Joshua 7 · a question people ask
Why were Achan's sons and daughters taken with him (7:24-25)?
The chapter says that Joshua and all Israel took Achan, the silver, the robe and the gold, "his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had" (7:24), and that "All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones" (7:25). The LORD had said beforehand that the one taken "shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has" (7:15). Achan's confession speaks only of himself: "then I coveted them and took them" (7:21). The chapter doesn't say whether his sons and daughters knew, and 7:25 doesn't say who "them" are. The Law says, "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin" (Deuteronomy 24:16). Christians read the chapter in two main ways, each resting on verses. Both agree that the sentence was the LORD's, given before anyone was found (7:15), and that the chapter tells it without adding reasons of its own.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
His household shared in it
Those who hold this view point to where the things were: "hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it" (7:21), and the messengers "ran to the tent" and found them there (7:22). They reason that things buried in the middle of his tent could hardly have been hidden from his household, so that his sons and daughters shared in the hiding and were judged for their own part, and Deuteronomy 24:16, "Every man shall be put to death for his own sin", was kept.
Joshua 7:21-22 · Deuteronomy 24:16
The LORD's judgment on the devoted thing
Those who hold this view point to the sentence the LORD named beforehand: "he and all that he has" (7:15). The Law had warned that whoever brought a devoted thing home became devoted too: "You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it" (Deuteronomy 7:26), and the LORD says Israel had "become devoted for destruction" (7:12). On this reading the LORD himself gave this judgment, as he did for the city in Deuteronomy 13:15, and Deuteronomy 24:16 is the rule Israel was to keep when it punished wrongdoing.
Joshua 7:12 · Joshua 7:15 · Deuteronomy 7:26 · Deuteronomy 13:15 · Deuteronomy 24:16
The verses
“It shall be, that he who is taken with the devoted thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the LORD’s covenant, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’””
“When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.””
“Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you today.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.”
“The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”