Today we descend to the valley of trouble, in the footsteps of Jewish leaders, old and new. Can our oldest stories guide us not only into the valley but also up and out towards the hills of hope, and healing?
Jewish Power fed Jewish dreams for 2,000 years. The Book of Joshua was read for generations with a mix of nostalgia, disregard and fantasy. Today - Jewish Power is the name of a powerful populist political party in Israel, part of a growing global threat to democracy and decency. This biblical book with detailed depictions of conquest, annexation, occupation and creation of a fortified and unified nation is no longer memory or allegory.
Zionism gave Joshua new life and meaning, and Joshua gave Israel’s founders a narrative of power and resolve, problematic ethics subsumed by the crisis of national survival. In October 1949, barely out of the 1948 war, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, declared:
“None of the commentators of the Bible—Jewish or gentile—in the Middle Ages or today—could have been able to interpret the chapters of Joshua as the Israeli Defense Forces did last year.”
Just as in Ben Gurion’s day, new important meanings may be able to be retracted from this text, with lessons learned, painful questions raised, and warning signs witnessed.
In today’s chapter from Joshua, as the Below the Bible Belt journey to unpack the book and challenge some of its core values and interpretations - this ancient tale of war meets, again, headline news. What’s calling out?
Chapter 7 continues the conquest of the Canaanite lands by the Israelite army, moving on from the first and vocal victory at Jericho, to the next hilltop town. But the firm hold of united resolve dissolves when one of Joshua’s warriors is found guilty of looting, in defiance of the divine ban. In a dramatic public scene each of the 12 tribe, clan and family leader step up, and somehow the culprit confesses: Achan, of the clan of Zerach, within the tribe of Judah. He has looted a fine cloak, 200 silver coins and a gold brick, all buried under his tent.
But this story is not really just about the ethical and political problems of looting. The rebuke of loot and theft which is at the core of the colonial experience is Joshua’s ethical stand - but what the conflict here is not just about war ethics and moral. It’s about the politics of power.
Joshua keeps depicting the image of the nation - a strong, united, confederacy of twelve tribes. But this story and others later in the book suggest that the publicly depicted national unity is actually quite fraught, with different local interests that challenge the seemingly centralized unity and the collective agenda.
Perhaps that’s why Joshua punished Achan and his family so harshly and publicly:
וַיִּקַּ֣ח יְהוֹשֻׁ֣עַ אֶת־עָכָ֣ן בֶּן־זֶ֡רַח וְאֶת־הַכֶּ֣סֶף וְאֶת־הָאַדֶּ֣רֶת וְֽאֶת־לְשׁ֣וֹן הַזָּהָ֡ב וְֽאֶת־בָּנָ֡יו וְֽאֶת־בְּנֹתָ֡יו וְאֶת־שׁוֹרוֹ֩ וְאֶת־חֲמֹר֨וֹ וְאֶת־צֹאנ֤וֹ וְאֶֽת־אׇהֳלוֹ֙ וְאֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר־ל֔וֹ וְכׇל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל עִמּ֑וֹ וַיַּעֲל֥וּ אֹתָ֖ם עֵ֥מֶק עָכֽוֹר׃
“Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan son of Zerah—and the silver, the mantle, and the wedge of gold—his sons and daughters, and his oxes, his asses, and his flock, and his tent, and all his belongings, and brought them up to the Valley of Trouble.”
They are all stoned to death by the people, who then burn the bodies, and whatever remains is buried under a pile of rocks erected by the people.
In The Joshua Generation, Dr. Rachel Havrelock writes that this legally sanctioned lynch is “a warning to all who would persist pursuing alternate political goals during a period of national formation…
..The story reinforces the national agenda at the expense of the local clans that have led the Hebrews through the wilderness, and limited the power of the tribal leaders.”
There may have been an older version of the Book of Joshua, some scholars claim, but this final version is already an edited layer, with political purpose, depicting tribes together, even when occasional cracks reveal deep divisions and values. Whoever edited this text was either exposing, creating a social rift - or likely, both. As Havrelock writes: “Whatever the story’s original intent, Judah here stands accused of working at cross-purposes with the nation.”
As in the previous chapters, piles of rocks are the dramatic markers of the conquest and its steeply rising painful price.
Once again the rocks are used to mark a moment. In previous chapters river pebbles made for a monument to remember the crossing of the river into sacred land, sharp Flintstones were used to circumcise the soldiers, and the sturdy stone walls of Jericho crumbled to the cries of Israel. Rocks pile up as tombs of traitors, a warning pile of rubble in a valley renamed ‘trouble’.
Two more troubling piles of rocks awaits us in the next chapter. Along with the questions of power and its price. For Ben Gurion, Joshua was a blueprint for power, survival and leadership. What would he have to say today about how that’s turning out and his political successors? I’m not sure I want to know..
But I do know that the past will keep teaching us to face the present, insist on and keep fighting for better futures, for all.
Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections: Join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible, with daily reflections, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. January 2022-July 2025
#Joshua #Neviim #theprophets #JoshuaBenNun #looting #Achan #Joshua7 #warcrimes #banonlooting #BenGurion #1948 #stoning #whowrotethebible? #conquestofcanaan #Israel # #hebrewmyth #929 #torah #bible #hiddenbible #sefaria #929english #labshul #myth #belowthebiblebelt #postpatriarchy #ethicsatwartime #twelvetribes #stateofisrael
It’s great to read an accompanying text in this study. Now reading, “Joshua Generation”and for me, this illuminates the posts! Thanks for including and recommending Dr. Havrelock’s book. Very helpful.