Midrash su Giosuè 7:10

(Fol. 10b) Our Rabbis were taught: A year can not be intercalated, (fol. 11) except by those who are invited for it by the Nassi. It happened that Rabban Gamaliel invited seven persons for the morrow in his attic, [for an intercalory purpose], and on the morrow when he came and found eight, he said: "He who was not invited shall leave." Samuel the Junior, then arose and said: "I am the one who was not invited. I came here, however, not to take part in the intercalation, but to get experience in the practice of this ceremony." "Sit down, my son, sit down," responded Rabban Gamaliel, "all the years which have to be intercalated might have been done by you, but so was the decision of the sages, that intercalation must be done only by the persons who were invited." In reality, the one not invited was not Samuel the Junior, but another person. Samuel, however, did so only to ward off disgrace from his colleagues. Similar to this it happened once when Rabbi was lecturing that he perceived the odor of garlic, and he said: "He who has eaten garlic shall leave." R. Chiya then arose and left the place, and every one, seeing R. Chiya leaving, did the same. On the morrow, R. Simon, the son of Rabbi, met R. Chiya, and questioned him: "Was it you who disturbed my father yesterday?" [having eaten garlic]. And he answered: "God forfid, [to think so]. Such a thing should not happen in Israel." [I merely did it to ward off the disgrace from some one else]. And from whom did R. Chiya learn this? From R. Maier, as we are taught in the following Baraitha: The following incident took place with a woman who came to the college of R. Maier, saying: "One of you has betrothed me, but I do not know who it was." Then R. Maier arose and wrote her a divorce, and handed it to her; and after him, all the scholars in the college did likewise. And from whom did R. Maier learn this? From Samuel the Junior, [as above] and Samuel the Junior from Shechanyah b. Yechiel, who said to Ezra (Ezra 10, 2) We [including himself] have broken faith with our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. And from whom did Shechanyah learn this? From Joshua b. Nun, of whom it is written (Josh. 7, 10) Get thee up; wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Israel hath sinned. Joshua then said unto Him: "Sovereign of the Universe! who sinned?" The Lord replied: "Am I then an informer? Cast thou a lot and find out." And if you wish you can say that Shechanyah learned it from Moses, of whom it is written (Ex. 16, 28) How long refuse ye [including Moses].

R. Akiba declared: A pact of excommunication and an oath are actually one and the same. You learn this from Joshua, who placed Jericho under a ban. Achan was burned to death when he violated the ban by taking things from Jericho and hiding them in his tents. These (things) were the cloaks and the golden tongues from inside the mouths of the idols at Jericho, upon which an unclean (i.e., idolatrous) name had been engraved. Because he violated the pact of excommunication, thirty-six Israelites perished,³The members of Achan’s family. See B. Sanhedrin 44a. and Joshua rent his clothes and prostrated himself upon the ground before the ark. And the Lord said unto Joshua: “Get thee up; wherefore, now, art thou fallen upon thy face? Israel hath sinned; yea, they have even transgressed My covenant which I commanded them; yea, they have even taken of the devoted thing; and have also stolen, etc. (Josh. 7:10). Why is the word gam (variously translated “yea” and “also” in the preceding passage) repeated five times in this verse? To teach us that whosoever violates a vow of excommunication is considered to be transgressing against the Five Books of Moses. For all other sins, the guilty one is punished, but for the violation of an oath of excommunication the transgressor and all mankind are punished, as it is said: Therefore doth the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein doth languish (Hos. 4:3), and elsewhere it states: Therefore, hath a curse devoured the land, and they that dwell therein are found guilty (Isa. 24:6). Similarly, you find that it is said about Achan: Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass against the banned things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And that man perished not alone in his iniquity (Josh. 22:20).

... [What about all] the praise of Joseph, who exceeded in the honor of his father? And yet he did not enter into him all the time, such that were it not that they came to tell him, "Your father is sick," he would not have known! Rather this is to inform you of his righteousness. For he did not want to be alone with his father, lest he say to him, "How did your brothers act with you?" And [then] he would curse them.... Hence he did not go to his father all the time.)

‎And Joshua said: O Lord, wherefore hast thou brought this people over this Jordan What shall I ‎say when Israel turneth his back before his enemies? For the Canaanites and all the ‎inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from ‎the earth. And the Lord said unto Joshua: Wherefore fallest thou upon thy face? Arise and go ‎away, for Israel hath sinned in taking from the accursed thing, and I shall be with them no ‎more, unless they exterminate the accursed thing from their midst. And Joshua arose and ‎assembled the people, and brought the Urim, according to the word of God, and the tribe of ‎Judah was taken, and finally Achan, the son of Carmi, was taken; and Joshua said unto Achan: ‎Inform me now my son of what thou hast done. And Achan said: I saw among the spoils a ‎goodly garment of Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty ‎shekels weight, and I coveted them and took them; and behold they are hid in the earth in the ‎midst of my tent. And Joshua sent men, and they went and took all these things from Achan’s ‎tent, and brought them unto Joshua. And Joshua took Achan with all these things, with his ‎sons and daughters, and all belonging unto him, into the valley of Achor, and Joshua burned ‎them all with fire; and all Israel stoned them with stones and they raised over him a heap of ‎stones. Therefore he called that place the valley of Achor; thus the Lord turned his anger from ‎Israel, and Joshua approached the city once more to fight with it. And the Lord said unto ‎Joshua: Fear not and be not dismayed, for behold I have delivered into thy hand Ai, and her ‎king, and her people, and thou shalt do unto them as thou hast done unto Jericho and her ‎king. But the spoil of the city and the cattle shall you take for yourselves; and lay an ambush to ‎the city behind it; and Joshua did so. And he selected from the midst of his host thirty ‎thousand valiant men and he sent them to lay in ambush behind the city, and he commanded ‎them, saying: When you see us fleeing from before them with cunning, and they will pursue ‎us, then shall ye rise up from the ambush and take the city; and they did so. And Joshua with ‎all the Israelites fought against Ai, and they acted with cunning and fled towards the ‎wilderness. Then the men of Ai assembled all the people of the city to pursue the Israelites, ‎and they went out and were drawn away from the city, not one of them remained, and they ‎left the city open and they pursued the children of Israel; and those who lay in ambush rose up ‎from their hiding place, and they entered the city and took it and set it on fire. And when the ‎people of Ai turned backwards they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended ‎heavenwards, and they had no escape neither one way nor the other way, and the children of ‎Israel surrounded them and smote them, until there was not left of them a remnant. And the ‎children of Israel took Melosh, king of Ai, and brought him unto Joshua, and Joshua hanged ‎him on a tree and he died;