Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)]

On Mon  2 May 2005 (10:40:08 +1200), bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz wrote:
> 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.

 Thank you for the correction, Bill. I should have been more careful.
 In Joshua 7 Achan had ample opportunity to confess, but failed to do so until
 it was too late. Only after the elimination process had singled him out, did
 he admit to what he had done. By then God had already directed that the
 sinner should be burnt with fire (7:15). Achan's sin was private; but its
 effects were nationwide in the defeat at Ai. "The Ruin" Ha`aY was nearly
 Israel's ruin. Achan had taken of the XeReM (verse 11). The remedy for
 Israel was to sanctify themselves QaDDe$ ... HiT:QaDD:$uW (verse 13). If
 Achan had confessed then, and produced the contraband, God might have been
 merciful unto him; it was not to be.

 The Jericho XeReM was part of the general XeReM on Canaan, ever since
 Genesis 9:25 when Noah pronounced Cursed be Canaan `aRuWR KaNa`aN. In the
 days of Abraham the iniquity of the Canaanites, the Amorites, etc was "not
 yet full" (Genesis 15:16ff); but by Joshua's day it was. For Joshua to lead
 the Israelites into Canaan, the Canaanites had to be eliminated. The curse
 was upon them for their gross idolatry and Ba`alisation of 'eL worship.
 Everything that belonged to Canaan was polluted, and had to be utterly
 destroyed. The Ugaritic texts throw light on Canaanite worship.

 Modern liberal humanism cannot stomach this. To some extent liberal humanism
 is partaking in the sins of the Canaanites.

 Shalom
 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF                                       ZFC Lu
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