Commentaria in Josue
5. AND THERE FELL OF THEM SIX AND THIRTY MEN,—Behold God punishes the theft of one Achan by the slaughter of six and thirty men, and the flight of three thousand, who, because, says Procopius, they were perhaps worse than the others, opportunely paid the penalty of their own faults.
AND THE ENEMIES PURSUED THEM FROM THE GATE (of the city of Hai) AS FAR AS SABARIM.—Masius thinks that this place was called Sabarim from this slaughter and crushing of the Hebrews: for shabar signifies to break, to break to pieces, to crush. Moreover the Septuagint and Chaldee, reading with other points hishbirum, render, until they crushed them. Cajetan interprets Sabarim as broken rocks, because the place was rocky, rugged and precipitous.
AND THE HEART OF THE PEOPLE WAS STRUCK WITH FEAR.—In Hebrew, the heart of the people melted, and became water, became fluid, dissolved, trembling and languid like water.
6. BUT JOSUE RENT HIS GARMENTS,—from the public sense of calamity and grief, which he as leader felt most keenly before all, nay for all.
Moreover rending of garments was a ceremony of old in use in mourning, or at the atrocity of some deed and crime. So Jacob, for the loss of his son Joseph, rent his garments, Genesis xxxvii, 34. Caiphas did the same at the appearance of blasphemy, as he thought, Matthew xxvi, 65.
AND THEY PUT DUST UPON THEIR HEADS.—This is another sign of mourning, humility and penance, given first to Adam after the fall: “Remember that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return,” penance, he says, in dust and ashes.” And David: “For I did eat ashes as it were bread,” Psalm ci. And Daniel, chapter ix, 9, began to beseech God “with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.” So the king of Ninive, Jonas preaching, chapter iii, 6, penitent “was clothed in sackcloth and sat in ashes.” Judith also, chapter ix, 1, about to go to Holofernes, “putting on haircloth, put ashes on her head.” The same did Esther about to go to Assuerus, chapter xiv, 2, and Mardochai, chapter iv, 4.
7. AND JOSUE SAID: ALAS, O LORD GOD!—Josue, because he is leader of the people, takes its disaster upon himself, and laments for it before the Lord, to obtain pardon and to win safety and victory for the whole people. Let the Prince and Prelate do the same in public calamity: for this is to be deprecated and removed by a public person and Prince.
WOULD GOD WE HAD STAYED BEYOND THE JORDAN AS WE BEGAN!—namely dwelling in Galaad, that is, in the kingdoms of the kings Og and Basan. For so we should have escaped this disaster, which after crossing the Jordan we have incurred at the city of Hai.
8. MY LORD GOD,—look upon me, namely, that with kindly, merciful eyes thou mayest look upon me and the whole people, and be reconciled to us. It is a placid and confident address of God, which our Vulgate renders best: “My Lord.”
9. AND CUT OFF OUR NAME FROM THE EARTH: AND WHAT WILT THOU DO TO THY GREAT NAME?—as if to say: It is of small moment that our name (we who are mean little men and sinners) be blotted from the earth, but that being blotted, thy name also, O Lord, which is great, will be blotted from the earth. For we almost alone know and worship it. The reason is, because thou hast promised to give us this land: now when thou sufferest us to be slain by its inhabitants, the nations will say that thou couldst not fulfil thy promises, and so they will take from thee the name and title of Omnipotent; or at least that thou wouldst not, and so they will take from thee the name of holy and faithful in promises. Again, since thy great name JEHOVAH has not been made known to the other nations, and thou hast revealed it only to Moses and the Israelites, that it might be adored by them alone, if thou destroyest Israel, who will celebrate and worship thy name? If thou art justly angry with us for our crimes, and wilt chastise us, consult at least thy glory and the sanctification of thy name, that thou destroy us not, but protect us as is thy wont, and bring us into the possession of Chanaan, as thou hast promised, that all nations may glorify thy name, and acknowledge thee as omnipotent, faithful and kind toward thy faithful, and fear and venerate thee. Effectual is this prayer, which as it were binds and compels God to have mercy, lest his holy name be mocked and blasphemed by the nations.
10. ARISE, WHY LIEST THOU FLAT ON THE GROUND?—Josue had prostrated himself wholly flat on the ground, to humble himself exceedingly before God, and show him the highest reverence as well as penance. For lying prone he as it were offered his back to God for stripes, as if to say: Behold I offer myself to thee as guilty for the people: what it has sinned, I will pay. Remove from it, therefore, thy scourges, and turn and redouble them upon my back as much as thou wilt. Hence God, entreated, says: “Arise, why liest thou?” as if to say: Arise, afflict thyself no longer, I know what thou wishest, and I will make thee know what is needed to be done to repair the disaster received by thy people: for I cannot despise thy contrite and humbled heart, but am as it were compelled by my own pity to look kindly upon it.
