37 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Joshua 8 Joshua is encouraged to go up and take Ai, and is directed what method to make use of, Joshua 8:1; accordingly he set an ambush on the west side of it, and, he and the rest of the army went up before it, Joshua 8:3; which, when the king of Ai saw, he and all his forces came cut against them, and the Israelites making a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord said unto Joshua,.... Immediately after the execution of Achan, the fierceness of his anger being turned away: fear not, neither be thou dismayed; on account of the defeat of his troops he had sent to take Ai: take all the people of war with thee; all above twenty years of age, which, with the forty thousand of the tribes on the other...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
The embarrassment which Achan's sin gave to the affairs of Israel being over, we have them here in a very good posture again, the affairs both of war and religion. Here is, I. The glorious progress of their arms in the taking of Ai, before which they had lately suffered disgrace. 1. God encourages Joshua to attack it, with the assurance of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst to Jericho and her king,.... Burn the one and slay the other: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves; which they were not allowed to do at Jericho: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it; at the west side of it: some have called in question the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai,.... As the Lord had commanded him: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour; out of all the men of war; these were a select company, picked men, not the whole army, as some have thought, for he was ordered to take all the people of war, as he did: and sent them away...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he commanded them, saying,.... At the time he sent them away; behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, [even] behind the city; that is, on the west side of it, Joshua 8:9; go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready; to enter into it, as soon as the forces are drawn out eastward to meet the army of Israel.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I and all the people that [are] with me will approach unto the city,.... That is, Joshua with the main body of the army would march up to the city the next morning, in order to draw out the inhabitants of it to fight them: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first; as they had done before, when the three...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they will come out after us,.... Of which there could be no doubt, when they should see them run from them: till we have drawn them from the city; some distance from it, that they could not return soon enough to save it from the ambush, or prevent their entrance into it, and burning it: for they will say, they will flee before us, as at the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then ye shall rise up from the ambush,.... When they should see a signal made, that in Joshua 8:18; and when their watch, they might set in a proper place, should see Israel flee, and the men of Ai at a distance from their city, pursuing, and give notice of it to the ambush: and seize upon the city; enter into it, and take possession of it, its...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it shall be, when ye have taken the city,.... Entered it and become masters of it: [that] ye shall set the city on fire; not the whole city, only some outlying houses of it, to make a smoke which might be seen both by Israel and the men of Ai, for different purposes; for the spoil of the city was first to be taken before it was utterly burnt...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Joshua therefore sent them forth,.... The thirty thousand chosen men: and they went to lie in ambush; as they were ordered, Joshua 8:2: and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; for as Ai was on the east of Bethel, Joshua 7:2. Bethel must be on the west of Ai, as Jarchi notes: but Joshua lodged that night among the people; the main...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people,.... To see if there were any wanting, and to put them in proper order for their march: and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai; these elders were either the seventy elders who went with Joshua as council to him; or it may be rather they were inferior...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And all the people, [even the people] of war that [were] with him, and went up, and drew nigh,.... To the city of Ai: and came before the city; as if they intended to besiege it, storm it, or force an entrance into it: and pitched on the north side of Ai; which was judged fittest for the purpose: now [there was] a valley between them and Ai; which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush,.... This was another ambush, as both Jarchi and Kimchi observe; and the latter adds, perhaps he set them nearer the city than the former; though some are of opinion that these are the same ambush spoken of, whose number is here given, being set on the same side of the city; and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when they had set the people,.... In battle array, as in 1 Kings 20:12; that is, Joshua and the officers of the army: [even] all the host that [was] on the north of the city; where Joshua and the main army were: and the liers in wait on the west of the city: both the first and second ambush; when all, were prepared and got ready by their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw [it],.... Not the ambush on the west side, but the host or army on the north side, or, however, some of his people gave him notice of it: that they hasted and rose up early; or made haste to rise out of their beds, on the alarm given of Israel's near approach: and the men of the city went out against...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them,.... Or smitten, as some of them might be in the pursuit: and fled by the way of the wilderness; not a barren desert, but, according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, a place for the pasture of cattle; though perhaps it is the same with the wilderness of Bethaven, Joshua 18:12. Epiphanius...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And all the people that were in Ai [were] called together to pursue after them,.... Because the host of Israel was very numerous, it was judged proper that all the people in Ai should assist in pursuing them, not only to kill the more in the pursuit, but to carry off the spoil and prisoners they should take; or rather the sense is, that all the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that went not out after Israel,.... For as these two places were very near to each other, but a mile apart, they were in confederacy, and acted together, and could easily be called to the help of each other when required: though there is a difficulty how the men of Bethel could join those of Ai, when...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...