John Gill Commentary Joshua 7:25

"And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? Jehovah shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones." — Joshua 7:25 (ASV)

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

the Lord shall trouble you 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 you shall be troubled, but you shall 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 may be hoped from the ingenuous confession 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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