7:10 The Lord responded 1 to Joshua, “Get up! Why are you lying there face down? 2
7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho 3 to Ai (which is located near Beth Aven, east of Bethel 4 ) and instructed them, “Go up and spy on the land.” So the men went up and spied on Ai.
8:3 Joshua and the whole army marched against Ai. 5 Joshua selected thirty thousand brave warriors and sent them out at night. 8:4 He told 6 them, “Look, set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city; all of you be ready!
8:14 The people say, 7
“Why are we just sitting here?
Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. 8
Let us at least die there fighting, 9
since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.
He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment 10
because we have sinned against him. 11
1 tn Heb “said.”
2 tn Heb “Why are you falling on your face?”
3 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
4 map For the location of Bethel see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
5 tn “And Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up [against] Ai.”
6 tn Or “commanded, ordered.”
7 tn The words “The people say” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift of speakers between vv. 4-13 and vv. 14-16. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Heb “Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities.”
9 tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.
10 tn The words “of judgment” are not in the text but are intended to show that “poison water” is not literal but figurative of judgment at the hands of God through the agency of the enemy mentioned in v. 16.
11 tn Heb “against the