Text -- Joshua 8:20-35 (NET)

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).

Covenant Renewal

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. 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. 8:34 Then Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the law scroll. 8:35 Joshua read aloud every commandment Moses had given before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and resident foreigners who lived among them.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jos 8:20

¹ tn Heb “and they saw, and look.” The Hebrew term הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) draws attention to the scene and invites the audience to view the events from the perspective of the men of Ai.

² tn Heb “and there was not in them hands to flee here or there.” The Hebrew term יָדַיִם (yadayim, “hands”) is idiomatic for “strength.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:21

¹ tn Heb “and that the smoke of the city ascended.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:22

¹ tn Heb “and these went out from the city to meet them and they were for Israel in the middle, some on this side, and others on the other side.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:24

¹ tn Heb “residents.”

² tn Heb “in the field, in the desert in which they chased them.”

³ tc Heb “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed.” The LXX omits the words, “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword.” They may represent a later scribal addition.

NET Notes: Jos 8:25

¹ tn Heb “fell.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:26

¹ tn Heb “Joshua did not draw back his hand which held out the curved sword until he had annihilated all the residents of Ai.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:27

¹ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:28

¹ tn Heb “and made it a permanent mound, a desolation, to this day.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:29

¹ tn Heb “on a tree until evening.” The words “leaving him exposed” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

² sn For the legal background of this action, see Deut 21:22-23.

³ tn Heb “to this day.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:31

¹ tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones on which no one had wielded iron.” The expression “whole stones” refers to stones in their natural condition, i.e., not carved or shaped artificially with tools (“wielded iron”).

² tn Or “peace offerings.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:32

¹ tn Heb “and he wrote there on the stones a duplicate of the law of Moses which he wrote before the sons of Israel.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:33

¹ tn Heb “All Israel.”

² tn Or “elders.”

³ tn Heb “like the resident alien, like the citizen.” The language is idiomatic, meaning that both groups were treated the same, at least in this instance.

⁴ tn Heb “as Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded to bless the people, Israel, formerly.”

sn Moses’ earlier instructions are found in Deut 11:29.

NET Notes: Jos 8:34

¹ tn Or “afterward.”

NET Notes: Jos 8:35

¹ tn Heb “There was not a word from all which Moses commanded that Joshua did not read aloud.”

² tn Heb “walked in their midst.”