Our [text] itself answers, in our text: “I hid [them] in the earth against the middle of my tent, and covered the silver with the earth [I] dug up.” That “against the middle of the tent” means “in the middle of the tent,” as is plain from the Hebrew. The Seventy [LXX] thought it enough to render “in my tent.” Two other [phrases] are variously expounded. One is that “in the earth.” For either he placed these [things] on the ground — namely, upon the earth itself — or, the earth being dug out, he made a pit, and hid [them] there. And Josephus indicates this sense, saying generally that he made a deep pit in his tent, and buried in it what he had stolen. The other [phrase concerns] the silver, which specifically is said to be “covered with the earth dug up.” For since in the Hebrew it is “and the silver under it”: some will have that hidden “under the garment,” as Masius and Junius; some “under the earth,” as our [Vulgate]; some “under the tongue and garment,” as Cajetan; some “under all these,” as the Seventy and the Chaldee Paraphrast [Targum]. But why no one has expounded [it] “under the tongue,” or “the rule” alone, I wonder — since in the Hebrew [the word “it” is] of the feminine gender, and that “under it” is much more easily referred to it [the tongue] than to the more remotely-placed garment. To me Josephus’s exposition is approved, because with it agree, not badly, both the Hebrew and our [Vulgate] — nay, even the Seventy and the Chaldee — provided we notice that they more openly assign the lowest place in the pit to the silver. For why would Achan have buried the silver alone, and not likewise the gold and the mantle? Of the mantle it might perhaps be said [that it was buried] lest it be spoiled by the earthy damp or cold. But of the gold, what could be said? And he could have wrapped and protected that garment either in a little chest [cistella], or by some other thing; or [it might be] that for at least some days it would be free from all harm and rotting. But now it could be asked, first, why Achan hid these things? Secondly, why in this manner? To the first it is answered: because all iniquity is light-shunning [Lucifuga]. “He who does evil hates the light” (John 3:20). Fear now beat and lashed his conscience, lest Joshua’s excellent prudence should search into the vessels and baggage of all the tents. To the latter [question] — because it can embrace several little sub-questions — somewhat more is answered. For, first, he dug a pit and hid [them] there, because in the tent itself, above the ground, if any search were made, they could have been found. And this — I know not how — the immoderate desire of earthly riches has, beyond the other vices: that those who have them almost look to the earth. Therefore misers [Eucliones] bury their gold and silver, [and] hide their treasures in wells and pits; they consign [their] soul and whole heart to the earth. For “where thy treasure is, there also is thy heart” (Matt. 6:21). Is it because riches — dug out [of the earth], the incitements of evils — seek again, as it were, their [own] origin and fatherland; [and] love the darkness of the earth, like moles, and wish to be buried again? There was one at Lacedaemon [Sparta] who was accused of having hidden “owls,” in jest as well as in earnest, in the roof of his house — that is, coins stamped with the image of an owl. Almost all the other avaricious and sordid treasure-hoarders are Pluto-
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nii [i.e. of Pluto]: they do not raise themselves into bright and lofty roofs, but cast [themselves] down into the earth, into deep pits. Secondly: he dug in the tent, because if [he had dug] outside, he could have been seen by others, and asked what, and for what purpose, he was digging. Thirdly: he dug in the middle of the tent, that there might be less suspicion, and that he himself might always have his booty before his eyes, and might see whether there was any disturbance in that earth, or any searching. Fourthly: in the highest place in the pit he put the mantle, protected in the way I have said; in the middle the gold; and lowest [imo] the silver. And the cause of this order could be that he thought to draw out the garment [first], lest it be spoiled the sooner. Then the gold — because, since it was raw, and not yet stamped, it could not [yet] be said [to have been] brought from Egypt, or from the regions of the Kings Sihon and Og — [and] finally, when all fear of danger was past, the Jerichoite shekels. Was the middle place granted to the gold as to the most excellent? For someone [says] that the gold is not very aptly subjected to the word “silver.” There were perhaps other causes too, but known to the thief himself — if indeed that most mad man then did anything by reason and deliberately, not in a disturbed and as it were fortuitous manner. One general cause of all pleased Josephus: that he [Achan] thought — ὡς τοὺς στρατιώτας, οὕτω καὶ τὸν θεὸν λήσειν [hōs tous stratiōtas, houtō kai ton theon lēsein], that is — that, just as [he escaped] his fellow-soldiers, so he would escape the notice of God himself. O madness! “Whither,” says David (Ps. 138[139]), “shall I go from thy spirit? and whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present.” But of this afterward. Yet that [his] sons saw all these things, and yet were unwilling to betray their Father’s sacrilege, R. Eliezer writes (ch. 38).