Joshua 7:14

14. Ye shall be brought according to your tribes God could have disclosed to Joshua the sinner as well as the sin. by direct revelation, without this review of the whole camp. But he chose the latter method as far more impressive, since it awakened the interest of all the people, exhibited the magnitude of the crime, and clearly set forth the omniscience of Jehovah, and their personal amenability to him. Representatives of each tribe were to come to the tabernacle, or to pass in review before the ark.

The tribe which the Lord taketh The word taketh, as we may see from 1 Samuel 14:42, is the technical term used for decision by lot. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” Proverbs 16:33. White pebbles and one black one may have been cast into a sack or urn, and some man from each tribe appointed to draw them out the black pebble indicating the tribe, clan, family, or individual whom the Lord designated. Decision by lot is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament, and once in the New. Acts 1:24-26. It recommends itself as a sort of appeal to the Almighty, free from all influence of passion or bias.

Families… households The tribes, says Keil, were founded by the twelve sons of Jacob and the two sons of Joseph, who were placed on an equality with them by adoption. Whenever Levi was reckoned, Joseph was counted as one tribe; whenever Levi was omitted, Joseph was counted as two. The tribes were divided into clans, of which the sons, grandsons, or great grandsons of the twelve were the heads. The clans were again divided into groups of families Heb, fathers’ houses taking their name from the sons, grandsons, etc., of the heads of the clans. This last division was subdivided into households, composed of individuals. The distinction between the clans and fathers’ houses was not very definitely preserved.