Joshua 8:6

6 They will come out after us until we draw them away from the city, because they will think, '[They are] fleeing from us {as before}.' So we will flee from them.

Joshua 8:6 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 8:6

For they will come out after us
Of which there could be no doubt, when they should see them run from them:

till we have drawn them from the city;
some distance from it, that they could not return soon enough to save it from the ambush, or prevent their entrance into it, and burning it:

for they will say, they will flee before us, as at the first;
they run away as they did before, and let us pursue them and smite them as we did then:

therefore we will flee before them;
to draw them out of the city, and make your way easy to get into it,

Joshua 8:6 In-Context

4 And he commanded them, saying, "Look, you are to lay an ambush against the city from behind. Do not go very far from the city and be ready.

5 Then I and all of the people who [are] with me will approach the city. And when they go out to meet us {as before}, we will flee from them.

6 They will come out after us until we draw them away from the city, because they will think, '[They are] fleeing from us {as before}.' So we will flee from them.

7 Then you will rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Yahweh your God will give it into your hand.

8 And when you capture the city you will set it on fire as Yahweh commanded. Look, I have commanded you."

Footnotes

• [a] Or "before our presence"
• [b] Literally "as that at the first [occasion]"
• [c] Or "before their presence"