Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
to their tribes, families, households, and men, that the guilty men might be discovered
by lot; and to burn whoever was found guilty, with all that he possessed. niqªrab
(OT:7126), "to come near," sc., to Jehovah, i.e., to come before His sanctuary. The
tribes, families, households, and men, formed the four classes into which the people
were organized. As the tribes were divided into families, so these again were
subdivided into houses, commonly called fathers' houses, and the fathers' houses again
into men, i.e., fathers of families (see the remarks on Ex 18:25-26, and by Bibl.
Archaeology, §140). Each of these was represented by its natural head, so that we
must picture the affair as conducted in the following manner: in order to discover the
tribe, the twelve tribe princes came before the Lord; and in order to discover the
family, the heads of families of the tribe that had been taken, and so on to the end,
each one in turn being subjected to the lot.
For although it is not distinctly stated that the lot was resorted to in order to discover
who was guilty, and that the discovery was actually made in this way, this is very
evident from the expression 'asher-yilªkªdenaah ( which the Lord taketh ), as this was
the technical term employed, according to 1 Sam 14:42, to denote the falling of the lot
upon a person (see also 1 Sam 10:20). Moreover, the lot was frequently resorted to in
cases where a crime could not be brought home to a person by the testimony of eyewitnesses
(see 1 Sam 14:41-42; Jonah 1:7; Prov 18:18), as it was firmly believed that
the lot was directed by the Lord (Prov 16:33). In what manner the lot was cast we do
not know. In all probability little tablets or potsherds were used, with the names
written upon them, and these were drawn out of an urn. This may be inferred from a
comparison of Josh 18:11 and 19:1, with 18:6,10, according to which the casting of
the lot took place in such a manner that the lot came up ( `aalaah (OT:5927), Josh
18:11; 19:10; Lev 16:9), or came out ( yaatsaa' (OT:3318), Josh 19:1; 17:24; Num.
33:54 ). bacheerem (OT:2764) hanilªkaad (OT:3920), the person taken in (with) the
ban, i.e., taken by the lot as affected with the ban, was to be burned with fire, of
course not alive, but after he had been stoned (v. 25).
The burning of the body of a criminal was regarded as heightening the punishment of
death (vid., Lev 20:14). This
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