Collective Punishment for Akhan's Sin/2

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Collective Punishment for Akhan's Sin

Exegetical Approaches

This topic has not yet undergone editorial review

Nation Also Culpable

Those who were killed had sinned and were deserving of punishment.

How did they sin?
  • Spiritual blunder – The people sinned in forgetting Hashem, and thinking that it was their own military power, rather than Hashem, which brought them victory. Akahan
  • Military blunder
  • Abetted Akhan – R"Y Bekhor Shor, Rabbi Yaakov Fidanque, and Hoil Moshe maintain that Yehoshua had warned the people beforehand to watch over the spoils and ensure that no one took of them, and to report if anyone had.  The people either did not watch properly, failed to report the offender, or worse, actively helped Akhan to hide the spoils.
  • Own sins – The people who died were
Attribution of sin to Israel
Singling out of akhan
Why was Akhan originally spared?
Collective punishment

Collective Punishment