Joshua 7:17,18

‘ And he brought the family of Judah near, and he selected the family of the Zerahites. And he brought the family of the Zerahites near, man by man, and Zabdi was selected. And he brought near his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah was selected.'

We notice here that the same word is used for the ‘family' of the full tribe of Judah (some manuscripts, also LXX and Vulgate, have ‘the families', probably to remove the difficulty of the original text) and the ‘family' of the Zerahites, a sub-tribe. This demonstrates that such terminology was not at this time rigidly fixed. Note also that Achan is related back through his grandfather to Zerah and Judah. Attention is drawn to the fact that the selection process had worked perfectly.

Some manuscripts and versions have ‘by households' after ‘the family of the Zerahites' instead of ‘man by man', but the latter is the more difficult reading and the former a more obvious correction to tie in with Joshua 7:14.