Joshua 7:7

7 And Joshua said, Alas! alas! Lord God, what wouldest thou lead this people over the flood Jordan, that thou shouldest betake us in the hand of Amorites, and should lose us? I would, that as we began, we had dwelled beyond (the) Jordan. (And Joshua said, Alas! alas! Lord God, why didest thou lead this people over the Jordan River, so that thou couldest deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, and so destroy us? Oh how I wish, that we had stayed on the other side of the Jordan!)

Joshua 7:7 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 7:7

And Joshua said, alas! O Lord God
What a miserable and distressed condition are we in! have pity and compassion on us; who could have thought it, that this would have been our case?

wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver
us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us:
who are mentioned either for the whole people of the land of Canaan; or rather, because the people of Israel were now in that part of the country which they inhabited: these words discover much weakness, diffidence, and distrust, and bear some likeness to the murmurs of the children of Israel in the wilderness; but not proceeding from that malignity of spirit theirs did, but from a concern for the good of the people and the glory of God, they are not resented by him:

would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan;
in which he seems to cast the blame, not upon the Lord but upon himself and the people, who were not content to dwell on the other side, but were desirous of a larger and better country; and now ruin seemed to be the consequent of that covetous disposition and discontented mind.

Joshua 7:7 In-Context

5 and six and thirty men of them were slain; and the adversaries pursued them from the (city) gate unto Shebarim; and they felled down fleeing by (the) low places. And the heart of the people dreaded much, and it was made unsteadfast at the likeness of water (And the people's hearts were full of fear, and they were made as unstable as water).

6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and he fell down low to the earth before the ark of the Lord, unto the eventide, as well he, as all the elder men of Israel; and they casted powder on their heads. (And Joshua tore his clothes, and he fell down onto the ground before the Ark of the Lord, until the evening, he, as well as all the elders of Israel; and they threw powder on their heads.)

7 And Joshua said, Alas! alas! Lord God, what wouldest thou lead this people over the flood Jordan, that thou shouldest betake us in the hand of Amorites, and should lose us? I would, that as we began, we had dwelled beyond (the) Jordan. (And Joshua said, Alas! alas! Lord God, why didest thou lead this people over the Jordan River, so that thou couldest deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, and so destroy us? Oh how I wish, that we had stayed on the other side of the Jordan!)

8 My Lord God, what shall I say, seeing Israel turning the backs to his enemies? (My Lord God, what can I say, after seeing the men of Israel turn their backs to their enemies?)

9 Canaanites, and all the dwellers of the land shall hear this, and they shall be gathered together, and shall compass us, and they shall do away our name from [the] earth; and what shalt thou do to thy great name? (The Canaanites, and all the inhabitants of this land, shall hear of this, and they shall be gathered together, and shall surround us, and they shall do away our names from the earth; and then what shalt thou do for thy great name?)