Yehoshua 7:25

25 And Yehoshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? Hashem shall trouble thee yom hazeh. And kol Yisroel stoned him with even (stones), and burned them with eish, after they had stoned them with avanim (stones).

Yehoshua 7:25 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 7:25

And Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us?
&c.] Been the occasion of so much trouble to us, by committing this sin:

the Lord shall trouble thee this day;
by the destruction of him and all that belonged to him: this is said to show that his punishment was of God, and according to his will: in the Misnah F18 an emphasis is laid on the phrase "this day", and it is observed,

``this day thou shalt be troubled, but thou shalt not be troubled in the world to come;''

suggesting that though temporal punishment was inflicted on him, yet his iniquity was forgiven, and he would be saved with an everlasting, salvation; and as it may be hoped from the ingenuous confession that he made, that he had true repentance for it, and forgiveness of it:

and all Israel stoned him with stones;
hence some gather, that only Achan himself suffered death, and not his sons and daughters:

and burnt them with fire after they had stoned them with stones;
which the Jewish commentators understand of his oxen, asses, and sheep; so Jarchi, Ben Gersom, and Abarbinel: likewise his tent, and household goods, the Babylonish garment, gold and silver, were burnt, and he himself also, for that is the express order, ( Joshua 7:15 ) ; the Jews say, as particularly Jarchi observes, that he was stoned because he profaned the sabbath, it being on the sabbath day that Jericho was taken, and stoning was the punishment of the sabbath breaker, and he was burnt on the account of the accursed thing; so Abendana.


FOOTNOTES:

F18 Sanhedrin ut supra. (Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 18. sect. 6.)

Yehoshua 7:25 In-Context

23 And they took them out of the midst of the ohel, and brought them unto Yehoshua, and unto all the Bnei Yisroel, and laid them out before Hashem.
24 And Yehoshua, and kol Yisroel with him, took Achan ben Zerach, and the kesef, and the robe, and the wedge of zahav, and his banim, and his banot, and his oxen, and his donkeys, and his tzon, and his ohel, and all that he had; and they brought them unto the Emek Achor (Valley of Trouble).
25 And Yehoshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? Hashem shall trouble thee yom hazeh. And kol Yisroel stoned him with even (stones), and burned them with eish, after they had stoned them with avanim (stones).
26 And they raised over him a heap of avanim gadol unto this day. So Hashem turned from the fierceness of His Af (Anger). Therefore the shem of that place was called, Emek Achor, unto this day.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.