_VICTORY RESTORED AT AI, AND THE LAW PROCLAIMED AT EBAL_ CRITICAL NOTES.— Joshua 8:1. Take all the people of war] The total number of men capable of bearing arms, omitting the seventy thousand left on the eastern side of Jordan, amounted to rather more than 531,000. It is not likely that all of th... [ Continue Reading ]
CRITICAL NOTES.— Joshua 8:3. Thirty thousand … and sent them away] Probably 30,000 was the entire number chosen to operate against Ai, and of these 5000 were sent, as stated in Joshua 8:12, to form the ambush between Bethel and Ai. To suppose two ambushes, one of 30,000 on the south-west, and one of... [ Continue Reading ]
CRITICAL NOTES.— Joshua 8:30. Then Joshua built an altar] Those who regard this section of the chapter as misplaced in the book have surely not sufficiently considered the command given in Deuteronomy 27:2. The Israelites were there solemnly charged to seize the first available opportunity for this... [ Continue Reading ]
CRITICAL NOTES.— Joshua 8:32. Wrote there upon the stones] Upon the plaster with which the stones were to be covered. These were not the stones of the altar itself, but rude pillars of stone reared near to the altar (cf. Deuteronomy 27:2). A COPY OF THE LAW OF MOSES] _Lit_. = a double, or duplicate... [ Continue Reading ]