Joshua 8:26

26 For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.

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 the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside.

25 So the entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that day—12,000 in all.

26 For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.

27 Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these as plunder for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.

28 So Joshua burned the town of Ai, and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.

Footnotes

• [a] The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.