Joshua 8:23

23 But they took alive the king of Ai 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 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and slew the men of Ai.
22 The others came out from the city to encounter them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side; and they slew them until no one was left of those who survived or escaped.
23 But they took alive the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua.
24 Now when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
25 All who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000 -all the people of Ai.
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