Israel Conquers Ai, 1-29
8:1 The LORD told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! See, I am handing over to you the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land. 8:2 Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city!”
The attack is renewed, but this time with scrupulous adherence to the rules of holy war. And victory is certain this time as defeat had been before.
“Do not be afraid” – ‘This call to faith is based on the promises of God despite visible circumstances. It is a common expression of God’s favor (Gen. 15:1). It confirms that the Lord’s anger has ceased towards Israel.’ (New Geneva)
‘Each battle in the conquest was unique. Holy war standards normally entailed a reduced force so that Israel’s faith would be in the Lord, not in military might (see Dt. 17:16; Jdg. 7:1-8). In this case, however, Israel sent the whole army. In the first and unsuccessful attack the reduced numbers actually represented Israel’s false confidence (see 7:3). Now the whole army expressed faith by going up again against the formidable foe. In this battle the Lord’s herem included only the city and the people, not the livestock and precious metals (cf. 6:17; 7:15). The battle plan called for a normal military strategy, a cunning ambush, not a priestly procession like the one that amazingly toppled Jericho’s walls. At the exodus, the Lord of Hosts amazingly used the Red Sea and the east wind, not Israel’s armed men, to destroy the mighty Egyptian army (Ex. 14:10-31), but in the next battle against the Amalekites he entrusted the sword to Joshua (Ex. 17:8-16; cf. 1:1). Likewise in the history of the church, at the time of the apostles there were amazing acts, and afterwards, the not-so-amazing (cf. Heb. 2:3-4). In both ways Christ builds his church (Mt. 16:19).’ (NBC)
8:3 Joshua and the whole army marched against Ai. Joshua selected thirty thousand brave warriors and sent them out at night. 8:4 He told them, “Look, set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city; all of you be ready! 8:5 I and all the troops who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them. 8:6 They will attack us until we have lured them from the city, for they will say, ‘They are retreating from us like before.’ We will retreat from them. 8:7 Then you rise up from your hiding place and seize the city. The LORD your God will hand it over to you. 8:8 When you capture the city, set it on fire. Do as the LORD says! See, I have given you orders.” 8:9 Joshua sent them away and they went to their hiding place west of Ai, between Bethel and Ai. Joshua spent that night with the army.
8:10 Bright and early the next morning Joshua gathered the army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched at the head of it to Ai. 8:11 All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city. They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley. 8:12 He took five thousand men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel and Ai. 8:13 The army was in position—the main army north of the city and the rear guard west of the city. That night Joshua went into the middle of the valley.
8:14 When the king of Ai saw Israel, he and his whole army quickly got up the next day and went out to fight Israel at the meeting place near the Arabah. But he did not realize men were hiding behind the city.
‘To the king of Ai, Joshua’s manoeuvre looked like a replay. Early the next morning he quickly and rashly marched forth to the assigned place for battle, hoping for a re-run of the previous rout. Joshua feigned a retreat, using the past one to good advantage, and lured the king to throw away all caution. To annihilate the fleeing decoy, the king summoned all his troops out of the city, even out of the temple (called here Bethel; cf. Jdg. 20:18, NIV mg.), a city’s last point of defence on its acropolis. Here Bethel (lit. ‘house of God’) is not a place-name but a description of Ai’s temple (so R.G. Boling and G. E. Wright, Anchor Bible, Joshua, p. 240).’ (NBC)
8:15 Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them and they retreated along the way to the desert. 8:16 All the reinforcements in Ai were ordered to chase them; they chased Joshua and were lured away from the city. 8:17 No men were left in Ai or Bethel; they all went out after Israel. They left the city wide open and chased Israel.
8:18 The LORD told Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the curved sword in your hand, for I am handing the city over to you.” So Joshua held out toward Ai the curved sword in his hand. 8:19 When he held out his hand, the men waiting in ambush rose up quickly from their place and attacked. They entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire. 8:20 When the men of Ai turned around, they saw the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction. In the meantime the men who were retreating to the desert turned against their pursuers. 8:21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the city was going up in smoke, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai. 8:22 At the same time the men who had taken the city came out to fight, and the men of Ai were trapped in the middle. The Israelites struck them down, leaving no survivors or refugees. 8:23 But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
8:24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had chased them toward the desert (they all fell by the sword), all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it. 8:25 Twelve thousand men and women died that day, including all the men of Ai. 8:26 Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai. 8:27 But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in accordance with the LORD’s orders to Joshua. 8:28 Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day). 8:29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening. At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree. They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day).
