Joshua 7:25

25 Joshua said, "I don't know why you caused so much trouble for us, but now the Lord will bring trouble to you." Then all the people threw stones at Achan and his family until they died. Then the people burned them.

Joshua 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.)

Joshua 7:25 In-Context

23 The men brought them out of the tent, took them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out on the ground before the Lord.
24 Then Joshua and all the people led Achan son of Zerah to the Valley of Trouble. They also took the silver, the coat, the gold, Achan's sons, daughters, cattle, donkeys, sheep, tent, and everything he owned.
25 Joshua said, "I don't know why you caused so much trouble for us, but now the Lord will bring trouble to you." Then all the people threw stones at Achan and his family until they died. Then the people burned them.
26 They piled rocks over Achan's body, and they are still there today. That is why it is called the Valley of Trouble. After this the Lord was no longer angry.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.