Joshua 8:23

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

Joshua 8:23 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 8:23

And the king of Ai they took alive
They spared him, and reserved him for a more shameful death:

and brought him to Joshua;
their general; delivering him into his hands as his prisoner, to do will, him as seemed good in his sight.

Joshua 8:23 In-Context

21 Then Joshua and all Israel, seeing that those of the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned and slew the men of Ai.
22 And the others issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side; and they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23 And they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 And when Israel had finished slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were consumed, all the Israelites returned unto Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword.
25 And so it was that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010