14:2-3); but it is very different from the murmuring of the people on that occasion against the guidance of God; for it by no means arose from unbelief, but was simply the bold language of faith wrestling with God in prayer – faith which could not comprehend the ways of the Lord – and involved the most urgent appeal to the Lord to carry out His work in the same glorious manner in which it had been begun, with the firm conviction that God could neither relinquish nor alter His purposes of grace. The words which follow, “Would to God that we had been content (see at Deu 1:5) to remain on the other side of the Jordan,” assume on the one hand, that previous to the crossing of the river Israel had cherished a longing for the possession of Canaan, and on the other hand, that this longing might possibly have been the cause of the calamity which had fallen upon the people now, and therefore express the wish that Israel had never cherished any such desire, or that the Lord had never gratified it. (On the unusual form for , see Ges. 63, anm. 4, and Ewald, 41, b.) The inf. abs. (with the unusual i in the final syllable) is placed for the sake of emphasis after the finite verb, as in Gen 46:4, etc. The Amorites are the inhabitants of the mountains, as in Gen 46:4, etc.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. 7 And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! 8 O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

We have here an account of the deep concern Joshua was in upon this sad occasion. He, as a public person, interested himself more than any other in this public loss, and is therein an example to princes and great men, and teaches them to lay much to heart the calamities that befal their people: he is also a type of Christ, to whom the blood of his subjects is precious, Ps. lxxii. 14. Observe,

I. How he grieved: He rent his clothes (v. 6), in token of great sorrow for this public disaster, and especially a dread of God’s displeasure, which was certainly the cause of it. Had it been but the common chance of war (as we are too apt to express it), it would not have become a general to droop thus under it; but, when God was angry, it was his duty and honour to feel thus. One of the bravest soldiers that ever was owned that his flesh trembled for fear of God, Ps. cxix. 120. As one humbling himself under the mighty had of God, he fell to the earth upon his face, not thinking it any disparagement to him to lie thus low before the great God, to whom he directed this token of reverence, by keeping his eye towards the ark of the Lord. The elders of Israel, being interested in the cause and influenced by his example, prostrated themselves with him, and, in token of deep humiliation, put dust upon their heads, not only as mourners, but as penitents; not doubting but it was for some sin or other that God did thus contend with them (though they knew not what it was), they humbled themselves before God, and thus deprecated the progress of his wrath. This they continued until even-tide, to show that it was not the result of a sudden feeling, but proceeded from a deep conviction of their misery and danger if God were any way provoked to depart from them. Joshua did not fall foul upon his spies for their misinformation concerning the strength of the enemy, nor upon the soldiers for their cowardice, though perhaps both were blameworthy, but his eye is up to God; for is there any evil in the camp and he has not done it? His eye is upon God as displeased, and that troubles him.

II. How he prayed, or pleaded rather, humbly expostulating the case with God, not sullen, as David when the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, but much affected; his spirit seemed to be somewhat ruffled and discomposed, yet not so as to be put out of frame for prayer; but, by giving vent to his trouble in a humble address to God, he keeps his temper and it ends well. 1. Now he wishes they had all taken up with the lot of the two tribes on the other side Jordan, v. 7. He thinks it would have been better to have staid there and been cut short than come hither to be cut off. This savours too much of discontent and distrust of God, and cannot be justified, though the surprise and disappointment to one deeply concerned for the public interest may in part excuse it. Those words, wherefore hast thou brought us over Jordan to destroy us? are too like what the murmurers often said (Exo 14:11; Exo 14:12; Exo 16:3; Exo 17:3; Num 14:2; Num 14:3); but he that searches the heart knew they came from another spirit, and therefore was not extreme to mark what he said amiss. Had Joshua considered that this disorder which their affairs were put into no doubt proceeded from something amiss, which yet might easily be redressed, and all set to rights again (as often in his predecessor’s time), he would not have spoken of it as a thing taken for granted that they were delivered into the hands of the Amorites to be destroyed. God knows what he does, though we do not; but this we may be sure of, he never did nor ever will do us any wrong. 2. He speaks as one quite at a loss concerning the meaning of this event (v. 8): “What shall I say, what construction can I put upon it, when Israel, thy own people, for whom thou hast lately done such great things and to whom thou hast promised the full possession of this land, when they turn their backs before their enemies” (their necks, so the word is), “when they not only flee before them, but fall before them, and become a prey to them? What shall we think of the divine power? Is the Lord’s arm shortened? Of the divine promise? Is his word yea and nay? Of what God has done for us? Shall this be all undone again and prove in vain?” Note, The methods of Providence are often intricate and perplexing, and such as the wisest and best of men know not what to say to; but they shall know hereafter, John xiii. 7. 3. He pleads the danger Israel was now in of being ruined. He gives up all for lost: “The Canaanites will environ us round, concluding that now our defence having departed, and the scales being turned in their favour, we shall soon be as contemptible as ever we were formidable, and they will cut off our name from the earth,” v. 9. Thus even good men, when things go against them a little, are too apt to fear the worst, and make harder conclusions than there is reason for. But his comes in here as a plea: “Lord, let not Israel’s name, which has been so dear to thee and so great in the world, be cut off.” 4. He pleads the reproach that would be cast on God, and that if Israel were ruined his glory would suffer by it. They will cut off our name, says he, yet, as if he had corrected himself for insisting upon that, it is no great matter (thinks he) what becomes of our little name (the cutting off of that will be a small loss), but what wilt thou do for thy great name? this he looks upon and laments as the great aggravation of the calamity. He feared it would reflect on God, his wisdom and power, his goodness and faithfulness; what would the Egyptians say? Note, Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul than dishonour done to God’s name. This also he insists upon as a plea for the preventing of his fears and for a return of God’s favour; it is the only word in all his address that has any encouragement in it, and he concludes with it, leaving it to this issue, Father, glorify thy name. The name of God is a great name, above every name; and, whatever happens, we ought to believe that he will, and pray that he would, work for his own name, that this may not be polluted. This should be our concern more than any thing else. On this we must fix our eye as the end of all our desires, and from this we must fetch our encouragement as the foundation of all our hopes. We cannot urge a better plea than this, Lord, What wilt thou do for thy great name? Let God in all be glorified, and then welcome his whole will.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Joshua Distraught, vs. 6-9

When Joshua learned of what had occurred at Ai he gathered all the elders of Israel, and they went before the ark of the Lord, tearing their garments and heaping dust on their heads.

It was a humiliating and shameful event, and Joshua does not seem to have yet grasped the problem. He seems to accuse and blame the Lord. Why did He perform the mighty miracle of bringing them over the Jordan?

Was it to deliver them to little Ai and the rest of the Canaanites? It seemed to Joshua it would have been better had all the tribes chosen to remain on the east side of the Jordan.

Then he asks a pertinent question, which he, himself, should have answered, “What shall I say when Israel turns her back on her enemies?” Why, Joshua, you should say, “Something is wrong between Israel and her God, and I must go to the Lord and find out what it is.”

It was not God’s fault, but the fault of Israel. Joshua rightly concluded that with such inability of Israel to stand before her enemies word would rapidly spread, and the tribes of Canaan would gather around them and destroy Israel. And when this occurred the great name of the Lord God would be defamed, for His people would have been unable to withstand their enemies.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

6. And Joshua rent his clothes, etc Although it was easy to throw the blame of the overthrow or disgrace which had been sustained on others, and it was by no means becoming in a courageous leader to be so much cast down by the loss of thirty men, especially when by increasing his force a hundred-fold it would not have been difficult to drive back the enemy now weary with their exertions, it was not, however, without cause that Joshua felt the deepest sorrow, and gave way to feelings bordering on despair. The thought that the events of war are doubtful — a thought which sustains and reanimates the defeated — could not be entertained by him, because God had promised that they would always be victorious. Therefore when the success did not correspond to his hopes, the only conclusion he could draw was, that they had fought unsuccessfully merely because they had been deprived of the promised assistance of God.

