GOD
said to Joshua, “Do not be frightened or dismayed. Take all the combat troops with you, go and march against Ai. See, I will deliver the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land into your hands.
You shall treat Ai and its king as you treated Jericho and its king; however, you may take the spoil and the cattle as booty for yourselves. Now set an ambush against the city behind it.”
They will come rushing after us until we have drawn them away from the city. They will think, ‘They are fleeing from us the same as last time’; but while we are fleeing before them,
Word-by-Word Analysis
ויצאו
113
אחרינו
275
עד
74
התיקנו
571
אותם
447
מןהעיר
375
כי
30
יאמרו
257
נסים
160
לפנינו
226
כאשר
521
בראשנה
558
ונסנו
172
לפניהם
215
Joshua 8:7
Gematria: 3609
ואתםתקמומהאורבוהורשתםאתהעירונתנהיהוהאלהיכםבידכם
you will dash out from your ambush and seize the city, and the ETERNAL your God will deliver it into your hands.
Joshua then sent them off, and they proceeded to the ambush; they took up a position between Ai and Bethel—west of Ai—while Joshua spent the night with the rest of the troops.
Thus the main body of the army was disposed on the north of the city, but the far end of it was on the west. (This was after Joshua had spent the nightaspent the night So with some mss. (cf. v. 9); most mss. and editions read “marched.” in the valley.bin the valley Syriac reads “with the troops”; cf. v. 9.)—
When the king of Ai saw them, he and all his troops, the townsmen, rushed out in the early morning to the meeting place,cmeeting place Emendation yields “descent”; cf. 7.5. facing the Arabah, to engage the Israelites in battle; for he was unaware that a force was lying in ambush behind the city.
Word-by-Word Analysis
ויהי
31
כראות
627
מלךהעי
175
וימהרו
267
וישכימו
392
ויצאו
113
אנשיהעיר
646
לקראתישראל
1272
למלחמה
153
הוא
12
וכלעמו
172
למועד
150
לפני
170
הערבה
282
והוא
18
לא
31
ידע
84
כיארב
233
לו
36
מאחרי
259
העיר
285
Joshua 8:15
Gematria: 1955
וינגעויהושעוכלישראללפניהםוינסודרךהמדבר
Joshua and all Israel fled in the direction of the wilderness, as though routed by them.
Not a mandNot a man I.e., none of the town’s defenders. was left in Ai or in Bethel who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open while they pursued Israel.
GOD
then said to Joshua, “Hold out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will deliver it into your hands.” So Joshua held out the javelin in his hand toward the city.
As soon as he held out his hand, the ambush came rushing out of their station. They entered the city and captured it; and they swiftly set fire to the city.
The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising to the sky; they had no room for flight in any direction.The people who had been fleeing to the wilderness now became the pursuers.
For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that smoke was rising from the city, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai.
Now the other [Israelites] were coming out of the city against them, so that they were between two bodies of Israelites, one on each side of them. They were slaughtered, so that no one escaped or got away.
Word-by-Word Analysis
ואלה
42
יצאו
107
מןהעיר
375
לקראתם
771
ויהיו
37
לישראל
571
בתוך
428
אלה
36
מזה
52
ואלה
42
מזה
52
ויכו
42
אותם
447
עדבלתי
516
השאירלו
552
שריד
514
ופליט
135
Joshua 8:23
Gematria: 2539
ואתמלךהעיתפשוחיויקרבואתואליהושע
The king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.
When Israel had killed all the inhabitants of Ai who had pursued them into the open wilderness, and all of them, to the last man, had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites turned back to Ai and put it to the sword.
Word-by-Word Analysis
ויהי
31
ככלות
476
ישראל
541
להרג
238
אתכלישבי
773
העי
85
בשדה
311
במדבר
248
אשר
501
רדפום
330
בו
8
ויפלו
132
כלם
90
לפיחרב
330
עדתמם
554
וישבו
324
כלישראל
591
העי
85
ויכו
42
אתה
406
לפיחרב
330
Joshua 8:25
Gematria: 2685
ויהיכלהנפליםביוםההואמאישועדאשהשניםעשראלףכלאנשיהעי
The total of those who fell that day, men and women, the entire population of Ai, came to twelve thousand.
Word-by-Word Analysis
ויהי
31
כלהנפלים
265
ביום
58
ההוא
17
מאיש
351
ועדאשה
386
שנים
400
עשר
570
אלף
111
כל
50
אנשי
361
העי
85
Joshua 8:26
Gematria: 3118
ויהושעלאהשיבידואשרנטהבכידוןעדאשרהחריםאתכלישביהעי
Joshua did not draw back the hand with which he held out his javelin until all the inhabitants of Ai had been exterminated.
And the king of Ai was impaled on a stake until the evening. At sunset, Joshua had the corpse taken down from the stake and it was left lying at the entrance to the city gate. They raised a great heap of stones over it, which is there to this day.
Word-by-Word Analysis
ואתמלך
497
העי
85
תלה
435
עלהעץ
265
עדעת
544
הערב
277
וכבוא
35
השמש
645
צוה
101
יהושע
391
וירידו
236
אתנבלתו
889
מןהעץ
255
וישליכו
382
אותה
412
אלפתח
519
שער
570
העיר
285
ויקימו
172
עליו
116
גלאבנים
136
גדול
43
עד
74
היום
61
הזהפ
97
Joshua 8:30
Gematria: 1485
אזיבנהיהושעמזבחליהוהאלהיישראלבהרעיבל
At that time Joshua built an altar to the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
as Moses, the servant of GOD, had commanded the Israelites—as is written in the Book of the Teaching of Moseseas is written in the Book of the Teaching of Moses See Deut. 27.3–8.—an altar of unhewn stone upon which no iron had been wielded. They offered on it burnt offerings to GOD, and brought sacrifices of well-being.
Word-by-Word Analysis
כאשר
521
צוה
101
משה
345
עבדיהוה
102
אתבני
463
ישראל
541
ככתוב
448
בספר
342
תורת
1006
משה
345
מזבח
57
אבנים
103
שלמות
776
אשר
501
לאהניף
176
עליהן
165
ברזל
239
ויעלו
122
עליו
116
עלות
506
ליהוה
56
ויזבחו
39
שלמים
420
Joshua 8:32
Gematria: 4829
ויכתבשםעלהאבניםאתמשנהתורתמשהאשרכתבלפניבניישראל
And there, on the stones, he inscribed a copy of the Teaching that Moses had written for the Israelites.
All Israel—stranger and citizen alike—with their elders, officials, and magistrates, stood on either side of the Ark, facing the levitical priests who carried the Ark of GOD’s Covenant. Half of them faced Mount Gerizim and half of them faced Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of GOD had commanded them of old, in order to bless the people of Israel.
After that, he read all the words of the Teaching, the blessing and the curse, just as is written in the Book of the Teaching.fjust as is written in the Book of the Teaching See Deut. 27.11–28.68.
There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, including the women and children and the strangers who accompanied them.