Joshua 22:20
Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity. Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity.
The tribes of Gad and Reuben with half Manasseh took their inheritance before crossing the Jordan in the grazing lands of Gilead and Bashan after pledging armed men to fight with their brethren until Canaan was entered, and forty thousand of them passed over to the plains of Jericho and fought bravely for years. After the conquest they returned with much riches of very much cattle, silver, gold, brass, iron and very much raiment to be shared with those who had remained with the families and flocks. They were then to dwell at a distance from the sanctuary, which gave anxiety lest their isolated and wandering life tempt them to fall into the customs of the heathen tribes on their borders.
The verse recalls that Achan transgressed the commandment concerning the accursed thing, and that he and his whole family perished for it while all the congregation of Israel suffered, so that one man's guilt brought consequences beyond himself. That wrath fell as rebuke in part because Israel had failed to be vigilant in discovering the sin among them. The question was spoken to the children of Gad and Reuben as a warning not to depart from God by disobedience over an altar, reasoning that if one man's sin brought wrath upon the whole nation, disobedience by so large a company would bring a far more dire result.
Israel remembered the case as a call to be vigilant in discovering sin and resolved to act promptly against it. Yet prompt zeal to protect the community can itself do grave harm when suspicion is mistaken for fact. In this the tribes went too far and erred in censuring their brethren, for they should first have made courteous inquiry to learn the facts before suspecting them.