Joshua 7:22

"So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel; and they laid them down before Jehovah. And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them up unto the valley of Achor. 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. And they raised over him a great heap of stones, unto this day; and Jehovah turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Achor, unto this day."

The big question regarding this event is whether or not all of Achan's sons and daughters were put to death with him? The most logical understanding of what is written here indicates that, indeed, they were all put to death along with Achan. The question that comes up regards the law given in Deuteronomy 24:16 which clearly prohibited innocent people from being put to death for a relative's crime. This writer cannot pretend to know the exact answer to this. Keil and others affirm that all of the family of Achan suffered death, since they were, by the very nature of the hiding place of the loot, accomplices after the fact, and therefore guilty. Besides, Keil pointed out that in this particular case, God had specifically commanded the execution here carried out.

Unger's comment is:

"Did Achan's family share in his death? Apparently, but Deuteronomy 24:16 clearly prohibits innocent people from being put to death for a relative's crime. The plural pronoun `them" in Joshua 7:25 may refer grammatically only to Achan's possessions, and Joshua 22:20 may refer to the thirty-six men who perished because of Achan's sin. Korah's relatives were spared (Numbers 16)."[21]

Rea stressed the fact that all of Achan's family would necessarily have known of the theft and that "they could not but have been accomplices."[22] We might multiply quotations from many writers, but Blair summed it all up, "It is difficult to be certain."[23]

In Joshua 7:25, the word used for "stoning" is a Hebrew word, one of a couple of words the Hebrews had for stoning, and "The word used here is the one that means `stoning as a form of capital punishment.'"[24] As stoning was certainly a more merciful death than burning, this word probably indicates that the burning took place after those executed were dead. Here again, no certainty is possible.