11. ISRAEL HATH SINNED,—one of Israel, namely Achan, who breathed his guilt and disgrace upon the whole of Israel.
AND LIED.—Achan lied; for he professed that he would keep my covenant and the law thundered forth: yet not in word but in deed he lied, stealing and seizing my anathemas for himself.
13. ARISE, SANCTIFY THE PEOPLE,—that is, bid the people sanctify themselves, that is, purify and cleanse themselves by washing of garments, and especially by abstinence from the marriage bed, namely that they wash their garments, and abstain from their wives, and so be roused to mourning and penance. See what was said in chapter iii, verse 5, and Exodus xix, 10: that by this purification they may be prepared to detect and avenge this hidden anathema, and so be reconciled to me.
THE ANATHEMA IS IN THE MIDST OF THEE, O ISRAEL,—as if he said: O Israel! thou art a betrayer of thy duty and covenant, since thou hast stolen my anathemas, and hast and hidest them in the midst of thee. Wherefore “thou canst not stand before thy enemies, till he be destroyed out of thee that is defiled with this wickedness.” Let Princes and Prelates hear this, that they may take away anathemas, that is sacrileges and crimes, from the people, if they would appease God; and public calamities of wars, famine and pestilence be averted by him. Hear the Emperor instructing his general about the day of battle in the Tactics, chapter xiv, number 1: “This is first of all to be commanded, that thy army be pure and holy, and the evening before let effectual and long prayers be used, and all be consecrated to God, and be persuaded by words and deeds that they have God for helper, and in this way proceed to war pure, sincere and alert.”
14. IN THE MORNING YOU SHALL COME EVERY ONE BY YOUR TRIBES: AND WHAT TRIBE SOEVER THE LOT SHALL FIND, IT SHALL COME (that tribe found guilty) BY ITS KINDREDS, AND THE KINDRED BY ITS HOUSES, AND THE HOUSE BY THE MEN.—First, then, the lot was cast through the twelve tribes, and the tribe of Juda was found guilty. Secondly, it was cast through all the kindreds descending from Juda, and the kindred of Zare was found guilty. Thirdly, it was cast through all the houses and families sprung from Zare, and the house or family of Zabdi was found. Fourthly, the lot was cast among all who were of the family of Zabdi, and Achan was detected as guilty of the anathema, or theft and sacrilege, as is clear from verse 16 and following.
WHOM THE LOT SHALL FIND,—that is, he who by the lot given or cast shall be detected. In Hebrew it is, whom the Lord shall take, which is explained in various ways. First, the Hebrews explain it of the ark of the covenant. For the Talmudists affirm that all the Israelites were ordered to pass by the ark; and, the rest departing freely and with impunity, only the guilty one, as if a hand had been laid upon him by the ark, was so held that he could not move his foot a step farther. As if before the holiness of that ark shining most brightly, the baseness of that theft and sacrilege could not be hidden; and what David sang of God: “Neither shall the wicked dwell near thee, nor shall the unjust abide before thy eyes,” Psalm v, verse 6, the same could be said of the ark, which would patronize no wicked man beside it.
Secondly, Rabbi Solomon thinks that Achan was detected by the Rational of the High Priest, in which were twelve gems, inscribed with the twelve names of the twelve tribes of Israel; for he supposes all the tribes to have passed by the Rational, and when the tribe of Juda passed, the gem of emerald (as I said on Exodus xxviii, 17), on which the name of Juda was written, was clouded, and by its dimness and blackness denoted the tribe of Juda guilty; but thereafter which kindred, and which house, which person in the tribe of Juda was guilty, was found out by lots. But then God is usually said to have been consulted by the Ephod, or by Urim and Thummim, and to have answered, which is not said here.
Thirdly, Achan was truly detected by lot, which was done in this or a like manner: that single names of those who were in the house of Zabdi were written on single slips, and put into an urn, that he whose slip was first drawn out should be held guilty, and then Josue, drawing out the first slip, found on it the name of Achan, who was therefore held guilty. This is proved first, because our Vulgate expressly says he was detected by lot.
Secondly, Josephus, Rabbi Levi, Rabbi Gerson and the Interpreters assert the same.