Joshua 8:3

3 surrexitque Iosue et omnis exercitus bellatorum cum eo ut ascenderent in Ahi et electa triginta milia virorum fortium misit nocte

Joshua 8:3 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 8:3

So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against
Ai
As the Lord had commanded him:

and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour;
out of all the men of war; these were a select company, picked men, not the whole army, as some have thought, for he was ordered to take all the people of war, as he did:

and sent them away by night;
from the main army, that they might pass the city and get behind it undiscovered, for they were sent for an ambush; and of these some were to take the city, and be left in it to burn it, and some to smite the men of Ai, as Abarbinel notes.

Joshua 8:3 In-Context

1 dixit autem Dominus ad Iosue ne timeas neque formides tolle tecum omnem multitudinem pugnatorum et consurgens ascende in oppidum Ahi ecce tradidi in manu tua regem eius et populum urbemque et terram

2 faciesque urbi Ahi et regi eius sicut fecisti Hiericho et regi illius praedam vero et omnia animantia diripietis vobis pone insidias urbi post eam

3 surrexitque Iosue et omnis exercitus bellatorum cum eo ut ascenderent in Ahi et electa triginta milia virorum fortium misit nocte

4 praecepitque eis dicens ponite insidias post civitatem nec longius recedatis et eritis omnes parati

5 ego autem et reliqua multitudo quae mecum est accedemus ex adverso contra urbem cumque exierint contra nos sicut ante fecimus fugiemus et terga vertemus