What Does Joshua 7:25 Mean in the King James?

And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.

Joshua 7:25 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The accusation and sentence are the same Hebrew word turned around: the trouble done to “us” is returned upon “thee,” ending in execution.

THE MEANING

The verse confronts you with harm framed in the plural: Joshua asks why one accused person has troubled “us.” The same root turns back toward him, and Israel’s answer is explicit and lethal, stones and fire. Communal injury and collective violence remain bound together here.

THE ROOT

עֲכַרְתָּנוּ

ʿakartanu

GROWS FROM

עכר

To stir up or disturb; to bring trouble or calamity.

Joshua’s question and his sentence use the same root: “Why hast thou troubled us?” and “the LORD shall trouble thee.” The next verse carries that root into Achor, so the word for communal harm becomes the name of the place marked by this execution.

ALSO GROWS

ʿōḵēr: A person who brings trouble.

עֹכֵר

The same form appears in Ahab’s accusation, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?”, again framing trouble as something that reaches a whole people.

ʿĀḵôr: The name Achor, linked to trouble.

עָכוֹר

Joshua 7:26 gives this name to the place where the stoning and burning are remembered, fixing the root’s language of trouble in the landscape.

THE PATTERN

What touches one member is often described as reaching the household or community around them.

And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.

Genesis 34:30 · KJVJacob describes Simeon and Levi’s attack as trouble that exposes his whole household to retaliation.

And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?

1 Kings 18:17 · KJVAhab’s accusation names Elijah as troubling all Israel, using the same ⁨עכר⁩ root found in Joshua’s charge.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Corinthians 12:26 · KJVThe verse makes shared consequence explicit: suffering or honor in one member reaches the whole body.

THE THREAD

And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.

Joshua 7:26 · KJV

The next verse gives the charge a place-name: Achor is linked to the same root, ⁨עכר⁩, meaning trouble. What begins as “Why hast thou troubled us?” becomes the name attached to the place where the stoning and burning are remembered.

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