Joshua 8:3

3 So Yehoshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to `Ai: and Yehoshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.

Joshua 8:3 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 8:3

So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against
Ai
As the Lord had commanded him:

and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour;
out of all the men of war; these were a select company, picked men, not the whole army, as some have thought, for he was ordered to take all the people of war, as he did:

and sent them away by night;
from the main army, that they might pass the city and get behind it undiscovered, for they were sent for an ambush; and of these some were to take the city, and be left in it to burn it, and some to smite the men of Ai, as Abarbinel notes.

Joshua 8:3 In-Context

1 The LORD said to Yehoshua, Don't be afraid, neither be dismayed: take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to `Ai; behold, I have given into your hand the king of `Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land;

2 You shall do to `Ai and her king as you did to Yericho and her king: only the spoil of it, and the cattle of it, shall you take for a prey to yourselves: set you an ambush for the city behind it.

3 So Yehoshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to `Ai: and Yehoshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.

4 He commanded them, saying, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city; don't go very far from the city, but be all ready:

5 and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them;