Joshua 8:23-29

23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

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^[a] 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^[b] and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day.

29 He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.

Joshua 8:23-29 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 8

Joshua is encouraged to go up and take Ai, and is directed what method to make use of, Jos 8:1,2; accordingly he set an ambush on the west side of it, and, he and the rest of the army went up before it, Jos 8:3-13; which, when the king of Ai saw, he and all his forces came cut against them, and the Israelites making a feint as if they were beaten, drew on the men of Ai to pursue them, upon which the ambush arose and entered the city and set fire to it, Jos 8:14-19; the smoke of which being observed by Joshua and Israel, they turned back upon the pursuers, and the ambush sallying out of the city behind them, made an entire destruction of them, then slew all the inhabitants, took the spoil, burnt the city, and hanged the king of it, Jos 8:20-29; after this Joshua built an altar at Ebal, wrote the law on stones, and read the blessings and curses in it before all Israel, Jos 8:30-35.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Samuel 15:8
• 2. Deuteronomy 20:16-18
• 3. ver 18
• 4. S Numbers 21:2
• 5. Exodus 17:12
• 6. S ver 2
• 7. S Numbers 31:10
• 8. Joshua 7:2; Jeremiah 49:3
• 9. S Deuteronomy 13:16; Joshua 10:1
• 10. S Genesis 35:20
• 11. S Deuteronomy 21:23; John 19:31
• 12. 2 Samuel 18:17

Footnotes

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