Ai

AI, a City situated near Bethel, to the westward of it. The Septuagint call it Josh. vii. 2. Gen. xii. 8.Agai, and Josephus Aina; others Aiath. Joshua having sent a detachment of three thousand Men against Ai, God permitted them to be repulsed, for the sake of Achan’s Josh. vii. 1, 4, &c. In the Year of the World 2553, before J. C. 1447. before the vulgar Æra 1451. Josh. viii. 1.sin, who had violated the Anathema pronounced against the City of Jericho, by taking to himself something of the spoil: But after the expiation of this offence, the Lord commanded Joshua to march with the whole Army of the Israelites against Ai, and treat this City and the King thereof as he had treated Jericho, with this difference, that he gave the plunder of the Town to the People. According to God’s order, Joshua sent by night thirty thousand Men to lie in ambush behind Ai, having first well instructed those who had the command of them in what they were to do, and the next day, early in the morning, he marched against the City with all the remainder of his army. The King of Ai perceiving them, sallied hastily out of the Town with all his troops and all his People, and fell upon the Forces of the Israelites, who, upon the first onset, fled as if they had been under some great terror; but this was only a feint to draw the Enemy into the open plain.

As soon as Joshua saw them all out of the gates, he rais’d his shield upon the top of a pike, which was the signal given to the Ambuscade; whereupon they immediately enter’d the place which they found without defence, and set fire to it. The People of Ai perceiving the smoke ascending, were willing to return, but discover’d those who had set fire to the City in their rear, while Joshua and they who were with him turning about, fell upon them, and cut them in pieces, without suffering so much as one single Person to escape him. The King was taken alive, and brought to Joshua. The Israelites enter’d the place, carried fire and sword every where with them, and killed in this day’s action twelve thousand of their Enemies, Men, Women, and Children. The King of Ai was put to death, and hung upon a gibbet, where he continued till Sun-set; after which he was taken down, thrown in the entrance of the City, and a great heap of Stones raised over him. The Israelites divided afterwards among themselves the whole spoil of the place, as the Lord had permitted them.

☞ Joshua’s enterprize on Ai, excepting in some particulars of military art, is very like Observations on Joshua’s feigned retreat, and the surprizing Ai. Josh. viii.that of Gibeah, which is scarce any thing more than the copy of it. We see many instances of this sort in ancient and modern History: Polybius¹ relates one much resembling it; but the original may be said to be in Joshua, for we cannot have recourse to any Historians of more antiquity, to see if no Stratagem like it is to be met with in them. The sacred Writers are not the most ancient; there were Historians without doubt before Moses, and perhaps all the arts of War had been exhausted before this Legislator of the Jewish People: I am persuaded they were, and I believe War to be almost as ancient as the World, that is to say, from the time of its beginning to be inhabited, and Ambition’s engaging Men in disputes about Meum and Tuum. If any one asks when these passions had their first rise, I answer ever since Abel’s being killed by² his elder Brother Cain, because he was accepted by God; this is the first original and Epoch of them. But let us return to the suprize of Ai.

It seems by the Scripture account as if Joshua was not the author of the Stratagem made use of by him; but we very well know that the Lord is the God of Hosts, and every thing ought to be referr’d to him. When he directs himself to Joshua, and says, Go up against Ai, lay in ambuscade behind the Town; I have deliver’d the King and People of it into thine hands. He might notwithstanding this leave the whole glory of the Invention and Execution to him as to a great General; otherwise I don’t know how we can reckon Joshua in the number of extraordinary Men, if God had always wrought Miracles in favour of his People, and had left nothing for him to perform; but he is not obliged to be continually doing Prodigies, in order to punish the injustice and wickedness of Men; and it is certain that he frequently makes use of them in the execution of his Decrees.

I shall not stay to discourse on these words, Lay thee an ambush for the City behind it; Dom Calmet has made so fine a remark on this place, that I shall content myself with laying it here before you, “ Some think it strange, says he, “ that God, who could so easily oppress “ Ai and its inhabitants, should chuse to “ employ artifice and stratagem, in order “ to give the victory to the Hebrews; “ means which appear to be below the “ greatness of the Almighty, and which “ particular People, and some Generals “ have rejected, as unworthy of brave “ Men, and such as might rather tarnish “ their glory than augment the lustre of “ it. It was an expression of Alexander “ the Great, that he would not steal a victory³. The ancient Greeks and Tibarenians gave notice to their Enemies when “ and where they would engage them: “ The old Romans knew not what cunning meant and subtle wiles in carrying “ on their Wars: Non fraude neque occultè*, sed palam & armatum Populum Romanum, hostes suos ulcisci*. They “ fought victory with only open force and “ honest fighting; they desir’d their Enemies might be convinced of their valour, “ and submit to them without regret, as “ to the strongest of the two.

Here is a great deal of learning; and the Commentator might have farther added the old Gauls, the Switzers, and other People, who are frank and open in this point. It would notwithstanding very much perplex any one to prove that the old Romans made no use of artifice and cunning, since War is nothing else but the art of doubling with very great and well concerted method. If the Romans fell often into the snares which were laid for them, it was because they had unskilful Generals, who made war without Genius and Art, and to excuse their ignorance alledged, that they made war like honest Men, without deceit or artifice; we see however in History that the Romans did generally practise them. If Alexander and so many other great Captains would not use all their malice⁴, it was because they knew that they should easily get the better of their Enemies without it. Alexander understood perfectly well whom he had to do with. If he had been to attack any other People besides the effeminate Persians, he would have taken Parmenio’s advice, to fall on the Enemy under cover of the night: For this reason he replied,⁵ that he would begin the battle in broad day-light, and that he had rather complain of Fortune than blush at a victory.

