Joshua 7:25

All Israel stoned him. The Hebrew here uses two different words for stoning, ragam and saqal. It has been suggested that the former means to stone a living person, whereas the latter signifies to heap stones upon a dead person, from its possible connection with the Heb. sheqel, which means “a weight.” But in the OT the two words seem to have been used interchangeably. In this verse the writer may have purposely chosen a synonym to avoid repetition. The punishment is said to have been executed by all Israel. Though probably not all actually cast stones, all were presumably present as spectators and “consenting unto his death” (Acts 8:1).

With fire. It seems that Achan and his family were first stoned to death, and afterward their bodies together with the spoil and other things pertaining to them were burned. Stoning by the congregation was a legal form of punishment for certain crimes (see Lev. 24:14; Num. 15:35).