Joshua 8:26

26 For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed^[a] all who lived in Ai.

Joshua 8:26 in Other Translations

26 For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants 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.

26 For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.

26 Joshua didn't lower his outstretched javelin until the sacred destruction of Ai and all its people was completed.

26 Joshua did not draw back his hand that was holding the sword until all the inhabitants of Ai were completely destroyed.

Joshua 8:26 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 8:26

For Joshua drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out
his spear
But continued it, and that stretched out:

until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai;
just as the hand of Moses was held up, and kept held up until Amalek was discomfited by Joshua, ( Exodus 17:12 Exodus 17:13 ) .

Joshua 8:26 In-Context

24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it.

25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.

26 For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai.

27 But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the LORD had instructed Joshua.

28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day.

Cross References

• 1. ver 18
• 2. S Numbers 21:2
• 3. Exodus 17:12

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.