Joshua 8:18
Ver. 18. And the Lord said unto Joshua, stretch out the spear that [is] in thy hand towards Ai,.... On which was a flag, as Abarbinel and Ben Melech think; and which is not improbable, and served for a signal for the ambush to come out and seize the city, as both they and Jarchi observe, as well as a signal also to the army of Israel to prepare to turn and face about, and engage with the enemy; though they did not actually do this until they saw the smoke of the city, Jos 8:21;
for I will give it into thine hand; of which the stretching out of his spear seems also to be a confirming sign to him, and which he kept stretched out until all the inhabitants of Ai were destroyed, Jos 8:26;
and Joshua stretched out the spear that [he had] in his hand toward the city: and therefore must turn himself towards it; and it is highly probable that at the same time there was a full stop of the army, and that they immediately turned or prepared to turn about. Joshua 8:19Ver. 19. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place,.... As soon as the sentinels set in proper places observed the signal, and gave them notice of it, which was the stretching out of the spear, as appears by what follows:and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand; and the spear in his hand; from whence it is plain, that though the Lord is said to bid Joshua do this now, he had orders from him for it before and the ambush must have been made acquainted with it before they were sent away; and this was only a renewal of the order from the Lord, and which pointed out the proper time, the very crisis, when it should be stretched out:and they entered into the city; without any difficulty, the gates being open:and took it; took possession of it, and the strong holds in it:and hasted and set the city on fire; that is, they made haste to set some houses on fire as the signal to the army of Israel to return. Joshua 8:20Ver. 20. And when the men of Ai looked behind them,.... On some account or another, perhaps observing that the army of Israel made a full stop and was gazing at the city:they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven; from whence they concluded an enemy was there, and had set fire to it:and they had no power to flee this way or that way; for if they turned back to their city there was an enemy, how powerful they knew not, possessed of it, and whom they might expect would meet them; and if they pushed forward, there was the whole army of Israel against them, which now turned and faced them, showing no fear of them:and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers; the people of Israel, that fled by the way of the wilderness, Jos 8:15, turned about, and fell upon the men of Ai that pursued them. Joshua 8:21Ver. 21. And when Joshua,.... Or "for Joshua" {z}:and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city; which they knew by the smoke, as follows:and that the smoke of the city ascended; in large columns, which sufficiently indicated that the whole city was taken and fired by the ambush:then, or, "and",they turned again and slew the men of Ai; great numbers of them.{z} evwhyw "et enim Josua", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Masius. Joshua 8:22Ver. 22. And the other issued out of the city against them,.... That is, the ambush, or at least a part of them:so that they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side; or, as we commonly say, they were between two fires, the ambush on one side, the army of Israel on the other:and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape; not one was saved alive, excepting their king, as in Jos 8:23; no quarter was given them, nor any suffered to make their escape. Joshua 8:23Ver. 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 8:24Ver. 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 Jos 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 8:25Ver. 25. And [so] it was, [that] all that fell that day,.... Partly in the city, and partly in the field, both by the ambush and the army: both of men and women;[were] twelve thousand, [even] all the men of Ai; so that the city was not a very large one, and the numbers of inhabitants were comparatively but few, as in Jos 7:3. Joshua 8:26Ver. 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, Ex 17:12. Joshua 8:27Ver. 27. Only the cattle, and the spoil of the city, Israel took for a prey unto themselves,.... Even all their substance, as besides their cattle, also their gold, silver, household goods, merchandise, &c.according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua, Jos 8:2. Joshua 8:28Ver. 28. And Joshua burnt Ai,.... The whole city, fire being only set before to a few houses, to make a smoke as a signal; he did with it as he had done with Jericho, for so he was ordered, Jos 8:2;and made it an heap for ever; that is, for a long time, for it appears to have been rebuilt, and to have been inhabited by the Jews, after their return from their Babylonish captivity, Ne 11:31;[even] a desolation unto this day; to the time of the writing of this book; and by what has been just observed, it appears that Ezra could not be the writer of it, since this city was inhabited in his time. Joshua 8:29Ver. 29. