Joshua 8:26

26 Joshua did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction ^[a] all who lived in Ai.

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 who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and put it to the sword as well.

25 A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.

26 Joshua did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction all who lived in Ai.

27 Israel took for themselves only the cattle and plunder of that city, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.

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

Footnotes

• [a] Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to the LORD, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.