Joshua 8:1–29
8 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.”
3 So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. 4 And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. 5 And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them. 6 And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before them. 7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.” 9 So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people.
10 Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 11 And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. 12 He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. 14 And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place1 toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15 And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. 16 So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. 17 Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.
18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 19 And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire. 20 So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. 21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. 22 And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped. 23 But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua.
24 When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. 25 And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai. 26 But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.2 27 Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. 28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. 29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.
1 Hebrew appointed time 2 That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
Section Overview
The first campaign against Ai ended in ignominious failure (7:2–5). The bulk of the preceding chapter was spent in displaying the destructive effects of disobedience and in applying its divinely ordained remedy. As action against Ai is renewed in this chapter, the same sort of obedience that had marked Joshua’s and Israel’s behavior alike returns.
This account includes multiple frames and narrative blocks that do not wholly coincide. The outer frame is marked by the fate of the “king of Ai,” identified as given into Joshua’s hand by the Lord in 8:1 and executed at the close of the text in verse 29. Within this frame two main narrative panels are set: the preparations for renewed military action in verses 3–9 and the description of the battle and its aftermath itself in verses 10–29. Contained in this latter block is an inner frame, marked by the Lord’s further instruction to Joshua in verse 18 to “stretch out the javelin that is in your hand,” with its record of fulfillment in verse 26 acting as the conclusion to the battle itself.
The broad shape of this conquest, then, shares the main outlines with the operation against Jericho in chapter 6. In this case, however, it can be seen that Joshua’s initiatives and the effectiveness of the Israelite fighting force brings much more to the action against Ai than either did in the case of Jericho. A further issue brings a reminder of one of the features of chapter 2. The matter of Rahab’s deceit in putting off the agents of the king of Jericho from discovering the Israelite spies was discussed in the interpretation there (cf. comment on 2:2–7). This episode shares something of that dynamic, as the stratagem that Joshua proposes and which meets with success against Ai also involves deception. For whatever reason, this ploy has not attracted the same kind of moral scrutiny as has Rahab’s guile.
The final deposition of the king of Ai beneath a “great heap of stones” (8:29) forges an explicit link to the fate of Achan (7:26), adding to the impression that Achan’s identity was in effect that of a Canaanite.
Section Outline
I.I. The Second Ai Campaign (8:1–29)
1. The Lord Instructs Joshua (8:1–2)
2. Joshua Sets an Ambush (8:3–9)
a. Ambush Set (8:3)
b. Joshua Issues Commands (8:4–8)
c. Ambush Departs; Night Falls (8:9)
3. The Destruction of Ai (8:10–29)
a. The Ruse Draws Out the People of Ai (8:10–17)
b. The Lord, Joshua, and the Javelin (8:18)
c. The City of Ai Destroyed (8:19–25)
d. Joshua and the Javelin (8:26)
e. Ai Defeated; The Aftermath (8:27–29)
Response
The defeat of Ai by Israel displays aspects of the ways in which God prepares his people for accomplishing the purposes he has for them, and it is possible to see this as a gospel shape.
The fundamental element from which the whole episode flows is the matter of restoration to fellowship with God, the effects of sin having been removed. The compromising and debilitating effects of sin that led to the initial defeat in chapter 7 have been put away, punishment for sin has been rendered, and the guilty people are now restored. From the perspective of the writer to the Hebrews, Achan would have been like the exodus generation, which failed to enter because of its disobedience (Heb. 4:6, 11), even though Achan was among those who crossed over the Jordan. Now God speaks again to Joshua as he had at the beginning and acts once again for Israel.
This renewed relationship meets a corresponding obedience in God’s people, even as they are called to deeper participation and given more responsibility for bringing the mission to a successful conclusion. The first step in that obedience was to deal with sin in the camp. “The stories of Jericho and Ai indicate the need to obey YHWH through the covenant. It is this, rather than military tactics, that grants Israel success.” Israel further demonstrates its obedience in forthrightly carrying out the divine commands as conveyed through Joshua in all its treatment of Ai, including the delivery of the king of Ai for death (Josh. 8:23, 29). This will be the fate of each of the Canaanite kings who opposes the God of heaven and earth. Grasping this helps to see how the book of Judges sets off in the wrong direction, as its first defeat of a Canaanite king sees his being dealt with in Canaanite ways rather than as God had ordained through the period of exodus and conquest (Judg. 1:5–7).
With restoration and obedience is also provision. God does more than direct Israel through Joshua in its battle with Ai—he remains the guarantor of victory. The relationship between Joshua’s holding aloft the “javelin” with God’s acting on behalf of his people remains mysterious. However that relationship is to be understood, its import is clear: Israel does not fight this battle alone. Rather, as God’s people fight, God fights with and for them, and ultimately Israel’s success is dependent on God’s action on its behalf.
