Joshua 7:15

15 " 'Anyone who is caught with the things that had been set apart to the LORD will be destroyed by fire. Everything that belongs to that person will also be destroyed. He has broken the LORD's covenant. He has done a very terrible thing in Israel!' "

Joshua 7:15 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 7:15

And it shall be, [that] he that is taken with the accursed
thing shall be burnt with fire
He that is taken by lot, and the accursed thing found with him, this should be the death, burning, one of the four capital punishments with the Jews: this was ordered in this case, because the city of Jericho, accursed or devoted, was burnt with fire, ( Joshua 6:24 ) ;

he and all that he hath;
the particulars of which are enumerated, ( Joshua 7:24 ) ;

because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord;
(See Gill on Joshua 7:11);

and because he hath wrought folly in Israel;
as all sin and every transgression of the law is, and was the cause of Israel's turning their backs on their enemies; which, as Abarbinel says, was folly, and made the people of Israel look foolish, mean, and contemptible: the word has also the signification of a dead carcass, and may possibly have respect, to the thirty six men whose death he was the occasion of, ( Joshua 7:5 ) , and therefore justly ought to die himself.

Joshua 7:15 In-Context

13 "Go. Set the people apart. Tell them, 'Make yourselves pure. Get ready for tomorrow. Here is what the Lord, the God of Israel, wants you to do. He says, "People of Israel, you have kept some of the things that had been set apart to me in a special way to be destroyed. You can't stand up against your enemies until you get rid of those things."

14 " 'In the morning, come forward tribe by tribe. The tribe the LORD chooses will come forward group by group. The group the LORD chooses will come forward family by family. And the men in the family the LORD chooses will come forward one by one.

15 " 'Anyone who is caught with the things that had been set apart to the LORD will be destroyed by fire. Everything that belongs to that person will also be destroyed. He has broken the LORD's covenant. He has done a very terrible thing in Israel!' "

16 Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes. The tribe of Judah was picked.

17 The groups of Judah came forward. Joshua picked the group of Zerah. He had the group of Zerah come forward by families. The family of Zimri was picked.