Joshua 7:1

But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing, х wayim`aluw (H4603) ... ma`al (H4604)] - But the children of Israel took by stealth in (against) the cherem (ban). They hastened to leave Jericho and the Ghor, or valley of the Jordan: for 'the effects would have been fatal if the Hebrews had remained long under the influence of that relaxing, enfeebling climate, where their frames, now braced and vigorous, might so soon be enervated and unstrung. The inhabitants of the valley had been found wholly unfit to contend with thee strenuous, active men who had been trained in such severe physical discipline on the high ground of Paran, and in the long march thence amidst the privations of the wilderness.

Moreover, habits of profligacy were congenial with the climate and neighbourhood, as was manifested in the demoralized condition of the natives. The Hebrew leader, therefore, lost no time in conducting his people up one of the passes which led through the mountains into the heart of the country, to begin the strenuous contest they had to wage with the highland chieftains whom they were commanded to dispossess. Those who actually ventured up the craggy, broken paths, often skirting the edge of terrific precipices, and with "waves of naked, desolate, pyramidal, and conical mountains" on all sides of them, were-as indeed they must have been-high-minded as well as adventurous men. The nature of the country strikingly develops the character of those by whom this part of their enterprise was carried forward, especially when we bear in mind how they were encumbered, conveying as they could, on camels and mules, besides their personal effects, the materials and utensils of the sacred tabernacle, and the coffin that contained the embalmed body of their great countryman, which they had kept safe through all the vicissitudes of the pilgrimage, and were now carrying to its grave in that burial-place on the ancestral estate which he had chosen in Shechem.' (For an excellent description of the three roads leading up into the heart of the country, see Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' vol. 2:, p. 312; Van de, Velde, vol. 2:, p. 278; Drew's 'Scripture Lands' p. 100). There was one transgressor against the cherem, or ban, on Jericho, and his transgression brought the guilt and disgrace of sin upon the whole nation. Achan, called afterward Achar (trouble) (1 Chronicles 2:7), son of Zabdi, or Zimri (1 Chronicles 2:6); Zerah, or Zarah; Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38:30). His genealogy is given probably to show that from a parentage so infamous, the descendants would not be carefully trained in the fear of God.