Achan (; he, עכן), the son of Carmi, a descendant of Zimri, the son of

Zerah Zerah or Zérach ( / "sunrise" Standard Hebrew ''Zéraḥ'' / ''Záraḥ'', Tiberian Hebrew ''Zéraḥ'' / ''Zāraḥ'') refers to several different people in the Hebrew Bible.For the etymology see An Edomite Zerah was the name of an Edomite ch ...

, of the

tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was the first tribe to take its place in the Land of Israel, occupying the southern ...

, is a figure who appears in the Book of Joshua in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Jericho and conquest of Ai. His name is given as Achar in .

Account in the Book of Joshua

According to the narrative of Joshua chapter 7, Achan pillaged an ingot of gold, a quantity of silver, and a "beautiful Babylonian garment" from Jericho, in contravention of Joshua's directive that "all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord" (). The Book of Joshua claims that this act resulted in the Israelites being collectively punished by God, in that they failed in their first attempt to capture Ai, with about 36 Israelites lost (). The Israelites used cleromancy (the sacred Lots

Urim and Thummim In the Hebrew Bible, the Urim ( he, ''ʾŪrīm'', "lights") and the Thummim ( he, ''Tummīm'', meaning uncertain, possibly "perfections") are elements of the ''hoshen'', the breastplate worn by the High Priest attached to the ephod. They are ...

) to decide who was to blame, and having identified Achan, they sacrificed him to Yaweh as well as his sheep, other livestock and his children to death. Their remains were burnt by the Israelites, according to the text, and stones piled on top. Yahweh was pleased by this and his anger eased.

Interpretation

The narrative states that the location for this punishment of Achan, which lies between Jericho and Ai, became known as the ''vale of

Achor Achor ( he, עכור "muddy, turbid: gloomy, dejected") is the name of a valley in the vicinity of Jericho. History The Book of Joshua, chapter seven, relates the story from which the valley's name comes. After the problems the Israelites ha ...

'' in memory of him. This narrative is probably an

etiological myth An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have sto ...

providing a folk etymology for ''Achor'', at the point in the narrative where the vale of Achor is necessarily crossed. One item to note however is that the text describes the garment that Achor stole as ''Babylonish''; (from Shinar) the time of the Israelite invasion is usually dated to the 15th or 12th century BC, but between 1595 BCE and 627 BCE Babylon was under foreign rule. For this reason, a few textual scholars believe that this part of the Achor narrative was written during the 7th century BC or later, but many

Biblical scholars Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 For ...

believe the judge Samuel may have put together this account from historical books from that time. It is not certain, however, that the whole Achor narrative dates from this time, as textual critics believe that the Achor narrative may have been spliced together from two earlier source texts; the words in the first part of Joshua 7:25, "all Israel stoned him with stones" (וירגמו אתו) show a different style and tradition from those at the end of the verse: "and they burned them in fire, and they stoned them with stones" (וישרפו אתם באש ויסקלו אתם באבנים). The repetition, the switching from "him" to "them", and switching of the Hebrew verb for "to stone", indicate that this story may be an amalgam from two different sources.

Rabbinic

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...

argues that the stoning was only carried out on the livestock and Achan himself, and that his children were merely brought forward to witness the Israelites ''... stone them'' (Biblical text with emphasis added). One tradition that is reported by the Classical Rabbinical literature, states that Achan's crime was far worse than the Biblical account appears—Achan had, according to these

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

s, also stolen a magic

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

with a golden tongue, silver votive gifts dedicated to it, and the expensive cloth that covered it. Other classical Rabbis portray Achan as guilty of more earthly crimes, claiming that he had committed

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...

, or performed work on the sabbath (equally immoral in their eyes). In the narrative, before Achan is stoned to death, he first confesses his actions, which the Classical Rabbis argued would have saved him from Gehenna (the classical-era Jewish conception of '' hell''). From a textual point of view, it exonerates the Israelites from any question of condemning a man without evidence other than cleromancy, and thus avoids questions over the validity of supernatural tests of guilt.

Family tree

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Achan Hebrew Bible people People executed by stoning Book of Joshua Tribe of Judah