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide,.... By way of terror to other kings in the land of Canaan, that should refuse to submit unto him:and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree; according to the law in De 21:23; and that the land might not be defiled:and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city; this was done, according to Ben Gersom and Abarbinel, that it might be publicly known to the rest of the kings of the nations, that they might be afraid to fight with Israel:and raise thereon a great heap of stones, [that remaineth] unto this day; as a sepulchral monument, showing that there was a person lay interred there; whether there was any inscription on the stone, showing who he was, does not appear; it looks as if it was only a rude heap of stones; and such kind of sepulchral monuments were common in former times in other countries. Joshua 8:30Ver. 30. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. As was commanded, De 27:5. The Samaritan Chronicle says, it was built in Mount Gerizim; but there is a difficulty arises, when this was done by Joshua; it should seem by inserting the account here, that it was done immediately after the destruction of Ai; and Mercator endeavours to prove that Ebal was near to Ai, but what he has said does not give satisfaction; for certain it is, that Ebal and Gerizim were near Shechem in Samaria, at a great distance from Ai, see Jud 9:6. The Jews {a} generally are of opinion, that this was done as soon as Israel, even the very day, they passed over Jordan, which they think the letter of the command required, De 11:29; though it does not, only that it should be done after they were passed over it; Ebal being at too great a distance from Jordan for them to accomplish it on that day, being, as they themselves say {b}, sixty miles from Jordan; so that they are obliged to make Israel travel that day an hundred twenty miles, and as they assert they did {c} and which they must do, if what they say was true, it being sixty miles to Ebal, and sixty more to return again to Gilgal that night, where they encamped, but this is incredible: and as this account of Joshua's building the altar is too soon after he had passed Jordan, what R. Ishmael {d} has pitched upon is too late, who says this was not done till after fourteen years, when the land was conquered, which was seven years doing, and when it was divided, which were seven years more; what Josephus says {e} is more probable than either, which is, that Joshua, five years after he had entered Canaan, when he had placed the tabernacle at Shiloh, went from thence and built an altar at Ebal; as for what R. Eliezer suggests {f}, that Ebal and Gerizim here mentioned are not the Ebal and Gerizim of the Samaritans, only two hills were made, and they were called by these names, cannot merit any belief or regard.{a} Misn. Sotah, c. 7. sect. 5. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p. 30. Jarchi in loc. {b} T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 36. 1. {c} T. Hieros. Sotah, fol. 21. 3. {d} Apud ib. {e} Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 14. {f} In T. Hieros. Sotah, ut supra. ({c}) Joshua 8:31Ver. 31. As Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses,.... De 27:5;an altar of whole stones, on which no man hath lift up [any] iron;See Gill on "Ex 20:25",See Gill on "De 27:5", and,See Gill on "De 27:6":and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings; by way of thanksgiving for the good land they were introduced into, and this was what they were ordered to do by Moses, De 27:6. Joshua 8:32Ver. 32. And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses,.... Not upon the stones of which the altar was made, though some have so thought; but upon other stones erected in the form of a pillar, and plastered over, De 27:4; which copy of the law was not the whole book of Deuteronomy, as some, at least only an abstract of the laws in it; but rather the decalogue, as Abarbinel; or the blessings and curses later read, as Ben Gersom:which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel: they being witness of it, that he did what was enjoined. Joshua 8:33Ver. 33. And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark, and on that side,.... Some on Ebal, and some on Gerizim:before the priests and the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord; it being brought out of the tabernacle on this occasion, and bottle by the priests and Levites:as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; that is, as well the proselytes as the native Israelites, both appeared and were in the same situation:half of them over against Mount Gerizim; that is, half of the tribes, and these were Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin:and half of them over against Mount Ebal; which were the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali; See Gill on "De 27:12" and See Gill on "De 27:13";as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel, as in De 27:12. Joshua 8:34Ver. 34. And afterwards he read all the words of the law,.... Not the whole Pentateuch, nor the whole book of Deuteronomy, but either some parts of it, the decalogue, or whatsoever he had written on the stones, and as follows:the blessings and cursings, according to all that was written in the book of the law; De 27:14;See Gill on "De 27:11". Joshua 8:35Ver. 35. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not,.... So punctually, precisely, and exactly did he observe the instructions and commands that were given him by Moses; and this he did in the most public manner:before all the congregation of Israel; who were on this occasion called together, and not before the men only, butwith the women, and little ones: who all had a concern in the things that were read to them: yea, evenand the strangers that were conversant among them; not the proselytes of righteousness only, but the proselytes of the gate, that dwelt, walked, and conversed with them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.