What Does Joshua 7:15 Mean?
And it shall be, that he who is seized with the devoted thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has crossed over the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a withering thing in Israel.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.THE KEY
The thing marked for destruction draws the taker, and everything he owns, into the same sentence.
THE MEANING
This verse names the taking as a breach of the LORD’s covenant and states its consequence without narrowing it: the one caught is burned, along with all he possesses. The judgment reaches beyond the individual to the full sphere of what belongs to him. The violence remains stark in the words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a breach can remain contained within the one who commits it; the sentence reaches the taker and all he has.
THE ROOT
חֵרֶם
ḥērem
GROWS FROM
ח־ר־ם
ḥ-r-m
To ban or set apart under a ban, often for destruction.
“devoted thing” in this verse is ḥērem. The English “accursed thing” names the danger; חֵרֶם (ḥērem, thing under the ban) adds that it is set apart under a ban, often for destruction. The verse’s severity lies in the boundary: taking what is under that ban binds the taker and his holdings to the same judgment.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāram: To ban or devote to destruction.
חָרַם
This verb shows that the object’s status comes from being placed under a ban, not merely from being an undesirable possession.
heḥĕrîm: To place under the ban or devote to destruction.
הֶחֱרִים
This form makes the boundary an act: something is marked off, and taking it crosses that designation.
עָבַר
ʿāvar
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ר
ʿ-b-r
To cross, pass over, or go beyond.
“crossed over” in this verse is ʿāvar. The covenant is breached with a crossing verb: the act goes beyond the boundary that holds the agreement. The root pictures transgression as crossing a line, giving the verse’s breach a spatial force beneath the English wording.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēver: Beyond, across, or the other side.
עֵבֶר
The same root names the far side of a boundary, clarifying the crossing image in “transgressed.”
maʿăvār: A crossing or passage.
מַעֲבָר
This branch turns the root into the passage itself: the act in the verse carries someone across a boundary.
נְבָלָה
nebālāh
GROWS FROM
נ־ב־ל
n-b-l
To act foolishly or disgracefully.
“done a withering thing” in this verse is nebālāh. The verse calls the act נְבָלָה (nebālāh, disgraceful folly), a term for an outrageous public wrong, not a minor miscalculation. Its word family also names a fool and the act of disgracing, placing the deed within a pattern of senselessness that brings shame upon Israel.
ALSO GROWS
nābāl: A fool or senseless person.
נָבָל
This related word shows folly as a condition of the one who acts, not merely an unfortunate outcome.
nibbēl: To disgrace or treat with contempt.
נִבֵּל
This branch brings out the public dishonor carried by the act described as folly “in Israel.”
THE PATTERN
A breach of a consecrated boundary is shown carrying its consequence beyond the one who crosses it.
And you, guard yourselves from the devoted thing, lest you devote yourselves to destruction, when you take from it, and make the camp of Israel a devoted thing, and uproot it.No one sealed away from among men is bought back, but he shall surely die.Therefore, as through one man falling short entered into the world, and death through it; and so death passed through to all people, because all have missed the mark.THE THREAD
No one sealed away from among men is bought back, but he shall surely die.Leviticus uses the same ח־ר־ם (ḥ-r-m) word family for what is “devoted,” revealing the force behind Joshua’s “accursed thing”: an object placed under a ban. The connection makes the sentence’s severity plain, without softening its violence.
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