‘The burnt city, a permanent heap of ruins, and the king’s tomb, a cairn at its gate, served as memorials (cf. 4:5-7) and proved the events really happened.’ (NBC)
‘The king of Ai was hung on a tree, perhaps impaled on a pole, to show that he was under God’s curse. According to the law he had to be taken down before nightfall (Dt. 21:23). By contrast, in the NT the King of Israel ‘redeemed us… by becoming a curse for us’ on a tree (Gal. 3:13). He too was taken down at sunset (Jn. 19:31).’ (NBC)
Covenant Renewal, 30-35
8:30 Then Joshua built an altar for the LORD God of Israel on Mount Ebal, 8:31 just as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded the Israelites. As described in the law scroll of Moses, it was made with uncut stones untouched by an iron tool. They offered burnt sacrifices on it and sacrificed tokens of peace.
Joshua built an altar…on Mount Ebal – Thus fulfilling the command of Deut 27:1-8.
According to this article, excavations beginning in 1978 have uncovered a large mound of stones on the northern slopes of Mount Ebal. Archaeologist Adam Zertal found that in a lower, earlier phase:
‘the site consisted of a structure of some kind with a six-foot-wide depression full of ash and charred animal bones near its center. A chalice was found nearby. The four-room house was paved over in this period to make a courtyard in front of the main complex.
Zertal thought that that main structure of a second, later, phase was an altar upon which sacrifices took place.
It seems that this site may lie behind the account found here in Josh 8:30-35.
‘At the heart of his battle stories, the narrator pauses to recount that Israel renewed the covenant at Shechem as Moses had instructed (Dt. 11:29). The claim and rule of Israel’s Lord were published abroad. The altar symbolized God’s claim to the land (cf. Gn. 12:8), and the law defined the character of his rule. As unpruned vines (Lv. 25:5, 11) and uncut hair (Nu. 6:5) were symbols in Israel that these objects were holy or dedicated to the Lord, so an altar of unhewn field-stones showed it belonged to the Creator. Mt Ebal is north of Shechem (modern Nablus), the site of ill-omen, and Mt Gerizim, the lower of the two, (33) is south of it. One should assume that Israel had free access to this area either because they had an existing treaty with the Shechemites (see ch. 24; cf. Gn. 34; Jdg. 9) or because the Canaanites, cowering in their strongholds, were afraid to confront them in this sparsely populated area. Mt Ebal, the mountain of curses, was selected as the appropriate site for the altar because there God removed the sinner’s curse.’ (NBC)
‘The burnt offerings symbolized Israel’s total consecration to God and served to ransom them. The fellowship offerings, which were eaten, celebrated their relationship with God. The same sacrifices were used in the ceremony at Mt Sinai when Israel initially ratified the covenant (Ex. 24:5). They prefigure Christ’s blood for the new covenant (Lk. 22:20). An altar has been found on Mt Ebal and according to its excavator, A. Zetal, all the scientific evidence fits very well with the biblical description.’ (NBC)
Walton (IVPBBCOT) elaborates:
‘Some archaeologists believe that the remains of the altar on Mount Ebal have been found. It is a structure on one of the peaks of the mountain about twenty-five by thirty-five feet, with walls about five feet thick and nine feet high made of fieldstones. The fill is dirt and ashes, and a ramp leads up to the top. The structure is surrounded by a courtyard, and animal bones were found at the site. Pottery on the site goes back to 1200 B.C.’
See this.
8:32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a duplicate of the law written by Moses. 8:33 All the people, rulers, leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there. Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the LORD’s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony.
‘Since Joshua was following the law of Moses, the reader should assume that the great stones were covered with plaster and the law inscribed upon them (32; cf. Dt. 27:1-8). The extent of the law written in the sight of the solemnly assembled Israelites is not stated. The reader should also assume that in the natural amphitheatre with splendid acoustic properties six tribes on Mt Gerizim shouted the blessings on obedience and six on Mt Ebal the curses on disobedience (33; cf. Dt. 27). The tribes, composed of native and naturalized citizens, stood facing the priests who bore the ark, the divine King’s throne (see 6:6-7). Afterwards, in the hearing of all the citizens of God’s kingdom, Joshua read the law, expressed through the blessings and curses, the essence of Israel’s treaty with God (34-35; cf. Dt. 11:26; 30:1).’ (NBC)