Joshua 7:25

25 And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day." So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

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 And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.
24 Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor.
25 And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day." So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.
26 Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.