Joshua 8:27

. And [so] it was, [that] all that fell that day,.... Partly in the city, and partly in the field, both by the ambush and the army: both of men and women; [were] twelve thousand, [even] all the men of Ai; so that the city was not a very large one, and the numbers of inhabitants were comparatively but few, as in Joshua 7:3. Joshua 8:26 Ver. 26. For Joshua drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out his spear,.... But continued it, and that stretched out: until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai; just as the hand of Moses was held up, and kept held up until Amalek was discomfited by Joshua, Exodus 17:12. Joshua 8:27 Ver. 27. Only the cattle, and the spoil of the city, Israel took for a prey unto themselves,.... Even all their substance, as besides their cattle, also their gold, silver, household goods, merchandise, &c. according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua, Joshua 8:2. Joshua 8:28 Ver. 28. And Joshua burnt Ai,....

8:23-29 God, the righteous Judge, had sentenced the Canaanites for their wickedness; the Israelites only executed his doom. None of their conduct can be drawn into an example for others. Especial reason no doubt there was for this severity to the king of Ai; it is likely he had been notoriously wicked and vile, and a blasphemer of the God of Israel.

26. Joshua drew not his hand back—Perhaps, from the long continuance of the posture, it might have been a means appointed by God, to animate the people, and kept up in the same devout spirit as Moses had shown, in lifting up his hands, until the work of slaughter had been completed—the ban executed. (See on [183]Ex 17:10).

No doubt Joshua had ascended the heights, most likely those to the north of the valley, so as to separate himself from the flying Israelites on the lower ground, and to be visible to the men in ambush behind the city. He now, at the command of God, gives the appointed signal to the ambush.

[Bible] 8:21. So Josue, and all Israel, seeing that the city was taken, and that the smoke of the city rose up, returned, and slew the men of Hai. 8:22. And they also that had taken and set the city on fire, issuing out of the city to meet their own men, began to cut off the enemies who were surrounded by them. So that the enemies being cut off on both sides, not one of so great a multitude was saved. 8:23. And they took the king of the city of Hai alive and brought him to Josue. 8:24. So all being slain that had pursued after Israel, in his flight to the wilderness, and falling by the sword in the same place, the children of Israel returned and laid waste the city. 8:25. And the number of them that fell that day, both of men and women, was twelve thousand persons, all of the city of Hai. 8:26. But Josue drew not back his hand, which he had stretched out on high, holding the shield, till all the inhabitants of Hai were slain. 8:27. And the children of Israel divided among them, the cattle and the prey of the city, as the Lord had commanded Josue. 8:28. And he burnt the city, and made it a heap forever: 8:29. And he hung the king thereof on a gibbet, until the evening and the going down of the sun. Then Josue commanded, and they took down his carcass from the gibbet: and threw it in the very entrance of the city, heaping upon it a great heap of stones, which remaineth until this present day. 8:30. Then Josue built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Hebal, 8:31. As Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the children of Israel, and it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of unhewn stones, which iron had not touched: and he offered upon it holocausts to the Lord, and immolated victims of peace offerings. 8:32. And he wrote upon stones, the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he had ordered before the children of Israel.