1. And the Lord said to Joshua: Fear not, neither be dismayed: take with thee the whole multitude of warriors, and, rising up, ascend to the town of Ai. Behold, I have delivered into thy hand its king, and the people, and the city and the land. 2. And thou shalt do to the city of Ai, and to its king, as thou didst to Jericho and its king: but the spoil, and all the animals, ye shall plunder for yourselves: set an ambush for the city behind it. 3. And Joshua arose, and the whole army of warriors with him, to go up to Ai: and, having chosen thirty thousand strong men, he sent [them] by night, 4. and commanded them, saying: Set an ambush behind the city: and withdraw not far off: and be ye all ready. 5. But I and the rest of the multitude, which is with me, will approach from the opposite side against the city. And when they shall have come out against us, as we did before, we will flee, and turn [our] backs, 6. until, pursuing, they be drawn far off from the city: for they will think we flee as before. 7. Us, therefore, fleeing, and them pursuing, ye shall rise up from the ambush, and lay waste the city: and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands. 8. And when ye have taken [it], set it on fire, and thus do all [things], as I have commanded. 9. And he dismissed them, and they went to the place of the ambush, and sat down
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between Bethel and Ai, on the Western side of the city of Ai. But Joshua that night remained in the midst of the people. 10. And rising at daybreak, he reviewed [his] companions, and went up with the elders at the front of the army, walled about by the aid of the warriors. 11. And when they had come and gone up over against the city, they stood at the Northern side of the city, between which and them was a valley in the middle. 12. But he had chosen five thousand men, and set [them] in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the western part of the same city: 13. but all the rest of the army directed [its] battle-line to the north, so that the last of that multitude reached the Western side of the city. Joshua, then, went off that night, and stood in the middle of the valley. 14. And when the king of Ai had seen this, he hastened in the morning, and went out with the whole army of the city, and directed [his] battle-line against the desert, ignorant that an ambush lay behind [his] back. 15. But Joshua and all Israel gave way from [their] place, feigning fear, and fleeing by the way of the wilderness. 16. But they [the men of Ai], shouting together, and mutually exhorting one another, pursued them. And when they had withdrawn from the city, 17. and not even one had remained in the city of Ai and Bethel who did not pursue Israel (having burst out, [and] left the towns open), 18. the Lord said to Joshua: Lift up the shield which is in thy hand against the city of Ai, for I will deliver it to thee. 19. And when he had lifted up the shield over against the city, the ambush, which was lying hidden, rose up at once and, hastening to the city, took it, and set it on fire. 20. But the men of the city, who were pursuing Joshua, looking back and seeing the smoke of the city ascend up to heaven, could no longer scatter this way and that: especially since those who had feigned flight, and were making for the wilderness, most bravely stood against their pursuers. 21. And Joshua and all Israel, seeing that the city was taken, and that the smoke of the city was ascending, turning back, struck the men of Ai. 22. For those too, who had taken and set fire to the city, going out of the city against their own, began to strike the enemy in the middle. When, therefore, the adversaries were being cut down on both sides, so that no one of so great a multitude was saved, 23. they also seized the king of the city of Ai [while] living, and brought [him] to Joshua. 24. Therefore, all being slain who had pursued Israel tending toward the deserts, and falling by the sword in the same place, the sons of Israel, turning back, struck the city. 25. And there were, who fell in that same day, from man even to woman, twelve thousand persons, all [of] the city of Ai. 26. But Joshua did not draw back the hand which he had stretched out on high, holding the shield, until all the inhabitants of Ai were slain. 27. But the beasts and the spoil of the city the sons of Israel divided among themselves, as the Lord had commanded Joshua. 28. Who [Joshua] set fire to the city, and made it an everlasting mound: 29. its king also he hung on a gibbet until evening and sunset. And Joshua commanded, and they took down his corpse from the cross: and cast [it] at the very entrance of the city, a great heap of stones being piled upon him, which remains unto the present day. 30. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal: 31. as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the sons of Israel, and [as] it is written in the volume of the law of Moses: But an altar of unpolished stones, which iron had not touched: and he offered upon it holocausts to the Lord, and immolated peace-offerings. 32. And he wrote upon the stones the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he [Moses] had set forth before the sons of Israel. 33. And the whole people, and the elders, and the leaders and judges stood on both sides of the ark, in the sight of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord — the stranger as [well as] the native. Half of them [stood] beside Mount Gerizim, and half beside Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. And first indeed he blessed the people of Israel. 34. After these [things] he read all the words of the blessing and the cursing, and all [things] which were written in the volume of the law. 35. He left nothing untouched of those [things] which Moses had commanded, but repeated all before the whole multitude of Israel, [including] the women and little ones and the strangers who dwelt among them.
COMMENTARIVS.