Hebrew appointed time
That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
8:1–2 After the death of Achan and the subsiding of God’s anger against Israel, the Lord again speaks to Joshua. Every element of this brief speech bears reflection.
The first words God speaks to Joshua have the character of a recommissioning. The encouragement not to “fear” or “be dismayed” are strongly reminiscent of his first words to Joshua as he took up the role of leading Israel after Moses death (1:9). Even more striking is the main commissioning of Joshua by Moses in Deuteronomy 31:8, in which these very words are used; here they may seem to Joshua to be a divine restatement of that earlier experience. If the force of God’s blunt response to Joshua’s lament following the Ai failure dampened Joshua’s spirit, the encouragement given in just these terms would certainly act as a restorative. Further reassurance comes in the promise that Ai has been “given into your hand,” just as promised to Joshua in advance of the campaign against Jericho in Joshua 6:2. It is, however, noteworthy that whereas 6:2 framed this primarily in terms of the city but included the king and people, here that situation is reversed: it is the king of Ai who is the focus, and his defeat entails people, city, and land. The king of Ai does not otherwise appear as a character in his own right but plays a narrative role here (although cf. 8:14), with this initial divine commitment concerning his defeat fulfilled in the final verse of the account (v. 29).
God’s directions to Joshua concerning the action against Jericho were distinctly nonmilitary. Not so now, as a second battle against Ai looms. While the divine directions are brief in this narrative, they form a striking contrast to the counsel provided by the Israelite spies. The spies recommended to Joshua that only a small portion of the men be sent (7:3), but here God instructs Joshua to employ the whole fighting force in this action. In this case, at least, divine instruction is very different from conventional human “wisdom.”
Finally, there is the matter of how Ai is to be treated. Ai’s fate is both like and unlike Jericho’s. It is the former in that all the inhabitants are to be put to the sword. It is the latter in that Ai’s livestock and goods are now to be plundered and taken as spoil by Israel. Tellingly, the Hebrew word kherem is not used, in contrast to its emphatic application against Jericho. Perhaps this could be thought of as “kherem light.” There is a deep irony here, of course, regarding Achan’s failure to observe the kherem against Jericho. In his confession to Joshua, Achan termed Jericho’s goods “spoil” (shalal; 7:21), noted above as a category mistake (cf. comment on 7:20–21): it was not spoil but kherem. Now, however, Israel may plunder Ai and take “spoil” (Hb. shalal). What Achan wrongly took from the Lord he might now have legitimately obtained from Ai.
8:3, 9 The brief essentials of narrative action are recounted as a frame around the full set of instructions Joshua delivers to the whole army. With a muster of 30,000 men, Israel now massively outnumbers the people of Ai, as the conclusion to the battle provides the information that its total inhabitants number only 12,000 (cf. v. 25). One wonders again why it was that the spies who initially scouted Ai thought an army of “about two or three thousand men” (7:3) would be sufficient to conquer the city: it was either misplaced self-confidence or impaired judgment, or a combination of the two.
The encampment of the ambush is deployed “between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai” (8:9). The landscape plays a significant role in this account, and the narrator is clear in order to orient the reader to the lay of the land and the location of the two halves of Israel’s army. When the time comes, the Israelites fleeing before the men of Ai will head east; the ambush lies to the west. All of this takes place at night (vv. 3, 9), the darkness obscuring their movements from the people of Ai.
8:4–8 The instructions, now provided, sketch a military stratagem designed to fool the inhabitants of Ai into thinking their previous victory is being repeated. Joshua shows shrewd psychological judgment in verse 6, exactly matched by the response of the king of Ai (v. 14). What is the source of this plan? In verse 1 the Lord instructed Joshua simply to use the whole of Israel in this next engagement with Ai. But as Joshua concludes this briefing to the ambush contingent (vv. 7, 8), he acknowledges both that conquest is in the Lord’s gift—the very sign of dependence on God absent from the previous attempt—and that the actions they are to carry out conform to the “word of the Lord.” The implication is that Joshua has not concocted this plan alone but rather owes the strategy to God’s express guidance. Although this is unstated in verses 1–2, this kind of guidance is not without parallel in the OT. Another example of a strikingly explicit battle plan is one given to David as a word of the Lord, on an occasion still early still in his reign, that enables him to defeat the Philistines (2 Sam. 5:22–25).
