Dust on Their Heads and the Pleading Merit of Abraham

Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 17:4

"And they put dust upon their heads" (Joshua 7:6). Rabbi Elazar said: they began to invoke the merit of Abraham our father, as it is said, "And I am but dust and ashes" (Genesis 18:27). They said: did not Abraham build an altar in Ai? Was it not so that his children might not fall in Ai?

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