Joshua 8:15

15 Yehoshua and all Yisra'el made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

Joshua 8:15 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 8:15

And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before
them
Or smitten, as some of them might be in the pursuit:

and fled by the way of the wilderness;
not a barren desert, but, according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, a place for the pasture of cattle; though perhaps it is the same with the wilderness of Bethaven, ( Joshua 18:12 ) . Epiphanius ^F23 makes mention of the wilderness of Bethel and Ephraim as near Jericho.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Contr. Haeres. l. 1. tom. 2.

Joshua 8:15 In-Context

13 So they set the people, even all the host who was on the north of the city, and their liers-in-wait who were on the west of the city; and Yehoshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

14 It happened, when the king of `Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Yisra'el to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the `Aravah; but he didn't know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

15 Yehoshua and all Yisra'el made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

16 All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Yehoshua, and were drawn away from the city.

17 There was not a man left in `Ai or Beit-El, who didn't go out after Yisra'el: and they left the city open, and pursued after Yisra'el.