Joshua 8:24

24 Therefore, when all the men were slain, that pursued Israel fleeing to desert, and had fallen by sword in the same place, the sons of Israel turned again, and destroyed the city of Ai. (And so, when all the men were killed, that Israel had pursued fleeing to the desert, and they had fallen by the sword in that place, then the Israelites turned back, and completely destroyed the city of Ai.)

Joshua 8:24 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 8:24

And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying
all the inhabitants of Ai
That came out against them:

in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them;
both in the arable lands that were sown with corn, and now clothed with it, the wheat especially, not being gathered in, as not yet ripe, and in the pasture ground, designed by the wilderness, see ( Joshua 8:15 ) ; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it:

and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword;
and were slain by it:

until they were consumed;
and not one left:

that all the Israelites returned unto Ai;
both the ambush that came out of it, and the army that came against it:

and smote it with the edge of the sword;
that is, the inhabitants that were left in it unfit for war, as old men, infirm persons, women and children, as follows.

Joshua 8:24 In-Context

22 And also those men that had taken and burnt the city, went out of the city against their enemies, and they began to smite the middle men of their enemies (And those men who had taken and set the city afire, now came out of the city against their enemies, and they began to strike down the enemies who were in their midst); and when their adversaries were slain behind and before, so that no man of so great [a] multitude was saved,

23 they took also the king of Ai living (they took the king of Ai alive), and they brought him to Joshua.

24 Therefore, when all the men were slain, that pursued Israel fleeing to desert, and had fallen by sword in the same place, the sons of Israel turned again, and destroyed the city of Ai. (And so, when all the men were killed, that Israel had pursued fleeing to the desert, and they had fallen by the sword in that place, then the Israelites turned back, and completely destroyed the city of Ai.)

25 Forsooth they that felled down in the same day, from man till to woman, were twelve thousand of men, all men of the city of Ai. (And they who fell that day, from the men unto the women, were twelve thousand people, yea, all the inhabitants of the city of Ai.)

26 For Joshua withdrew not his hand, which he had directed on high holding up his banner [that in height he put up holding the sword (that he had put on high holding up his sword)], till that all the dwellers of Ai were slain.