Accordingly, both he and the elders not only gave themselves up to sorrow and sadness, but engage in solemn mourning, as used in the most calamitous circumstances, by tearing their garments and throwing dust on their heads. That mode of expressing grief was used also by the heathen, but was specially appropriate in the pious worshippers of God in suppliantly deprecating his wrath. The rending of the garments and other accompanying acts contained a profession of repentance, as may also be inferred from the annexed prayer, which, however, is of a mixed nature, dictated partly by faith and the pure spirit of piety, and partly by excessive perturbation. In turning straightway to God and acknowledging that in his hand, by which the wound was inflicted, the cure was prepared, they are influenced by faith; but their excessive grief is evidently carried beyond all proper bounds. Hence the freedom with which they expostulate, and hence the preposterous wish, Would God we had remained in the desert! (70)

It is not a new thing, however, for pious minds, when they aspire to seek God with holy zeal, to obscure the light of faith by the vehemence and impetuosity of their affections. And in this way all prayers would be vitiated did not the Lord in his boundless indulgence pardon them, and wiping away all their stains receive them as if they were pure. And yet while in thus freely expostulating, they cast their cares upon God, though this blunt simplicity needs pardon, it is far more acceptable than the feigned modesty of hypocrites, who, while carefully restraining themselves to prevent any confident expression from escaping their lips, inwardly swell and almost burst with contumacy.

Joshua oversteps the bounds of moderation when he challenges God for having brought the people out of the desert; but he proceeds to much greater intemperance when, in opposition to the divine promise and decree, he utters the turbulent wish, Would that we had never come out of the desert! That was to abrogate the divine covenant altogether. But as his object was to maintain and assert the divine glory, the vehemence which otherwise might have justly provoked God was excused.

We are hence taught that saints, while they aim at the right mark, often stumble and fall, and that this sometimes happens even in their prayers, in which purity of faith and affections framed to obedience ought to be especially manifested. That Joshua felt particularly concerned for the divine glory, is apparent from the next verse, where he undertakes the maintenance of it, which had been in a manner assigned to him. What shall I say, he asks, when it will be objected that the people turned their backs? And he justly complains that he is left without an answer, as God had made him the witness and herald of his favor, whence there was ground to hope for an uninterrupted series of victories. Accordingly, after having in the loftiest terms extolled the divine omnipotence in fulfillment of the office committed to him, it had now become necessary for him, from the adverse course of events, to remain ignominiously silent. We thus see that nothing vexes him more than the disgrace brought upon his calling. He is not concerned for his own reputation, but fears lest the truth of God might be endangered in the eyes of the world. (71) In short, as it was only by the order of God that he had brought the people into the land of Canaan, he now in adversity calls upon him as author and avenger, just as if he had said, Since thou has brought me into these straits, and I am in danger of seeming to be a deceiver, it is for thee to interfere and supply me with the means of defense.

(70) French, “ O que je voudrove que nous eussions prins a plaisir de demeurer au dela du Jordain;” “O how I wish that we had been pleased to remain beyond the Jordan.” — Ed.

(71) French, “ Soit revoquee en doute, ou moins estimee devant le monde;” “Be called in question, or less esteemed before the world.” — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.

Jos. 7:6. Rent his clothes put dust upon their heads] Both are ancient and common signs of mourning. They were practised among the Greeks and Romans, as well as among the Jews. With Joshua and the elders they were indicative of humiliation before God.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 7:6-9

DEFEATED AND PRAYING

Defeat is very painful when it comes to us as a first experience. The child, the business man, the soldier, each is troubled to bear his first humiliation of being beaten. When Adam was overcome for the first time, he hid himself. When Robert Hall failed in his early efforts to preach Christ, he cried, If this does not humble me, the devil will have me. When Joshua was beaten back before the men of Ai, he, and the elders of Israel with him, fell before the Ark in humiliation and prayer.

I. We see the Lords servant acknowledging defeat. Joshua felt that he had been sent on Jehovahs mission, that he had the prestige of former help from on high and of previous victories, and that he had gone up to this fresh conflict in the strength of Divine promises which hitherto had never failed him.

1. Think of the connection between the defeat of the godly and the confession of such defeat before God. The first Napoleon is reported to have said of our soldiers, The worst of those English fellows is, they never know when they are beaten. That may be a good thing to say of bravery in earthly service and conflicts, but it must not be said of the soldiers of Christ. When the Lord is gone over against them, and defeat succeeds separation from Him, they can have no more fatal trait of character than that proud stubbornness which refuses to own that the battle has resulted in their overthrow. (a) All actual defeat, to a Christian man, is from God. God permits it, or occasions it. This is so in business life; in family life; in Christian life; in Christian work. (b) Defeat being always from God, should ever be carried to God. Joshua falls before the Ark. Low at their Fathers feet; that is the place for His beaten children. They will learn the reason of defeat as they lie there. Thus, when the beaten disciples at the foot of the mount of transfiguration fail to heal the boy with the dumb spirit, and confess their failure before the Saviour, they soon learn the cause of their humiliation. They had only to ask, Why could not we cast him out? and the answer came at once, Because of your unbelief.

2. Think of the relation of defeat to humility. Joshua rent his clothes, and fell on his face, and put dust on his head. Thus he, and the elders of Israel, fasted and humbled themselves all the rest of the day until the evening. They took the way common to the time and country in which to express their humiliation. These usual forms were merely the vehicle in which they came with humbled hearts to God. We need not take the same forms. It does not matter what the vehicle is, if it only be sufficient to carry our hearts in true humility to the mercy-seat. But all defeat in the Lords war should work lowliness of mind. It is for this that each defeat is sent. Grosart has noticed that there was a kind of ascending scale in our Lords temptations in the desert. This seems to have been the case. The temptations both in physical position and moral intensity seem to lie successively on higher ground. For the first temptation, Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness; the second temptation was higher still,it was on a pinnacle of the temple; the third was highest of all,it was up into an exceeding high mountain. And with this idea of physical elevation there is a concurrent gradation of intensity in the temptations themselves. The first temptation is to work a miracle on the stones to satisfy bodily hunger; the second is to make a sensuous demonstration in order to secure speedy success to His work; the third is to take the short road to universal power by meeting sin and the devil half-way. Our temptations, also, intensify as we go up. Let us not refuse to take the lowly position to which God ever invites us by our defeats. He puts us low on the ground at His feet, just because in our present state we could not bear the greater ordeal of the higher position to which we should be brought by further success. When God brings us down, we should learn to lie down; that is the safest place for the present, and the quickest way up as concerning the future.

