"things consecrated to me have been impudently stolen from me,"
and that "this has been the occasion why this defeat had happened
to them;" and that when they should search out and punish the
offender, he would ever take care they should have the victory
over their enemies. This Joshua told the people; and calling for
Eleazar the high priest, and the men in authority, he cast lots,
tribe by tribe; and when the lot showed that this wicked action
was done by one of the tribe of Judah, he then again proposed the
lot to the several families thereto belonging; so the truth of
this wicked action was found to belong to the family of Zachar;
and when the inquiry was made man by man, they took Achar, who,
upon God's reducing him to a terrible extremity, could not deny
the fact: so he confessed the theft, and produced what he had
taken in the midst of them, whereupon he was immediately put to
death; and attained no more than to be buried in the night in a
disgraceful manner, and such as was suitable to a condemned
malefactor.

15. When Joshua had thus purified the host, he led them against
Ai: and having by night laid an ambush round about the city, he
attacked the enemies as soon as it was day; but as they advanced
boldly against the Israelites, because of their former victory,
he made them believe he retired, and by that means drew them a
great way from the city, they still supposing that they were
pursuing their enemies, and despised them, as though the case had
been the same with that in the former battle; after which Joshua
ordered his forces to turn about, and placed them against their
front. He then made the signals agreed upon to those that lay in
ambush, and so excited them to fight; so they ran suddenly into
the city, the inhabitants being upon the walls, nay, others of