Verse 15.He that is taken with the accursed thing; or, according to Keil, "he on whom the ban falls." He and all that he hath (cf. ver. 24). The opinion that Achan's family had in some way become participators in his sin would seem preferable to the idea that his sin had involved them in the ban (see Deuteronomy 24:16, which qualifies Leviticus 26:39; so Hengstenberg, 'History,' p. 218). The destruction of their possessions is due to the fact that all the family had come under the ban. Follyנְבָלָה used of the heart as well as the head (cf. Genesis 34:7: Deuteronomy 22:21; Judges 19:23, 24; Judges 20:6; 2 Samuel 13:12; Psalm 14:1). The LXX. render by ἀνόμημα, and the Vulgate by herae, but Theodotion renders by ἀφροσύνη.
7:10-15 God awakens Joshua to inquiry, by telling him that when this accursed thing was put away, all would be well. Times of danger and trouble should be times of reformation. We should look at home, into our own hearts, into our own houses, and make diligent search to find out if there be not some accursed thing there, which God sees and abhors; some secret lust, some unlawful gain, some undue withholding from God or from others. We cannot prosper, until the accursed thing be destroyed out of our hearts, and put out of our habitations and our families, and forsaken in our lives. When the sin of sinners finds them out, God is to be acknowledged. With a certain and unerring judgment, the righteous God does and will distinguish between the innocent and the guilty; so that though the righteous are of the same tribe, and family, and household with the wicked, yet they never shall be treated as the wicked.
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.
CHAPTER 7:16-26. THE DISCOVERY OF ACHAN'S SIN. -
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.