3. Think of the effect of defeat upon Joshuas faith. When defeat came, Joshua was utterly surprised. His faith in God was so simple, and yet so strong, that he had no room for a lost battle. The chief feeling, perhaps, which impresses us on reading his prayer, is his utter astonishment at the repulse. We think our faith great when we believe in a victory that comes. My husband is to be converted to-day, said an American Christian woman to her minister. How do you know that? asked he. And then the believing wife told how she had been praying, and how, although her husband shewed no sign of repentance, the assurance had taken firm hold of her heart that he would that day be brought to Christ. Her minister testifies that the man was converted on that selfsame day, and, in an exposition of some verses in the previous chapter, narrates the incident, as it would probably strike most modern believers, as an instance of great faith. Joshuas faith had room for nothing but victories. We are surprised at one success; he was overwhelmed with shame and confusion when he was not triumphant everywhere. How this trust of the men who knew not a verse of our Gospels, and who had no Cross in which to glory, should put our small faith to shame! We ought to live so in the faith of Him who died for us, that defeat should make us stand aghast with astonishment, and then fall low in the dust with humiliation. It is said that a few years ago a young engineer was being examined for graduation, when his examiner proposed the following question: Suppose you have a steam pump constructed for a ship, under your own supervision, and know that everything is in perfect working order, yet, when you throw out the hose, it will not draw. What should you think? I should think, sir, there must be a defect somewhere. But such a conclusion is not admissible; for the supposition is that everything is perfect, and yet that the pump will not work. Then, sir, replied the student, I should look over the side to see if the river had run dry. We profess to believe in the omnipotence of the Spirit, and that the Spirit has been poured out from on high in a baptism of holy power. When our children are not given to us in Christ, when no spiritual victories follow our spiritual efforts and conflicts, is it not time to look for the cause of failure? Everything on Gods part must be perfect, but may it not be that we have let go our union with Him? Surely it must be so, if in all these things we are not more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

II. We see the Lords servant praying that defeat may be turned into victory.

1. Prayer may have much infirmity, and yet be heard and answered by God. (a) Joshuas petition shews a spirit akin to murmuring and reproach. It seems to partake too much of the tone of some of the previous rebellions, as we hear it said, Wherefore hast Thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? (b) Joshua loses sight of Gods past leading of the people, or else he questions the wisdom of Divine guidance. He peevishly cries, Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! He speaks as though the past had been a mistake. (c) Joshua shews us the nearness of faith to unbelief. He whose former faith had been so great as to leave no place whatever for defeat, now shews a distrust which can hardly find room to hope for any future victory: The Canaanites shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth. So poor, in some aspects, seems the spirit of Joshuas petition before God. Yet this prayer prevailed; if it did not bring an immediate reversal of defeat, it made the way clear for future victory. Our prayers may be moved by an imperfect spirit, and may be poured out in unseemly words; if, like Joshua, we have a heart earnest with holy longings, and desirous of Gods honour and His peoples welfare, they will not be poured out in vain.

2. True prayer throws its principal stress on the glory of the Divine name. What wilt Thou do unto Thy great name? Just as Moses had done before him, Joshua felt truly and deeply concerned for the Divine honour before the heathen nations. This is the true spirit of prayer, and one to which God ever has regard. The Saviour said repeatedly, before leaving His disciples, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Yet prayer is not merely the formal mention of the Divine name, for, if that were so, the Lords prayer itself would be imperfect. The suppliant who would prevail indeed, must come in that spirit which God loves, and which makes the Divine name the glorious name which it is; he must come, as the Saviour Himself loved to plead, having no will or wish that stands opposed to that Sovereign will which by prayer he seeks to move.

Jos. 7:6-9.GODLY SORROW

I. The sorrow of the godly is deep and unfeigned.

1. It is involuntary. It is independent of any act of the will. It comes as suddenly as its cause, answering to the blow that smites as the echo answers to the call, or as the thunder responds to the lightning. Godly sorrow flows naturally and freely, not stiffly and artificially. True humiliation has no onion tears.

2. It is continuous as the necessity. It is not satisfied with a prescribed amount of tears and shame. Such sorrow has no thought of any intrinsic merit in humiliation. It has no regard to penance. It does not set itself a given lesson in grief, thinking that so much grief is equal to so much guilt. Joshua fell upon his face, not merely until eventide, but till the Lord said, Get thee up.

II. The sorrow of the godly is not so much the sorrow of selfishness as sorrow with God. Joshua has fears for Israel, and he is not free from the sense of the personal pain which will come to himself and the people through shame and loss. This is only human and natural. But Joshuas great grief is that the enemies of the Lord will find opportunity to blaspheme. He thinks it less that Israels name shall be cut off from the earth than that the great name of Jehovah shall be dishonoured. The late F. W. Robertson has said on the subject of sorrow for sin: God sees sin not in its consequences, but in itself: a thing infinitely evil, even if the consequences were happiness to the guilty, instead of misery. So sorrow according to God, is to see sin as God sees it. The grief of Peter was as bitter as that of Judas. He went out and wept bitterly; how bitterly none can tell but they who have learned to look on sin as God does. But in Peters grief there was an element of hope; and that sprung precisely from thisthat he saw God in it all. Despair of self did not lead to despair of God. This is the great peculiar feature of this sorrow: God is there, accordingly self is less prominent. It is not a microscopic self-examination, nor a mourning in which self is ever uppermost: my character gone; the greatness of my sin; the forfeiture of my salvation. The thought of God absorbs all that. Such is the hopeful feature in Joshuas sorrow for the defeat at Ai. Though he may suspect some wrong, he does not, at the time of this prayer, know how fully the defeat is owing to actual sin. Yet the grief of this godly man for himself and Israel is comparatively lost and absorbed in his concern for the honour of his Lords name. So, if our sorrow be really holy, it will ever gather round the name and truth of God, rather than around our most sacred personal interests.

III. The sorrow of the godly is sometimes impatient and unreasonable. Without, on the one hand, taking the seventh verse to be an irreverent remonstrance, and without reading it, on the other, merely as the utterance of what the heathen would infer from the event, it is almost impossible not to discern in the language something of the peevishness of pain,something of that bitterness of impatience which is rather the sharp outcry of a wounded heart than a remonstrance with Jehovah. The words are more subjective than objective; we must read them rather as words escaping from the man, than as words addressed to God. Some men feel pain more keenly than others. Thus a finely wrought spirit has cried out the enquiry:

Is it true, O Christ in heaven! that the highest suffer most?
That the strongest wander farther, and more hopelessly are lost?
That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain,
And the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?

It is even so. As the author of Ecce Deus has told us, Suffering is a question of nature. The educated man suffers more than the uneducated man: the poet probably suffers more than the mathematician; the commanding officer suffers more in a defeat than a common soldier. The more life, the more suffering; the billows of sorrow being in proportion to the volume of our manhood. The storm may pass as fiercely over the shallow lake as over the Atlantic, but by its very volume the latter is more terribly shaken. It is this volume of manhood, this capacity for pain, this sensitiveness to shame and wounding, that, to superficial gazers, makes the very strong sometimes seem so very weak. The pain of the jelly-fish may be hardly perceptible, the agony of the lion is terrible. Moses and Daniel and Paul stand conspicuous above their contemporaries, not only in ability to work, but also in power to suffer. So Joshua, with his great nature, his fine feeling, and responsible position, is bowed down by this calamity to the very dust, the prostrate form of his body hardly serving to express his greater prostration of spirit.

1. Those who have greatness enough to be Christians must not wonder if they suffer more than those who have not. The man who is sensitive to sin, to the commandments of God, to the power of truth, to the pain of conscience, to the love of Christ, must not wonder if he suffers more than those, many of whom are morally past feeling, and the remainder of whom are more or less advanced in this most terrible of all the forms of insensibility. Not only as from the lips of the Saviour, but as the very outcome of the Christian condition of the conscience, true disciples must expect to find it stated as their heritage in the way of life, Through much tribulation ye must enter into the kingdom.

