Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Ben wrote:-

>XeReM is the opposite to CaDDiQ. Whereas Israel was CaDDiQ unto the LORD,
>Jericho (for example) was a XeReM unto the LORD, and had to be totally
>destroyed. Only the family of Rahab the harlot was saved alive. But Achan
>took a garment, some gold and some silver for himself, and hid them under
>his tent (Joshua 7:21). This caused big trouble to Joshua and his army
>until Achan confessed and was dealt with. He too came under the Jericho
>ban,

and further wrote:-

>Finally God will visit his wrath upon the objects of the XeReM. His mercy
>waits many years before the blow falls; there is a way of salvation for
>those who will take it.

Your last claim doesn't tally well with the Achan story. In that we
are not given to understand that Achan's family knew anything about
what he had done. Others on this list have asserted that Achan's family
not only knew Achan had taken the devoted objects but also benfited
from them, but again there's nothing in the text to tell us that.
Further, the text does not even indicate Achan derived any benefit
from owning them. He buried them in the ground inside his tent.
If the author intended us to understand that there was a way of
salvation for Achan's family, he didn't make that plain. In fact,
he provides no hint that they could have avoided the ban.

Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_
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