Charles Ellicott Commentary Joshua 7:2

"And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and spy out the land. And the men went up and spied out Ai." — Joshua 7:2 (ASV)

Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai. —Why Ai should be the next town selected for attack after Jericho is a question which perhaps we cannot answer with certainty.

But we may observe that the next step after the capture of Ai, before the further conquest of the country, was to set up the Ten Commandments in Mount Ebal, in the heart of the country, and to pronounce there the blessing and the curse which are the sanction of the law of God.

It may well be that the course of the first military operations was directed to this end. The capture of Ai would put the Israelites in possession of the main road running north and south through Palestine and enable them to reach the center immediately.

Thus, the character of the war, which was no mere human enterprise, is maintained; and it is probable that the Divine reason for the movement is that which we are intended to observe.

For the first mention of Ai, see Genesis 12:8. It is noticeable that Abram first pitched his tent there after his return to Canaan out of Egypt. (See also on Joshua 8:1.)

Note also that Beth-aven and Bethel are distinct, although adjacent, places. The one is not a later name of the other, as has sometimes been supposed, although one is “the house of vanity” (i.e., perhaps of idols) and the other “the house of God.”