Joshua 7:19

My Notes

What Does Joshua 7:19 Mean?

Joshua 7:19 records Joshua's plea to Achan — and the plea reframes confession as an act of worship: "And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me."

The Hebrew sim-na khabōd laYHWH — "give glory to the LORD" — connects confession to glory. The confession itself is the glory-giving. When you tell the truth about your sin, you glorify the God whose law defines what sin is. Hiding it dishonors Him. Revealing it honors Him. The confession isn't just for the sinner's relief. It's for God's glory.

"My son" — bĕni — is tender language from a leader about to execute a man. Joshua doesn't address Achan with contempt. He addresses him as a son. The warmth doesn't mitigate the consequence (Achan will be stoned, 7:25). But it reveals the posture of the one requiring the confession: grief, not rage.

"Tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me" — haggidah-na li meh asitha al-tĕkhachēd mimmĕni. Two imperatives: tell and don't hide. The confession must be specific (meh — what, specifically) and complete (al-tĕkhachēd — don't conceal). Joshua asks for the whole truth. Not a summary. Not a sanitized version. The full accounting of what was done.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Have you been confessing in general when God is asking for specifics? What are you hiding that Joshua would say 'tell me — don't conceal'?
• 2.Joshua calls Achan 'my son' before executing him. Can you hold tenderness and accountability simultaneously?
• 3.Confession gives glory to God. Does that reframe how you view the act of admitting sin — as worship rather than humiliation?
• 4.Achan told the whole truth: the silver, the garment, the gold. Can you name your sin with that specificity?

Devotional

Give glory to God. Make confession. Tell me what you did. Hide nothing.

Joshua frames confession as worship. The Hebrew literally says: put glory on the LORD. When you confess your sin — fully, specifically, without concealment — you glorify God. Because the confession says: Your law is right. Your standard is the standard. What I did violated something real and true. The truth-telling about sin is simultaneously truth-telling about God. Every honest confession is a declaration: You were right. I was wrong. Glory to You.

Joshua calls Achan "my son" — bĕni. The man who stole from God, who caused thirty-six soldiers to die at Ai, who hid the accursed thing under his tent — Joshua addresses him as family. Not with mockery. Not with righteous contempt. With the grief of a father who knows what's about to happen to someone he cares about. The consequence is coming. The tenderness is present. Both at the same time.

"Hide it not from me" — that's the hardest part. Not confessing in general. Confessing in detail. Not admitting to wrongdoing as a category. Revealing what was done, specifically, without concealment. The impulse to hide is as old as Eden (Genesis 3:8). God asked Adam the same question: what have you done? The difference between Achan and Adam is that Achan actually answers (7:20-21). He tells the whole truth. The silver, the garment, the gold — quantity, location, everything.

The confession didn't save Achan from the consequence. But it gave glory to God. And the glory-giving is what Joshua asked for first — before the details, before the accounting, before the punishment. Give glory. Then tell the truth. The truth is the glory.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture