Kitap 5
33
But there was one Achar, That the name of this chief was not Achan, as in the common copies, but Achar, as here in Josephus, and in the Apostolical Constit. B. VII. ch. 2., and elsewhere, is evident by the allusion to that name in the curse of Joshua, Why hast thou troubled us? — the Lord shall trouble thee; where the Hebrew word alludes only to the name Achar, but not to Achan. Accordingly, this Valley of Achar, or Achor, was and is a known place, a little north of Gilgal, so called from the days of Joshua till this day. See Joshua 7:26; Isaiah 65:10; Hosea 2:15; and Dr. Bernard’s notes here. the son [of Charmi, the son] of Zebedias, of the tribe of Judah, who finding a royal garment woven entirely of gold, and a piece of gold that weighed two hundred shekels; Here Dr. Bernard very justly observes, that a few words are dropped out of Josephus’s copies, on account of the repetition of the word shekels, and that it ought to be read thus: — A piece of gold that weighed fifty shekels, and one of silver that weighed two hundred shekels, as in our other copies, Joshua 7:21. and thinking it a very hard case, that what spoils he, by running some hazard, had found, he must give away, and offer it to God, who stood in no need of it, while he that wanted it must go without it, - made a deep ditch in his own tent, and laid them up therein, as supposing he should not only be concealed from his fellow soldiers, but from God himself also.
34
Now the place where Joshua pitched his camp was called Gilgal, which denotes liberty; I agree here with Dr. Bernard, and approve of Josephus’s interpretation of Gilgal for liberty. See Joshua 5:9. for since now they had passed over Jordan, they looked on themselves as freed from the miseries which they had undergone from the Egyptians, and in the wilderness.
