CHAPTER 8. THE DEFEAT OF AI AND BETHEL. Joshua was now encouraged to go up and take Ai, and was directed as to what method he should use. Accordingly he set an ambush on the west side of it, and he and the rest of the army then advanced upwards towards its gates. When the king of Ai saw them, he sa... [ Continue Reading ]
Joshua 8:2 a ‘And you will do to Ai and her king what you did to Jericho and her king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take for a prey for yourselves.' The assurance was that it would be total victory. And the added assurance was that they could now begin to accumulate wealth from the land... [ Continue Reading ]
“ And I, and all the people who are with me, will approach the city, and it shall be that when they come out against us, as they did the first time, we will flee before them, and they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They flee before us, as the... [ Continue Reading ]
“ And you will rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city. For YHWH your God will deliver it into your hand.” At a signal from Joshua, made by raising his spear (verse 19) on some high point, for which they would be on the lookout, they would then move in and take possession of Ai. An... [ Continue Reading ]
“ And it shall be, when you have seized the city, you will set the city on fire. You will do according to the word of YHWH. See I have commanded you.” Once the city was taken it was to be set on fire. This would both act as a signal and would begin the fulfilment of YHWH's instruction to ‘devote' t... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ Joshua therefore sent them out and they went to the ambush site and settled in between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua lodged that night among the people.' So the battle plan was laid out and the first part carried out. The men in the ambush would hopefully arrive at the appoint... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and mustered (numbered) the people, and he and the elders of Israel went up before the people to Ai.' As usual he rose early. There was a hard climb and they wanted an early start. Then the troops were mustered and set in their units. Then Joshua and his c... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And all the people, the people of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.' The army made the ascent and camped to the north of Ai with a valley between them and Ai. Notice the stress o... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And he took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.' These were probably a further precaution rather than to increase the previous ambush. It may well have been in case of an attack from Bethel because he had recognised more clearly the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And they set the people, all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait (literally ‘their heel') who were on the west of the city. And Joshua moved that night into the midst of the valley.' This probably refers to the officers putting the main army in order ready for batt... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And so it was that when the king of Ai saw it, they hastily stirred themselves and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time (or place') appointed, before the Arabah. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.' Joshua wanted them well away from their strongpoint and so he and the army pretended to be beaten, probably after a minor skirmish, and retreated into barren land, probably the rugged territ... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And all the people who were in the city (or Ai) were summoned together to pursue after them, and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that did not go out after Israel, and they left the city open and pursued after Israel.' Josh... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And YHWH said to Joshua, “Stretch out the spear in your hand towards Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand towards the city.' This was clearly the signal for the ambush to attack. This would not be a signal to the ‘heel' or reinforcement... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And the ambush arose quickly from their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it. And they speedily set the city on fire.' The ambush had been there waiting hidden for over a day. They were no doubt relieved to see the signal and acted i... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power (literally ‘hands') to flee this way or that way, and the people who fled into the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.' The word for ‘hands' is the same as in v... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And when Joshua, and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again and slew the men of Ai.' Once again we have the typical repetition of this kind of literature, ensuring that the hearer gathered the important points and kept up... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And the other came out of the city against them. So they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side, and they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape.' Now the men of Ai and Bethel were trapped, caught in between the two parties, and possibly the five... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.' The general who had initially been so successful and who had finally led to defeat not only his own men, but the men of Bethel as well, was captured alive and brought to Joshua for him to decide how to deal with him.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And so it was that when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai out in the countryside, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai and smote it with the edge of the swo... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve eleph, even all the men of Ai.' This figure probably included the men from Bethel. The habit of mentioning the allies only once and then assuming their presence occurs elsewhere. Compare Judges 3:13 in a passage which might give the i... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For Joshua did not draw back his hand back with which he stretched out his spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.' It would appear that having stretched out his spear as a signal he then continued to hold it out as a gesture of victory, until the victory was complete (com... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ Only the cattle, and the spoil of the city, Israel took for a prey for themselves, in accordance with the word of YHWH which he commanded Joshua.' In this case the spoils were to the victors. YHWH had received the firstfruits at Jericho. These belonged to His people. Note the emphasis on their do... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap (a mound - ‘tel') for ever, even a desolation to this day.' This must have been written before the later restoration of Ai which, if the usual site is accepted, was in the time of the Judges. But it was not even then restored as a walled city. The much later... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening, and at the going down of the sun Joshua gave a command, and they took his carcase down from the tree and tossed it down at the entering of the gate of the city, and raised on it a great heap of stones to this day.' The king of Ai was hanged... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ Then Joshua built an altar to YHWH, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal.' The next act of Joshua was to fulfil the command of Moses as expressed in Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 27:2 where God commanded the building of an altar of unhewn stones on Mount Ebal, and the setting up of stones on which th... [ Continue Reading ]
Joshua 8:31 A ‘As Moses the servant of YHWH had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of hewn stones on which no man had lifted up any iron.' Joshua was carefully carrying out the instructions that he had received from Moses. The altar of unhe... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.' These need not have been the same as the altar stones. The Hebrew definite article is not specific. It can simply mean ‘on the stones I am now talking about'. The stones would b... [ Continue Reading ]
Joshua 8:33 A. ‘And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the Ark, and on that side, before the priests and the Levites, who bore the Ark of the covenant of YHWH, as well the stranger as the homeborn, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of t... [ Continue Reading ]
‘ And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the assembly of the children of Israel, and the women and the little ones and... [ Continue Reading ]