What Does Joshua 7:1 Mean?
But the children of Israel broke trust with the devoted thing, for Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took from the devoted thing, and the burning of the LORD's anger flared against the children of Israel.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.THE KEY
One person’s taking becomes Israel’s trespass because what is set apart cannot be taken without implicating the whole people.
THE MEANING
A concealed taking does not stay private; the breach reaches the whole community. The LORD’s anger burns against the people as a body, exposing the shared consequence carried by their belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a hidden act affects only the person who performs it: taking what is set apart can make the whole community answer for the breach.
THE ROOT
וַיִּמְעֲלוּ מַעַל
vayyimʿalu maʿal
GROWS FROM
מעל
To act unfaithfully or treacherously; a breach of trust.
“broke trust with” in this verse is vayyimʿalu maʿal. Hebrew uses the verb and noun from the same root together: Israel “acted treacherously a treachery.” The wording makes this more than an irregular taking; it names a breach of trust.
ALSO GROWS
māʿal: To act treacherously or deal unfaithfully.
מָעַל
This verbal form appears in the verse and makes the taking an act of disloyalty.
maʿal: Treachery, trespass, or sacrilege.
מַעַל
This noun follows the verb in the Hebrew, echoing the root and sharpening the charge.
חֵרֶם
ḥērem
GROWS FROM
חרם
To ban or devote something, often placing it beyond ordinary use and under destruction.
“devoted thing” in this verse is ḥērem. The word translated “accursed thing” marks what has been removed from ordinary possession and set apart under a ban. The taking crosses a boundary of ownership and consecration, not merely a rule about an object.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A thing devoted under a ban.
חֵרֶם
This is the word for what Achan takes; its set-apart status is part of the breach.
ḥāram: To ban or devote something.
חָרַם
The verb shows the marked status of the thing: it is set apart from common use.
אַף
ʾaph
GROWS FROM
אף
Nose or nostril; by extension, anger or a flare of heat.
“the burning of the LORD's anger flared” in this verse is ʾaph. The Hebrew word for anger also means nose or nostril, giving the phrase a bodily image of heat flaring. The verse’s anger is not abstract displeasure; it is pictured as a burning response.
ALSO GROWS
ʾaph: Nose or nostril; also anger.
אַף
The same word holds the bodily image and the emotion together in the verse.
ʾerekh appayim: Slow to flare; traditionally rendered “slow to anger.”
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם
The related phrase uses the same word for nostrils, preserving the image of anger as a flare.
THE PATTERN
A breach by one person can spread its consequence through the whole community.
And you, guard yourselves from the devoted thing, lest you devote yourselves to destruction, when you take from it, and make the camp of Israel a devoted thing, and uproot it.But Peter said, Ananias, why has the Adversary filled your heart to lie to the Set-Apart Breath, and to draw aside from the price of the ground?Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?THE THREAD
And you, guard yourselves from the devoted thing, lest you devote yourselves to destruction, when you take from it, and make the camp of Israel a devoted thing, and uproot it.The same word חֵרֶם (ḥērem, a thing devoted under a ban) links the warning to Joshua 7:1. The earlier verse says taking from what is set apart will trouble the camp; this verse names Achan’s taking as that breach.
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