After their victory at Jericho, the Israelites thought the rest of their battles would be easy.
Joshua could see that God was helping them and knew with His help no enemy could
stand before them. Therefore, when they went up to the next town of Ai, Joshua sent only
3,000 soldiers. Ai was a small town and his spies had said there were not many people
there. Imagine their surprise, then, when the men of Ai killed thirty-six of the Israelites
and chased the rest of them back down the hill. The people of Israel were so frightened
that their hearts melted and became like water. In his distress Joshua tore his clothes.
Then he and the elders of the people fell before the ark of the Lord, throwing dust on
their heads.

Joshua went to the Lord to find out what was wrong. \u201cAlas, Lord God\u201d, he prayed, \u201cwhy have You brought this people over the Jordan at all - - to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us?\u201d If only they had been satisfied just to stay on the other side of the Jordan River, Joshua thought. Now when the nations of Canaan heard about Ai, they would wipe Israel off the earth.

\u201cGet up!\u201d God told Joshua. \u201cWhy do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned.\u201d Then the Lord told Joshua someone in the camp had not followed all of God\u2019s commands when they fought Jericho.

Before the walls had fallen the Lord had spoken through Joshua to tell the people
everything in Jericho was accursed and should be destroyed. No one was to keep any of
its riches for himself. Even all the flocks and herds were to be killed. They were to save
only the gold and silver and vessels of iron and bronze to go into the treasury of the
tabernacle.

God told Joshua to get up and bring the people together the next morning and say, \u201cThus
says the Lord God of Israel: There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel: you
cannot stand until you take away the accursed thing from among you.\u201d The person who
had done it would have to be burned with fire, along with everything he had, because he
had done a disgraceful thing.

The Lord told Joshua how to find the man who had done wrong. He was to have all the
tribes file by and God would show the tribe of the sinner. After that, God would narrow it
down until they knew the family, then the household of culprit.

Joshua followed God\u2019s directions and a man named Achan from the tribe of Judah was
picked out. \u201cMy son,\u201d Joshua told Achan, \u201cI beg you, give glory to the Lord God of
Israel and make confession unto Him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide