So the LORD said to Joshua, “Get up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them [to keep]. They have even taken some of the things under the ban, and they have both stolen and denied [the theft]. Moreover, they have also put the stolen objects among their own things. That is why the soldiers of Israel could not stand [and defend themselves] before their enemies; they turned their backs [and ran] before them, because they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from among you. Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: “There are things under the ban among you, O Israel. You cannot stand [victorious] before your enemies until you remove the things under the ban from among you.” In the morning you shall come forward by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the LORD chooses by lot shall come forward by families, and the family which the LORD chooses shall come forward by [separate] households, and the household which the LORD chooses shall come forward man by man. It shall be that the one who is chosen with the things under the ban shall be [killed and his body] burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a disgraceful and disobedient thing in Israel.’ ” [Josh 7:25]
So Joshua got up early in the morning and had Israel come forward by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was chosen [by lot]. He had the families of Judah come forward, and the family of the Zerahites was chosen; and he had the family of the Zerahites come forward man by man, and Zabdi was chosen. He brought his household forward man by man; and Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was chosen. Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him [in recognition of His righteous judgments]; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” So Achan answered Joshua and said, “In truth, I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done: when I saw among the spoils [in Jericho] a beautiful robe from Shinar (southern Babylon) and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I wanted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”