2. Those who are great enough to be greatly Christian must expect to suffer conspicuously even among the suffering Church. The greater tribulation of men like Moses, and Joshua, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, and Peter, and Paul, is no more an arbitrary regulation than it is an arbitrary regulation that the Church should suffer more than the world. Christs word about the necessity of suffering is not to be read merely as the decree of a sovereign; though it be the assignment of His will, it is even more emphatically the heritage of life that is in Him; and the larger the measure of that life, the keener will be the sensitiveness to the suffering which, in this world of sin, is inflicted on every hand.

IV. God is very tolerant of such impatience as is merely the expression of His childrens pain. A child may call out sharply under the touch of the hand that tends him in some infirmity, but a mother never mistakes the cry of her childs distress for the utterance of dislike to herself, or for the expression of rebellion against her authority. Patients under the hand of the surgeon have been heard to heap words of insult and threatening on the man who was engaged in setting a broken limb, but no wise operator would interpret words like those as being more than the expression of pain. Thus God ever discerns between the outcry of a wounded heart and the irreverence of a rebellious spirit. Joshua may speak, not as it is becoming that he should speak, but in the hastiness of disappointment and the bitterness of pain; God has not so much as a word of rebuke for this; He simply proceeds to say, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?

OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Jos. 7:6-7.MAN PRAYING AND GOD SILENT.

I. The ignorance of man in prayer. The defeat before Ai seems to have been in the morning. During all the remainder of the day, Joshua and the elders of the people were bowing in humiliation and fasting and prayer before God. Joshua was ignorant of Achans sin, ignorant of Gods deep anger, ignorant of the fact that victory at Ai would have been one of the greatest evils that could have befallen Israel. Human prayers are ignorant from various causes.

1. There is the ignorance that results from carelessness. Men fail to study themselves, sin, the Bible, God.

2. There is the ignorance consequent on our limited capacities and our straitened powers of obtaining knowledge. Joshua could not watch an army to see that none transgressed. It required infinite knowledge to mark the conduct of every man in the hour of battle and confusion. Only omniscience could see every man. Only omniscience, too, could see the evil of the sin which had been committed.

3. Ignorance sometimes stands connected with the thing for which prayer is made. Joshua wanted victory restored to Israel. He did not know, during these hours of prayer, how much richer Israel was to be made through defeat.

4. Ignorance often has to do with the way in which prayer is to be answered. God gave Joshua victory after all; but the way to victory lay through further shame and a yet profounder humiliation. Israel was to be discovered as guilty of breaking the covenant, and one family in Israel was to be utterly destroyed out of the camp.

II. The wisdom of Gods silence. We are not told of the way in which God generally communicated with Joshua, neither are we informed how long God usually kept His servant waiting ere He answered. Commonly Divine counsel seems to be given to Joshua at the time and place where it is needed. It might be expected that in a grave emergency like this God would have responded to His servants cry at once. Yet the Lord kept silence, although for hour after hour Joshua lay pleading to be heard. Yet, now that we have the entire account before us, the wisdom of Divine silence is manifest. Gods silence would gradually prepare the mind of Joshua

(1) To suspect that something was wrong in the camp;

(2) To realise the severity of the Divine anger;

(3) To acquiesce in, and presently execute, the solemn sentence against Achan;

(4) To understand, when the people were again purified, that victory when in alliance with sin, would be the most ruinous defeat of all.

III. Mans misinterpretation of Gods silence. The seventh, eighth, and ninth verses seem to be only uttered when the day of humiliation and prayer had well nigh closed. Perhaps the sixth verse is meant to epitomise the history of hours of patient pleading for light, and in that case the three verses which follow would tell the tale of the impatient outburst of Joshuas broken heart when he finds himself unheard.

1. Failing to obtain Gods answer in the present, men despondingly misinterpret Gods mercy in the past. Wherefore hast Thou brought this people over Jordan? One would have never expected to hear any question as to the mercy and love of God in the passage of the Jordan. Apparently Divine goodness was indisputably manifest there. In times of darkness men question Gods greatest mercies, doubt their own richest experiences, blot out and re-write in hard terms the noblest parts of their personal history.

2. Failing to obtain Gods answer in the present, men unbelievingly doubt God as to the future. Hast Thou brought us over Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Defeated and distressed minds see everything through the disorder and confusion of the present. With so many examples in the Scripture of the noblest servants of God who have proved themselves utterly unfit for calm judgment of their hope in the Lord during times of sorrow, we might well refuse to be led by personal feelings in the hours of our own distress.

3. Failing to obtain Gods answer in the present, men are tempted to think any part of their lives more profitable than that. Would to God we had been content, etc. In after days Joshua would come to look on those hours of weary agony in prayer as some of the most notable and useful in his life. They were a time of crisis, in which, amid intense suffering and doubt, this good man waited for the salvation of Israel. They were one of those times of trial in which so many who are but superficially pious begin to go eternally wrong. They were one of those judgment days of the Lord which even here on earth go to separate between the sheep and the goats. Happy was it for that generation of Israelites that, in this crisis of trial, they had a leader whose piety was deep enough to wait before God, and too deep to turn to anything else than to prayer for a solution of this mystery of darkness, and in order that a way might again be found through which he and they should again walk forth into the light of the smile of God.

With those who are truly devout, outward forms are the suitable expression of inward feelings. God never has to say to such, Rend your hearts, and not your garments.
The devout heart alone is qualified to pronounce on the religious ceremonial in which its own sense of woe, or want, or joy can best be told out to God.
So long as human hearts and experiences differ, and men are true to themselves, so long will the forms through which they tell out their life to each other and to God be various and unlike also.

Jos. 7:8.

I. The human weakness of the Lords people. They too can turn their backs (cf. Psa. 78:9-10).

II. The Divine prerogative of the Lords people. They need not turn their backs. Let them but walk with God, and they have omnipotence on their side. It is their privilege alone to say, If God be for us, who can be against us?

III. The pious shame of the Lords people. O Lord, what shall I say?

1. There are no logical words in which to account for a Christians defeat. If Omnipotence says, Lo, I am with you alway, there is no making out of a reasonable case for the overthrow of a child of God.

2. The only words in which to speak of such a defeat, are words of shame. We can but say, I confess that there are no words. 8. The best place for words of shame, on account of such defeat, is low before God.

Jos. 7:9, first clause.

I. The effect of faith and victory. All the time Israel believed and prospered, the hearts of the Canaanites did melt and become as water. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith.

II. The influence of fear and failure. They shall hear, and shall environ us round. Every increasing thing tends to increase, and every decreasing thing to decrease. The impetus of success. The retarding influence of failure. Nothing succeeds like success. Doubting Christians, who morbidly encourage doubt, think far too little of the depressing effect of their ceaseless discourse about fear and failure.

The heart of man can nowhere observe a just proportion. In prosperity it is too proud, in adversity too pusillanimous. [Cramer.]

In times of unusual prosperity we are apt to unconsciously trust our success rather than God from whom all success must come. Thus, Elijah was bold and undaunted when he had no victory upon which to lean. Then came the triumph on Carmel, in which the prophet heard the multitude with one voice confess Jehovah. Forthwith Elijah hoped for Israel; he seems to have trusted the prospect of a spiritual harvest rather than the God of the harvest. After that, it only needed Jezebels threat to fill him with a despair which made him cry, O Lord, take my life. So, after Jericho, Joshua finds it hard to endure Ai.