8:10–26 While various repetitions in the narrative can challenge perception of what precisely takes place, how and when the army is deployed, and even Joshua’s own movements, the overall implementation of Joshua’s plan is clear enough. Most of the force is stationed toward the north of the city; this is perceived by the king of Ai (Josh. 8:14). A relatively small cohort (five thousand, as noted in v. 12) is stationed toward the west of Ai. The pairing with Bethel, noted in verses 9, 12, and 17, adds another, better-known locale by which to situate the ambush party. In the summary of kings defeated by Joshua, Bethel is explicitly paired again with Ai (12:9). Meanwhile, the Arabah (v. 14) from this vantage point describes the direction of flight back toward the Jordan and the region of the Dead Sea—that is, away from the post of the Israelite ambush.
In this extended narrative of the battle sequence three particular features invite comment.
(1) The amount of detail provided for this military engagement is itself striking. The military aspect of the planning phase has already been contrasted with the paucity of such information in the Jericho account of chapter 6; this contrast extends to the account of the battle itself. The stratagem adopted by the Israelites offers better material for narrative development than was the case with Jericho. This contributes to a shift in perception of what God is doing in, for, and through Israel. He is, in a sense, weaning them off direct divine intervention on which they were wholly dependent in the conquest of Jericho. God remains directly involved to a significant degree, as explored below. But he has taken a perceptible step back, which in consequence develops Israel’s skills and experience of battle. The process has only begun here, but the trajectory is set and will continue as Israel moves deeper into the Promised Land.
(2) The king of Ai plays a more prominent role in this episode than the king of Jericho did in the sprawling account of the conquest of that city (chs. 2; 6). At the same time as God is, in some sense, stepping back, the Canaanite kings are emerging more fully into view. There is some echo here of the situation in Egypt during Moses’ mission to speak to Pharaoh on God’s behalf. Superficially, it appears that the struggle is between Moses and the king of Egypt. It is not. The contest, such as it is, is between the true and heavenly king of the people of Israel and the oppressive pretender (e.g., Ex. 11:3). This remains the situation as Israel makes its way into the land. The Canaanite kings oppose the God of Israel (cf. Josh. 5:1), and in so doing they oppose his people as well. In the narrative of Ai this transition is signaled principally by the prominence the king takes as agent in the story. Again, contrast with Jericho makes the point: the king of Jericho is intransigent yet remains passive in chapters 2; 6, being mentioned in passing only once, in the battle story itself (6:2). The king of Ai, on the other hand, is mentioned five times (8:1, 2, 14, 23, 29) and plays a pivotal part in the downfall of his own city (v. 14). From this point on Israel will take a defensive posture in their battles of “conquest,” as the Canaanite kings take the initiative against her.
(3) The pursuit of the fleeing force of Israel proves irresistible to the men of Ai. The city empties, left open and now undefended (vv. 16–17). At this point the Lord intervenes once again to speak to Joshua, with the instruction to “stretch out the javelin [kidon] that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand” (v. 18). This appears to be the signal for the ambush to attack the city itself, for this is the response in verse 19, although readers have not been informed of this aspect of the arrangements.
Two aspects of this divine command to Joshua are noteworthy. First, although Israel is being called to a deeper military engagement than was the case against Jericho, God has not entirely stepped back; he is still delivering the victory. Here this takes quite a practical shape, as it is God’s word to Joshua that signals the moment has come for the ambush to raze the city of Ai. In the absence of drone technology, how else would Joshua know?
Second, there is the matter of Joshua’s “stretching out” the kidon for the duration of this phase of the battle. This action seems familiar, recalling two incidents in the exodus under Moses. Some have drawn the parallel to Moses’ stretching out his staff over the Red Sea as the people passed over and stretching out his hand as the water returned (Ex. 14:16, 21, 26–27). A closer parallel involves Joshua himself the first time he is encountered in Scripture. The first battle Israel faces subsequent to its departure from Egypt is against Amalek, recorded in Exodus 17:8–13, with Joshua himself leading the forces. In some mysterious way, the staff held aloft by Moses during this battle, as with the kidon held out here by Joshua, coincides with the action of God’s fighting on behalf of his people. In both cases, the victory is complete.
8:27–29 And so Ai is defeated. Three notices are provided as the battle concludes, each corresponding to an element of God’s commands in Joshua 8:1–2 concerning king, city, and plunder, here in reverse order: its plunder is available and taken as spoil by Israel (v. 27); the city of Ai itself is reduced to “ruins” (Hb. tel), the meaning of the city’s name (v. 28); and the king himself is executed and a cairn raised over his body (v. 29), as was the case with Achan (7:26), these two verses sharing the distinctive Hebrew phrase “great heap of stones,” used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible only of Absalom (2 Sam. 18:17). The pattern of execution, exposure, and burial follows the legislation of Deuteronomy 21:22–23 and anticipates the same treatment meted out to the five kings of the Jerusalem coalition (cf. comment on 10:22–27).