They who are surprized that God, who could so easily oppress Ai and its inhabitants, by one single act of his Will, did not chuse to do so, rather than make use of artifice and cunning, may consider whether he could not as well have overthrown the walls of Jericho in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, and so have excused his People from marching round the Town seven times, in order to see the fall of it on the seventh day. Could he not likewise heve extirpated so many Enemies as his People had to fight with, and put them at once, without striking one blow, in possession of the promised Land! But why should we desire to search into the secrets of God! If he had perform’d all this, he had not displayed his power so eminently by that great number of Miracles which he wrought in the sight of the whole Universe, nor would there have been any merit on his People’s side.

Joshua arose, says the sacred Author, and all the People of War, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty Men of valour, and sent them away by night. There is a manifest contradiction between this verse and the twelfth, wherein it is said that Joshua chose five thousand Men out, whom he sent to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai. How is this to be reconciled? Dom Calmet says, “ That Masius⁶ allows but five “ thousand Men for the Ambuscade, and “ five and twenty for the attack of the “ City, being persuaded that an army of “ six hundred thousand Men could only “ create confusion upon this occasion, without any necessity for, or advantage in “ such “ such numbers.” Masius seems to argue right, and to think like a Soldier. “ But “ the generality of Interpreters, continues “ Dom Calmet, acknowledge two bodies “ to be placed in ambuscade, both between “ Bethel and Ai, one of five and twenty, “ the other of five thousand Men.

Joshua therefore sent at first thirty thousand Men, who marched in the night-time, and to prevent discovery, passed without doubt behind the eminences of Bethel, and posted themselves towards the West between those two Cities, at the place appointed for the ambuscade. He who was at the head of them then detach’d five thousand Men, who lay close in cover’d places directly opposite, and as near as possible to the Town, in order to throw themselves into it immediately upon the first opportunity.

Dom Calmet says⁷ that there are Interpreters who will not allow the Hebrew word Akeb to signify an Ambuscade, and that literally it denotes the Heel; if so, then by a metaphor, I say, it must signify Ambuscade, since the property of an Ambuscade is to fall upon the Enemy behind. It is an expression in daily use with us, that the Enemy is at our heels, that he is continually close up with us, at our backs, and it is generally behind that an ambuscade discovers itself.

Joshua spent the night in his camp at Gilgal, and the next day rising before it was light, he reviewed his troops, put himself at the head of them, with the Elders, and order’d the main body of the Army to march towards Ai. When they were come in sight of the Town, Joshua put his Army in order of battle upon the hill, and afterwards descended into the valley; which the King of Ai observing, he marched his whole Army with the utmost expedition out of the Town, by break of day, and led his troops in order of battle on the side of the Wilderness⁸, where Joshua, as if he had been under some great terror, made a shew of flying, in order to decoy his Enemy, and draw him to a greater distance from the Town.

The Men of Ai thought they were to improve such an happy opportunity, and had hopes of turning it so much the more to their advantage, in that the Hebrews were engaged in a narrow pass, where there being no possibility of drawing up in a large front, great numbers are of no consideration, and the lesser cannot be flank’d, nor consequently hemm’d in: But they had no distrust of People’s lying in ambuscade behind them, or that the others would turn about and face them; while these, at the first signal, should rise, and make themselves masters of the City, which was forsaken and left destitute of Soldiers for its defence.

The Hebrew General seeing his design succeeded, and that the Men of Ai were at a sufficient distance from their City, commanded his Army to face about, and gave the signal agreed upon to inform those who lay in the Ambuscade that it was time to suprize the Town. The learned Commentator makes a remark on this place which shews his great Reading; herein he reports the different opinions of the Interpreters concerning the nature of this signal; but he does not make the matter absolutely clear to us. Some pretend, he says, that the Hebrew word Cidon signifies a Shield; the Septuagint and Aquila suppose it to mean a Javelin all of iron, which is called Gæsos; but a Javelin is too small to serve for a signal, and be seen at such a distance, nor is a Shield more easily to be distinguish’d.

For my part, I embrace very readily the opinion of the Rabbins, who, tho’ they are a parcel of old Dreamers, have yet sometimes good intervals; they believe it was the staff belonging to some of their Colours, which Joshua set up to give his People the signal: From hence I conclude the whole colours were used on this occasion, and that in the Asiatick style, which is very near the Poetical, the part is to be here taken for the whole. It was therefore one of the Colours that Joshua lifted up, and was perceiv’d by those in ambuscade, who thereupon immediately rose, marched towards the City, and took and burnt it; not all at once, but in some places only, to answer the signal, and give notice to Joshua that they were masters of the Town; for it was not destroyed and reduced to ashes till after it was pillaged. The Men of Ai who pursued Joshua, looking behind them, and seeing the smoke of the City ascending up to Heaven, had not power to fly one way or other, particularly after that the Israelites, who had made a shew of flying, and marched on the side of the Wilderness, turned back upon them, and briskly attacked those who had before pursued them: For they in the Ambuscade, who composed a small army, did not remain in the Town, but sallied out of it, and fell upon the Men of Ai in their rear, while the Hebrews were beginning to do execution upon them; so that they found themselves between two Armies attacked on every side, and so pressed before and behind, that not one of all this great number were saved; that is to say, that none of them could fly, and that they who were not killed in the battle were taken alive, together with their King, and put to death after the action.

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