Jos. 7:9, last clause.THE GLORY OF GODS GREAT NAME.

I. Gods delight in His name is not in any measure akin to self-praise and vanity. The Scriptures constantly bid us to seek the glory of God. God does not desire glory as men desire it. With men, the pursuit of glory is selfish and vain; Gods way to glory is through self-sacrifice.

II. Gods delight in His name is delight in those things which make His name glorious. His name and Himself are alike The Good. He delights in helping the helpless, in comforting the wretched, in vindicating the cause of the oppressed, in sanctifying the sinful, in saving the lost. He hates sin, in the very attributes of His being, with deliberate and eternal enmity; He loves holiness and truth in the same infinite degree. His name, taken as such, is no mere centre around which His interest perpetually and eternally revolves; His name is Himself, and He is the everlasting embodiment of all that is lovely, and of all that makes His intelligent creatures happy and good.

III. Gods care for the honour of His name is also a care for those who need that name for a refuge and a joy. If Gods name were to lose its glory, heaven would lose its lustre, and the universe its brightness; angels would have no home, man no rallying centre, and devils no restraint: the universe would be as a huge solar system without its sun; confusion, and darkness, and ruin, and death would be everywhere. If but a stain were found on the character of God to-day, the power of that evil would uproot the cross, abolish the Church, blast every better human hope, banish the redeemed, make heaven into hell, and hell riotous in the fierce fury of a newfound and malignant joy. The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

IV. Where men are seen most concerned for the honour of the great name of God, God is seen most taking care of that name. It is precisely where Joshua is found crying, What wilt Thou do unto Thy great name? that God is found taking such solemn measures to reassert His antipathy to sin. All His Divine sympathies for His people are crossed, the majestic tide of events which was flowing so fast to fulfil His covenant with Abraham is suddenly stayed, a temporary encouragement is even permitted to the idolatrous workers of iniquity, that God may have, and may be seen to have, no collusion or connection with sin. So it was where Moses feared for the Divine glory, that God was even then vindicating the honour of His name (cf. Exo. 32:11-14; Num. 14:11-24). Let us learn:

1. How impossible it is for God to favour him who persists in sin;
2. How abiding is the refuge of the righteous;
3. How encouraging is the hope of the penitent;
4. And that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved, but the name of God as it stands revealed in Jesus Christ.

Joshuas humble prayer before God. God withstands the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Joshuas grief for his people compared with the lamentation of Moses and Ezra.
Joshua as an example of mourning before God.
Comparison between Joshuas penitence and that of Ahab.

Rending the garments a significant symbol of rending the heart (Joe. 2:13).

How God hears prayer. [Lange.]

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Joshuas Complaint and the Lords Answer Jos. 7:6-15

6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
7 And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
8 O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
10 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed; neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.
14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man.
15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

Did Joshua murmur against God? Jos. 7:6-9

Joshua and the elders of the people were affected because Israel, who was invincible with the help of the Lord, had been beaten; and therefore the Lord must have withdrawn His help. In the deepest grief, with their clothes rent (Lev. 10:6) and ashes upon their heads, they fell down before the Ark of the Lord (Num. 20:6) until the evening. Joshuas prayer contains a complaint (Jos. 7:7) and a question addressed to God (Jos. 7:8-9). The complaint almost amounts to murmuring and sounds very much like the complaint which the murmuring people brought against Moses and Aaron in the desert (Num. 14:2-3). It is very different from the murmuring of the people on that occasion, however, for it by no means arose from unbelief. Joshua was simply asking God why Israel had been beaten.

What answer did God give to ?Jos. 7:10

God told Joshua to get up off the ground. He asked him why he was lying in that way on his face before the Ark (Jos. 7:6). The time was not a time for prayer; it was a time for action. The sin had to be purged from the midst of the people. Although Joshua did not know it, the sin of Achan was the cause of Israels defeat. When God revealed this to him, He gave him instructions about how to proceed in getting rid of this sin from the midst of the people. When this sin was removed, Israel would be strong again.

What was Israels sin? Jos. 7:11

The whole nation was cursed because one man had sinned. For that reason God said the nation had sinned. The specific sin was Achans taking the material which had been placed under the ban. Things which had been devoted to God to be put into the treasury of the house of the Lord had been taken by one of the men of Israel. They had stolen. Worse than this, they had stolen from God. Achan had practiced deception. The first three clauses describing this deedtheir sinning, their transgressing, and their taking of the cursed thingdepict the sin which had been committed against God. The latter three statementsthey had stolen, they had dissembled, and they had put the spoil in their own stuffdescribed the sin they had committed in the eyes of society. It was indeed a grievous crime.

10.

What was the result of their sin? Jos. 7:12

Because they had sinned so grievously, Israel was not able to withstand the attacks of their enemies. They turned their backs before the men of Ai. All of this occurred because God had forsaken them. A spirit of defeat and terror had evidently come upon them as they fled from before the Canaanites. What had given promise of being an easy victory was turned into an utter rout for the people of Israel, Such a surprising turn of events makes it clear that a nation needs more than munitions in order to win a victory. They must have the knowledge that they are waging a Bellum Justum, and they must have the will to win. Even a small number of people with this conviction and will on the field of battle can bring total victory out of a situation which would otherwise be total defeat, When God forsakes a people, they are forsaken indeed. God had forsaken Israel on account of their sin. For this reason they were chased by the men of Ai.

11.

How were the people to sanctify themselves? Jos. 7:13

As the people of Israel stood before Mount Sinai, they were told to sanctify themselves, At that time Moses told them to wash their clothes and to interrupt their normal way of life (Exo. 19:10-15). As Joshua prepared the people for crossing the Jordan, he commanded them to sanctify themselves. On that occasion they were told to prepare victuals for the journey (Jos. 1:11). The sanctification after the defeat of Ai was something more than any of these former periods of sanctification. Israel had sinned, and it was necessary for the cursed thing to be taken from among them. The sinners had to be punished. All of this would be implied in the sanctification of the people.

12.

Into what groups were the people divided? Jos. 7:14

The tribes, families, households, and men formed the four classes into which the people were organized. As the tribes were divided into families, so these again were subdivided into houses, commonly called fathers houses, and the fathers houses again into men, i.e., fathers of families Each of these was represented by its natural head. We picture the affair as conducted in the following manner: in order to discover the tribe, the twelve princes came before the Lord; and in order to discover the family, the family heads had to be taken; and so on through the household until the individual was selected.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(6) Joshua rent his clothes . . .The words of Joshua and his behaviour on this occasion are consistent with all that we read of him, and confirm the notion that he was not a man of a naturally daring and adventurous spirit, but inclined to distrust his own powers; and yet utterly indomitable and unflinching in the discharge of his dutya man of moral rather than physical courage.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

6. Joshua rent his clothes This was an expressive oriental symbol of intense sorrow, fear, anger, or despair. The loose, flowing, outer robe was well adapted to this action, and this alone was rent. Joshua felt that the defeat had a deep significance, and must have a moral cause; hence he goes to God to inquire.

Fell to the earth before the ark Over the cover of the ark was the Divine Presence. Ask Judaism the direct way to God, and she points to the mercy-seat between the cherubim.

Put dust upon their heads The eastern nations are noted for using actions, rather than words, in expression of strong emotion. Dust or ashes sprinkled upon the head indicates deep mourning and true penitence.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘ And Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of YHWH until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust on their heads.’

