What Does Joshua 7:15 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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.
“transgressed” 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.
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 ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:THE THREAD
None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.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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