{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/the-sin-of-achan",
 "title": "The Sin of Achan",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1871,
  "venue": "Poems (1871)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poems01harp"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonmiscellan00harp",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-1871",
   "https://archive.org/details/poems01harp",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007491600",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100774124",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-full-text-1895",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100488369",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-idylls-of-the-bible-1901",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100319488",
   "https://archive.org/details/historyofafrican00payn",
   "https://archive.org/details/WeeklyAngloAfricanI",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_liberator_1858-05-14_28_20",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000500702",
   "https://archive.org/details/undergroundrailr00stil",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872",
   "https://archive.org/details/25th-annual-report-of-the-board-of-managers-of-the-home-etc",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_light-beyond-the-darkness",
   "https://archive.org/details/ame-church-review-1900-04"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Night closed o’er the battling army,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But it brought them no success;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Victory perched not on their banners;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Night was full of weariness.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Flushed and hopeful in the morning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turned they from their leader’s side:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Routed, smitten and defeated,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came they back at eventide.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then in words of bitter mourning",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Joshua’s voice soon arose:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Tell us, O thou God of Jacob,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why this triumph of our foes?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To his pleading came the answer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why the hosts in fear did yield:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“ ’Twas because a fearful trespass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mid their tents did lie concealed.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Clear and plain before His vision,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With whom darkness is as light,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay the spoils that guilty Achan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Covered from his brethren’s sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From their tents they purged the evil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That had ruin round them spread;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then they won the field of battle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whence they had in terror fled.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Through the track of many ages",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes this tale of woe and crime;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let us read it as a lesson",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a warning for our time.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, for some strong-hearted Joshua!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Faithful to his day and time,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who will wholly rid the nation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her clinging curse and crime.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Till she writes on every banner",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All beneath these folds are free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the oppressed and groaning millions",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shout the nation’s Jubilee.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}