Meanwhile Joshua was desperately concerned to discover what had gone wrong. The tearing of clothes in a formal way was an ancient method of expressing grief and distress (compare Gen 37:29; Gen 44:13; 2Sa 1:11). As was dust on their heads (Job 2:12). Joshua knew that something was amiss. He could not understand why YHWH had not acted for them. So he and the leading men of Israel spent the remainder of the day prostrated before ‘the Ark of YHWH’. Why had the God of battle failed them? While the Ark had not been taken up the ascent it was probably outside and uncovered in view of the battle to take place.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

EXPOSITION

JOSHUA‘S PRAYER AND GOD‘S ANSWER.

Jos 7:6

And Joshua rent his clothes. A token of grief usual among the Jews (see Gen 37:29, 84; Gen 44:13, etc. Knobel cites Le Gen 21:10); and though Joshua was not the high priest, yet from his peculiar position he might be expected to adopt somewhat of the high priest’s demeanour, and at least not to display this outward sign of grief without the strongest reason. The words “before the ark” are omitted in the LXX. And put dust on their heads. A sign of still more abject humiliation. The head, the noblest part of man, was thus placed beneath the dust of the ground from whence he was taken (see 1Sa 4:12; 2Sa 1:2; 2Sa 13:19; 2Sa 15:32; 1Ki 20:38; Job 2:12; Lam 2:10). It was a common custom among the Greeks. (See Lucian, De Luetu, 12). Homer mentions the custom (Iliad, 18). Pope’s translation runs thus:

“Cast on the ground, with furious hands he spread
The scorching ashes o’er his graceful head.
His purple garments and his golden hairs,
Those he deforms with dust, and these he tears.”

Lines 26-30.

Jos 7:7

Wherefore hast thou at all brought. The LXX. seems in some way to have read for ; they translate “why did thy servant cross?” But their rendering is a clear grammatical blunder, for the Masorites remark that the is to be preserved. Would to God we had been content. Calvin makes some severe remarks on Joshua’s folly and want of faith under this reverse. But it may be paralleled by the conduct of most Christians in adversity. How few are there who can bear even temporal calamity calmly and patiently, even though they have abundant reason to know that temporal affliction is not only no sign of the displeasure of God, but the reverse! And when, through allowing secret sin to lurk within the soul, the Christian is overcome and brought to shame by his spiritual enemies, how much more seldom it is that he has the courage to gird up the loins of his soul and renew the conflict, in full confidence that victory will be his in the end! How much more frequently does he despair of victory, wish he had never undertaken the Christian profession, give up his belief in the protecting care and guidance of God, and desist, at least for a time, from the good fight of faith, to his own serious injury and to the detriment of God’s Church! “It is not,” adds Calvin, “a new thing for pious minds, when they aspire to seek God with holy zeal, to obscure the light of faith by the vehemence and impetuosity of their affections. And in this way all prayers would be rendered valueless, did not the Lord in His boundless indulgence pardon them, and, wiping away all their stains, receive them as if they were pure. And yet while in thus freely expostulating they cast all their care upon God, this blunt simplicity, though it needs pardon, is yet far more acceptable than the feigned modesty and self restraint of the hypocrites.”

Jos 7:8

What shall I say? To encourage the people who will be downcast by this defeat, while their enemies will gather courage.

Jos 7:9

For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it. The invariable argument of Moses (Exo 32:12; Num 14:13-16; Deu 9:28; Deu 32:26, Deu 32:27). The disgrace which the sin of man brings upon the cause of the Lord is a real and very terrible thing (cf. 2Sa 12:14; Eze 36:23).

Jos 7:10

Get thee up. Not puerile lamentation, but action, is ever the duty of the soldier of the Lord. If defeat assails either the individual or the cause, there is a reason for it, and this must be promptly searched out, and with God’s aid be discovered. The sin or error once found out and put away, the combat may be renewed and brought to a successful issue.

Jos 7:11

Israel hath sinned. A simple but satisfactory explanation. It is not God who changes. It is we who frustrate His counsels of love and protection against our enemies. We have here another assertion of the principle that if one member suffer all the members suffer with it. Achan’s sin was the sin of all Israel. So the sin of one man is still the sin of the whole Church. And have also stolen. The accusation is cumulative. Israel, which was all involved in the sin of one among their number, had

(1) broken a solemn vow;

(2) had stolen what was not theirs;

(3) had acted deceitfully (); and

(4) had appropriated to themselves what belonged to God, which, as Keil remarks, was the last and gravest feature of their crime.

This is strongly brought out by the fivefold repetition of in the original.

Jos 7:12

Therefore. This plain statement disposes of the idea that the repulse before Ai was simply the result of Joshua’s rashness in sending so small a body of troops. The vivid narrative of the detection of Achan, obviously taken from contemporary records, precedes the account of the final capture of the city, although Joshua, who, as we have seen, does not neglect to employ human means, resolves to take greater precautions before making a second attack. Not a hint is dropped that the former number of men was insufficient, or that Joshua had been misled by the information brought by the reconnoitring party. In the mind of the historian the defect is entirely owing to the existence of secret sin in the Israelitish camp. Except ye destroy the accursed from among. Dr. Maclear, in the ‘Cambridge Bible for Schools,’ calls attention to the fact that 1Co 5:13 is a quotation from the LXX. here, substituting, however, for .

Jos 7:13

Sanctify the people. See note on Jos 3:5. Thou canst not stand before thine enemies. Observe the singular number here, intensifying the testimony of the whole history to the fact that Israel was one body before the Lord. And observe, moreover, how the existence of secret sin, even though unknown to and undetected by him in whom it lurks, has power to enfeeble the soul in its conflict with its enemies. Hence we learn the duties Of watchfulness and careful examination of the soul by the light of God’s Word.

Jos 7:14

Taketh, i.e; by lot, as in 1Sa 14:42 ( make it fall; cf. 1Sa 10:20) (cf. Jon 1:7; also Pro 18:18). According to the families. The gradual centering of the suspicion upon the offender is one of the most striking features of the history. The genealogies of the children of Israel were very strictly kept, as the Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah show. Achan’s name is carefully given in the genealogy of Judah in 1 Chronicles if. 7. The subdivision of the tribes into families (or clans, Keil) and households (or, as we should perhaps say, families) was for convenience of enumeration, military organisation, and perhaps of assessment. Oehler, ‘Theologie des Allen Testaments,’ Sec. 101, takes the same view as Keil. The tribes, he says, were divided into or i.e; Geschlechter (LXX. , for which the best English equivalent is clans, as above); these into families or houses (), or fathers’ hours ( ); and these again into single heads of a house (). The principle, he adds of a Mosaic family, is as follows: Every “family” forms a distinct whole, which as far as possible must be maintained in its integrity. Each tribe, says Jahn (‘Hebrew Commonwealth,’ Book II), acknowledged a prince () as its ruler. As its numbers increased, there arose a subdivision of the tribe into collections of families. Such a collection was called a house of fathers, a or clan, or a thousand, rut this explanation is not so satisfactory as that given above. Kurz remarks on the important part family life played among the Hebrews, with whom, in consequence of their descent from Abraham, and the importance they attached to it, the nation was developed out of the family. See Introduction.

Jos 7:15

He that is taken with the accursed thing; or, according to Keil, “he on whom the ban falls.” He and all that he hath (cf. Jos 7:24). The opinion that Achan’s family had in some way become participators in his sin would seem preferable to the idea that his sin had involved them in the ban. The destruction of their possessions is due to the fact that all the family had come under the ban. Folly used of the heart as well as the head (cf. Gen 34:7 : Deu 22:21; Jdg 19:23, Jdg 19:24, Jdg 20:6; 2Sa 13:12; Psa 14:1). The LXX. render by , and the Vulgate by herae, but Theodotion renders by .