What Ai [was], and where the city was situated, [and] in what manner the war against it was begun, [was] said in the previous chapter, from question 11. But now its completion — much happier than that beginning — is set forth: because, the sin being expiated, the Lord was now propitious. And there are two parts of this chapter. In the former, the occupation and burning of the city is narrated: in the latter, how a certain pious ceremony, prescribed of old by Moses, was now brought to effect. And first indeed, the Lord snatches Joshua — and in him the whole people — from the fear taken up from the previous disaster (v. 1), and instructs him about the whole plan of the war in a threefold way. I: As to the restored beginning of this war. The whole multitude of warriors had to be led out. Partly indeed, that by their very multitude they might shake off all fear; partly that they might understand [that] God willed indeed to be present to them and to bring aid, yet not without their [own] work and hand — and therefore not [that], as was done at Jericho,
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[the walls] were about to fall [of themselves], but they [the city] were to be taken by them [the Israelites] themselves. For miracles are not always to be done: nor is one manner of acting always to be employed. But afterward a twofold division of this very great multitude of warriors is signified. One [division], of those who were chosen by Joshua out of the whole multitude. And some will [have it] that these were 30 thousand, as the third verse expressly has: others, 35 thousand, because to these 30 thousand they add another five [thousand], concerning whom [is] v. 12; and the Rabbis make a double ambush, in the former of which were 30,000, in the other 5,000. Yet it is more likely that these five thousand were culled and chosen out of those 30 thousand: and that they alone [were] in the ambush, which was only one. The other part of the warriors was all the rest of their multitude: except that small particle which was left to guard the camp, the women, the children, the elders, and the other baggage. For no mention is made of this [guard], because either from the usual custom of guarding camps it is sufficiently understood (as [in] ch. 6, q. 3), or because it is a trifling thing. See elsewhere, q. 20. II: As to the end of the war (v. 2). Ai had to be burned, and all who should be found in it slain, even the King himself: yet now with this difference, that no anathema was borne against it. And therefore it was lawful to take from it as much spoil as [one wished]. But note: when the Lord had begun the sentence in the [third] persons, he afterward changes the number and says, “ye shall plunder for yourselves.” Because those Leaders act most badly and most inconsiderately, who turn aside to themselves all or nearly all the spoil, but to the soldiers, by whose peril and blood the victory stands, leave nothing, or very little. How many hatreds, tumults, [and] seditions of soldiers against Leaders and Captains [arise] hence? III: As to the middle plan of the same war, the Lord bids [Joshua] go up against the city of Ai, and behind its back he sets an ambush. But because the Lord was speaking at Jericho, in the camp of Gilgal, and these were toward the East, it comes about that it is understood [that] the ambush had to be placed at the western side of the city of Ai (v. 2; ch. 9). And all [things] were diligently done by Joshua, as is described (vv. 3–13), where [things] already noted elsewhere are to be repeated. Concerning Joshua’s vigilance, and [his] good example, by which he goes before all: for he rises in the morning (v. 10), [and] ascends at the front of the army — that is, before all; or, as the Seventy [have], πρώτων [“of the foremost”]. But also by good example the elders went before, with all the others, together with him: that is (as Masius says) the other Princes of the people, or [those] more advanced in age (as Abulensis [says]). See above (q. 4, on the wars, and again on the elders, often). But then the battle (v. 14): the King of Ai, made bold by [his] previous victory, began [it], when he had gone forth against the appointed place (as R. Isaiah and Masius [say]), or [the appointed] time and hour (as Ralbag and Rashi [say]), or a signal (as the same R. Isaiah [says]) — toward the desert, which is called Bethaven, as he had proceeded in the previous chapter (q. 11). Joshua with his own entered upon a feigned flight. And, the stations and the whole city being deserted, they [the men of Ai] went out to pursue those [Israelites] — [they] who were in Ai and Bethel (v. 17). But some think the Bethelites, out of fear of the Israelites, their own town being deserted, betook themselves, with their goods, into the better-fortified Ai, and so had now gone out with the men of Ai. Yet nothing hinders [it] being said [that] the Bethelites were in their own town, and, when they had seen [it] either from higher watch-posts, or had learned from sent scouts and swift runners that the Israelites [were] fleeing, at once ran up to help utterly destroy the fugitives (as [in] Judg. 7:24, [and] Judith 15:6). While these [things] happen, the Lord said to Joshua (v. 18): Lift up the shield which is in thy hand against the city of Ai. And he held [it] lifted up until the victory was full (v. 26). For, the ambush being roused, and the burning being of not the whole city but of some part, the smoke appeared to the pursuers; warned by which, they desisted from [their] pursuit, and their pursuers began to drive [them] into flight and to destroy [them] with utter slaughter. Then a huge spoil was collected from the whole city (v. 27); and at last, the flame being cast in, by which that [city was] reduced into ashes and a mound [it remained] for a long time afterward. Yet because it had not been struck by anathema, as I said, it was afterward restored by the Benjamites, [being] either in the same place, or certainly in the neighborhood (2 Ezra [Nehemiah], ch. 11:31).