Albert Barnes Commentary Joshua 8
Albert Barnes Commentary
Joshua 8
Albert Barnes Commentary
Joshua 8
"And Jehovah said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land;" — Joshua 8:1 (ASV)
God rouses Joshua from his dejection (Joshua 7:6) and bids him march against Ai with the main body. Although Ai was only a small city (compare Joshua 8:25 and Joshua 7:3), the discouragement of the people made it inadvisable to send a mere detachment against it a second time. Moreover, as appears from Joshua 8:17, the people of Ai had help from Bethel and possibly from other places as well.
It was also fitting that all the people should witness with their own eyes the happy consequences of having faithfully put away the sin which had separated them from God.
"So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night." — Joshua 8:3 (ASV)
Thirty thousand men - Comparing Joshua 8:3 and Joshua 8:12 (five thousand men), there is probably a mistake in the numbers of this verse, where an early copyist may have written the sign for 30,000 instead of that for 5,000.
Sent them away by night - The selected 5,000 would accordingly post themselves in the main ravine between Ai and Bethel in the night and early morning. The neighborhood in which Ai was situated is described as “a wild entanglement of hill and valley;” and amidst its recesses the detachment could easily shelter itself from observation until Joshua’s other measures were taken.
"And Joshua arose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai." — Joshua 8:10 (ASV)
Numbered the people - Rather, perhaps, "mustered" or "arrayed" them for their march. The distance from the camp at Gilgal to Ai is about fifteen miles. In the evening of the day after the dispatch of the 5,000 who lay in wait, Joshua and the host might make their appearance in the neighborhood of the city.
"And he took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the city." — Joshua 8:12 (ASV)
He took - Rather “had taken;” the words refer to the ambush which Joshua had detached during the previous night.
"So they set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers-in-wait that were on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley." — Joshua 8:13 (ASV)
Joshua went down by night into the valley where he would be seen at daylight by the men of Ai, and was accompanied no doubt by a picked body of troops. The king of Ai, in the morning, would see neither the ambush in his rear, nor the whole of the great host of Israel among the hills away to the north on his left; but supposing, as it appears, that the Israelites before him were a body detached as on the former occasion to assail his city, he sallied out promptly to attack them.
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