HOMILETICS

Jos 7:6-15

The humiliation.

I.THE BITTERNESS OF REPENTANCE.

1. The sting of sin is sharper than its pleasure. The uneasiness which followed on Achan’s transgression far outweighed any pleasure he could have derived from it. For, first, the possession of his treasure was itself a trouble. He had to hide it in his tent, and to watch carefully lest any one should discover it. Next, he brought death upon thirty-six of his innocent fellow-countrymen. Lastly, he brought the keenest distress and humiliation upon Joshua and the whole congregation. So it always is. The sting which follows on our first deliberate disobedience of God’s commands is always far keener than the pleasure that disobedience gave us. The fear of detection, the oppression of a guilty secret, far outweighs any happiness sinful indulgence can give. And the distress which our misdeeds are apt to bring on those who are bound to us by the nearest and dearest of ties is frequently altogether out of proportion to the momentary satisfaction we have derived from our wrong doing.

2. The reaction that follows on sin is often fatal to faith. Thus Joshua’s courage gave way. He reproached God, he made sure of defeat and destruction, he wished he had never crossed Jordan. So are we often weakened in our warfare against God’s enemies by the discouragements and disasters the sins of Christians (perhaps unknown to ourselves) have brought on us. So in our own hearts, after some great failure, the consequence of hidden evil within us which we have not been careful to detect, we are overwhelmed with sorrow and confusion, we think it useless to strive, we are tempted to abandon our Christian profession, we wish we had never undertaken its responsibilities, we cry, “Would God we had been content and dwelt on the other side Jordan!”

II.THE REPROACH OF SIN. Achan’s sin brought not only sorrow, but disgrace, after it. “The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it.” Consequences flow from sin which we had never thought of when we committed it. Our relatives and friends have to suffer for our misdeeds. Our order in society must bear the burden of our misconduct. The cause of Christ must be beaten back because we have abandoned it. There is a never-failing connection between sin and shame. If we do not feel it for our ourselves, others must feel it for us.

III.THE PROMPT MEASURES NECESSARY TO AVERT ITS CONSEQUENCES. This may be regarded as affecting religious bodies or individuals.

(1) Excommunication has fallen into disfavour, and indeed it has been shamefully abused. And yet the expulsion of the offender, at least until he gave unequivocal proofs of repentance, was one of the first principles of the Christian Church (see 1Co 5:1-13). And so now, no society owning the name of Christ ought to tolerate within its borders any person whose life is a scandal to the religion he professes. “With such an one no not to eat” is a Scripture maxim. And observe the holy eagerness Joshua displayed in the matter. There was no delay. He rose up early in the morning. God left him no doubt about the course he ought to pursue. And the evil was at once and for ever put away. It were “much to be wished” that the “godly discipline” of the early ages of the Church were restored. Calvin and many other of the Reformers laboured hard to restore it; but they too often lacked judgment and mercy. Yet it were well could the congregation of the Christian faithful resolve to “put away from” them adultery, fornication, drunkenness, dishonesty, open and notorious covetousness or profaneness, and to refuse to live in friendship or intimacy with those who thus bring disgrace on the Christian name.

(2) Our dealings with ourselves should be on the same principle. There should be no delay in our repentance, no dallying with sin. As soon as we are conscious of its evil presence, we should do our best to cast it out. If it be not cast out at once it will be our ruin. We must “rise up early in the morning,” examine our actions one by one, bring our dispositions and habits to be tested by the unerring judgment of God, and that one which He pronounces to be guilty must be condemned and sacrificed to His just vengeance. And we may remark, moreover, how often sin lurks within us, unsuspected even by ourselves. We go out to battle like the children of Israel, against God’s enemies, unconscious that there is a traitor within the camp. When we meet with disgrace and disaster in a conflict in which God is pledged to aid us, we may be sure that the fault is within ourselves. We ought at once to betake ourselves to self-examination, to detect the hidden evil, and when found we ought at once to put it away.

HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE

Jos 7:14

Sin discovered.

This leads us to remark that

I. EVERY SIN IS KNOWN TO GOD. Joshua was ignorant that Achan had secreted spoil, but the searching glances of God reached further than the most watchful oversight of the leader. As afterwards, when the disciples did not suspect the character and intents of Judas, the Lord discerned the sinister proposes of his heart. The omniscience and omnipresence of the Almighty have been strangely disregarded even by His own servants. Witness the curious flight of Jonah, as if he could really “flee from the presence of the Lord.” “I know thy works” is the heading to the practical address in nearly each of the seven letters to the Churches of Asia. “Thou God seest me.”

II. SIN REVEALED BY FAILURE IN AN UNDERTAKING. The overthrow of Jericho inspired the Israelites with such confidence that they disdained to employ all their forces in assaulting Ai. To their surprise, their attack was repulsed with loss. The greater the previous security, the more intense the subsequent alarm. They were unconscious of the presence of a traitor in the camp. The theft of Achan was a stronger opponent than the men of the city. Sin destroys our power. As one has quaintly observed, “In running a race, an inward pain hinders more than if a dozen men jostled you.” When men have taken cold, they immediately reflect where they could have been exposed to draught, and non success in any enterprise causes us to inquire. What have we done amiss? Trouble leads us to scrutinise our past life, conscience accuses of sins which have deserved, if they have not actually drawn upon us, this proof of Divine displeasure. Self examination is healthful if not carried to excessive lengths; it may produce “carefulness, clearing of ourselves,” etc. (2Co 7:11). The effect of sin is not confined to the particular guilty member. Sin taints the community, or often involves it in its suffering. As a drop of ink discolours a whole glass of water, so thousands of innocent persons may be affected by the neighbourhood of one sinner. This concerns us individually, for if one limb offends, the body is defiled; and collectively, as members of Churches, and as belonging to a nation.

III. THE OFFENCE MADE KNOWN IN ANSWER TO PRAYER. Deep was Joshua’s solicitude. With the elders of Israel he rent his clothes and fell prostrate before the ark all day. To a lover of God, the belief that His favour is withdrawn is the most overwhelming sorrow. Nor is the grief merely selfish in its origin. Joshua lamented the dishonour which would be affixed to the glorious name of Jehovah when the news of Israel’s defeat was bruited abroad. Prayer is the believer’s unfailing resource. Receiving any woful tidings, he “spreads the letter,” like Hezekiah, before the Lord. He ventures to plead, to expostulate, to argue. And the answer surely arrives though it appear long to tarry. In this narrative we find Joshua reproved for imagining that God would arbitrarily desert His people. He might have known that something was wrong in the conduct of the nation, and his inquiry should have been, Wherein have we offended? We must not at once rush to the conclusion that the events which befal us are “judgments,” for when we think God’s smile is absent, it may be flint the clouds of our marshy land interrupt the heavenly rays. Nevertheless the advice of the preceding paragraph holds good, and the rebuke administered to Joshua may be often seasonably applied to ourselves.

IV. THE OFFENDER MANIFESTED. The drawing of a lot was the means resorted to on all important occasions for appointment to positions of honour or shame. Picture the gradual contraction of the circle of fire till it enwrapped only “the troubler of Israel,” and he stood before all the people as the cause of a national disgrace. The slow and stately discovery, as well as the proceedings of the day before, afforded time to the criminal to reveal himself, if he would. What must have been his feelings as he saw detection drawing nearer and nearer till it pointed its finger to his breast, saying, “Thou art the man!” The method of manifestation also afforded time for the spectators to be thoroughly aroused, so that they might appreciate more deeply the awfulness of the sin committed, and be ready with one shout to inflict the penalty due thereto. God may advance slowly, but His step is sure. Delay is no presumption of final impunity.

V. We see lastly, THE FOLLY OF SIN. Achan “wrought folly in Israel” (verse 15). The word means stupidityas Abigail uncomplimentarily remarked of her husband, “Nabal is his name and folly is with him.” Sin is certain of detection. Known to the Almighty, He often brings it into the light of day here, and will surely manifest it hereafter. Sin imperils real, enduring bliss for the sake of transitory gratifications. A little pleasure, and severest pain; for brief fame, lasting infamy; for temporary wealth, eternal loss.A

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Ver. 6. And Joshua rent his clothes All the outward marks of sorrow exhibited by Joshua and the elders on this occasion are well known; they were customary, and have been so in much later times. The history of the Patriarchs supplies frequent instances of the custom of rending the clothes on the receipt of bad news. At this day, it is usual among the Jews, in the feast of expiations, to cast themselves on the ground before the chest which contains the book of the law; and, in memory of what Joshua did on the present occasion, the reader of the synagogue still prostrates himself every year on the same day before this same chest. See Buxtorf. Syntag. Jud 1:25; Jud 1:25. With respect to the custom of putting dust upon the head, we know that it was one of the greatest signs of affliction amongst the Jews, in which the Gentiles imitated them, as might be easily shewn in the history of the Ninevites, and divers passages taken from prophane antiquity; among others, from Virgil, where king Latinus, using the same marks of mourning with Joshua, appears tearing his clothes, and covering his head with dust. See AEneid. 12: ver. 609, &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Every step in the conduct of Joshua on this occasion deserves attention. He was unconscious of the cause, and for the moment, in the paroxysm of his distress, had forgotten to reflect, that it must have been some offence which induced it. Reader! depend upon it, if at any time the Lord Jesus seems to frown, the cause, if searched out, will be soon discovered; sin is at the bottom. And if sin be felt by the soul heavy, depend upon it, our affliction, be what it may, will appear light. The church thought so, when she said, Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins. Lam 3:39-40 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Jos 7:6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.

Ver. 6. And Joshua rent his clothes. ] In token that his heart was rent with grief and anguish.

“ Sic faciles motus mens generosa capit. ”

Baron Marshal of France and other profane men derided the Earl of Essex’s prayers and tears at his death, as more befitting a silly minister than a stout warrior: a as if the fear of God’s wrath were not a Christian man’s fortitude. Joshua was man good enough, and yet, &c.

Until the eventide. ] So long they continued their fast. Let our fasts be, according to that old canon, Usque dum stellae in caelo appareant, till the stars appear in the sky. The Turks hold out their fasts so long, in the hottest and longest days of summer, not tasting so much as a cup of water. b

a Camden’s Elisab.

b Turk. Hist.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED TEXT): Jos 7:6-9
6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. 7Joshua said, Alas, O LORD God, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan! 😯 LORD, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies? 9For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?
Jos 7:6 Then Joshua tore his clothes In this text there are three typical signs of Hebrew mourning: (1) the tearing of the neckpiece of a person’s clothing (cf. Gen 37:29; Gen 37:34; Gen 44:13; Job 1:20; Job 2:12); (2) the putting on of dust on one’s head (cf. Job 2:12; Lam 2:10; Eze 27:30); similar signs of mourning can be seen in the face of death in 1Sa 4:12; and 2Sa 1:2; and (3) prostration before God (cf. Jos 7:10). See Special Topic: Grieving Rites .
Jos 7:7-8 and Joshua said These verses reveal Joshua’s doubts. Some of these phrases imply (1) dramatic unbelief in the purpose and power of the covenant of God or (2) language he had heard Moses use in prayer during the wilderness wandering period.
NASBO LORD God
NKJV, NRSVLord God
TEVSovereign LORD
NJBLord Yahweh
Jos 7:7 O Lord God This is Adon and YHWH. See Special Topic: Names for Deity .
why did You ever bring There is an intensity in this phrase by the use of a Hiphil PERFECT and Hiphil INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE of the same VERB (BDB 716, KB 778).
Jos 7:9 cut off our name from the earth This is a Hebraic idiom of the death of all of a family line. No descendant remained alive!
and what will You do for Your great name This is the same approach that Moses took in praying to God. God’s character (as well as His plan for redemption) was involved in what happened to the people of Israel (cf. Jos 5:9; Exo 32:12; Deu 9:28; Eze 36:22-38).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

rent: Gen 37:29, Gen 37:34, Num 14:6, 2Sa 13:31, Ezr 9:3-5, Est 4:1, Job 1:20, Act 14:14
fell: Num 16:22, Num 16:45, 2Sa 12:16
until the eventide: Jdg 20:23, Jdg 20:26, Jdg 21:2, 2Sa 1:12
put dust: Rending the clothes, beating the breast, tearing the hair, throwing dust upon the head, and falling prostrate, were usual signs of deep affliction and distress among the ancient Israelites. In illustration of this custom, see note on 1Sa 4:12, when the messenger brought tidings to Eli of the discomfiture of the armies of Israel by the Philistines; again, in the case of Tamar, 2Sa 13:19, and in Neh 9:1, when a whole nation, “assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.” In the case of Mordecai, see note on Est 4:1. See note on Job 2:12, where his friends abased themselves to comfort him. See note on Eze 27:30, see note on Jon 3:6, and see note on Mic 1:10. In each of these instances it is worthy of remark, that putting dust on the head generally follows rending of the clothes, and was the usual mode of evincing poignant sorrow.
Reciprocal: Gen 17:17 – fell Num 20:6 – they fell Jos 7:10 – liest Jos 8:1 – Fear not 2Sa 1:2 – clothes 2Sa 3:31 – Rend 1Ki 18:42 – he cast himself Lam 2:10 – cast up Lam 3:39 – a man Eze 9:8 – that I Eze 11:13 – Then Rev 18:19 – they cast
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Jos 7:6. And Joshua rent his clothes In testimony of great sorrow for the loss felt, the consequent mischief feared, and the sin which he suspected. The outward marks of sorrow exhibited on this occasion by Joshua and the elders, are well known to have been usually shown in those ages when people were afflicted with grief on account of any great calamity, or the commission of any extraordinary crime. Fell to the earth upon his face In deep humiliation and fervent supplication. Before the ark of the Lord Not in the sanctuary, but with his face toward it. Until the even-tide Continuing the whole day in fasting and prayer. And put dust upon their heads Which was still a higher expression of great grief, and of a deep sense of their unworthiness to be relieved.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Even Joshua had lost the divine perspective temporarily. His complaining lament sounds like Israel’s murmuring in the wilderness (cf. Exo 16:3; Num 14:2-3; et al.). However, he also had a concern for the continuing honor of Yahweh (Jos 7:9; cf. Exo 32:11-12; Num 14:13; Deu 9:28). As Moses, Joshua desired above everything that God would receive glory. Unfortunately he did not yet possess the stability and objectivity that characterized Moses’ later years because he had not yet walked with God as closely or as long as Moses had.
"Joshua had fallen on his face once before, when he confronted the divine messenger (Jos 5:14). That was in the humility of worship. This is in the humility of defeat and shame." [Note: Butler, p. 84.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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