Joshua8:1–29

Where the English smooths the original

• תֵּחָ֔ת BSB’s gentle discouraged softens tēḥāṯ (châthath, H2865), a Niphal whose root is to be broken / shattered / dismayed — the same violent verb used of an enemy army crushed in battle. The command is not “don’t be glum” but “don’t be broken in pieces,” aimed at a leader whose heart had “melted and become as water” after the rout of Joshua 7.
• הַמִּלְחָמָ֔ה The smooth the whole army renders kol-ham·mil·ḥā·māh — literally all the people of the war (milchâmâh, H4421, the noun “war/battle” itself). Hebrew names the host by its function; the next word ʻam (“people”) is then apposed to it. The phrase deliberately excludes the “weak multitude,” the women and children, who stayed behind.
• נָתַ֣תִּי “I have delivered” translates a Hebrew perfect, nāṯattî (nâthan, H5414) — the prophetic perfect, a future victory spoken of as already accomplished because God has decreed it. The grant precedes the fight; the city is “as sure as if he had it already in his hand” (Gill).

Where the English smooths the original

• אֹרֵ֛ב BSB’s military ambush flattens ʽōrēḇ (ʼârab, H693), a Qal participle, “a lier-in-wait.” The Pulpit and Cambridge note the root “originally signifying to plait, weave … hence to design” — the ambush is a thing woven, a snare plotted. Keil adds it is a collective: “the persons concealed in ambush.” Wyclif rendered it “busshementis.”
• שְׁלָלָ֥הּ Plunder for šəlālāh (shâlâl, H7998) misses the pointed contrast with Jericho. There the material spoil was made chêrem, “devoted to destruction, as the thing accursed of God” (Ellicott); here the very same kind of goods that destroyed Achan are now, by express divine grant, lawful gain. The word that killed becomes the word that rewards.
• רַק־ The English except that renders the single restrictive particle raq (H7535), “only.” It is the hinge of the whole verse: Ai is to be like Jericho in everything — sword, fire, king — only in the spoil does the rule change. The narrowness of the exception is the point.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּבְחַ֣ר BSB’s chose for way·yiḇ·ḥar (bâchar, H977) is right but understated: this is the verb of election, the same root used of God choosing Israel. A picked, elect company is detached for the decisive work — “select … picked men, not the whole army” (Gill).
• גִּבּוֹרֵ֣י הַחַ֔יִל Mighty men of valor renders gibbōrê ha·ḥayil — gibbôr (H1368, “warrior, hero”) in construct with chayil (H2428, “strength, force, army”). The phrase is a fixed Hebrew title for elite troops; English “mighty men of valor” is a calque that has lost its idiomatic punch.
• שְׁלֹשִׁ֨ים אֶ֤לֶף The plain 30,000 conceals the textual storm beneath it. Compared with the five thousand of v. 12, Barnes, the Pulpit and Keil all judge a copyist confused the numeral signs — thirty thousand for five thousand. The number is not theology but transmission; the parse stands, the figure is flagged.

Where the English smooths the original

• אֹרְבִ֤ים BSB’s lie in ambush for ʽōrəḇîm (ʼârab, H693) keeps the same “lier-in-wait” root as v. 2, now a masculine-plural participle: (you who are) lying in wait. The men become the snare they were told to set.
• נְכֹנִֽים Ready renders nəḵōnîm (kûn, H3559), a Niphal participle whose root means to be fixed, established, set firm. It is more than “awake and waiting”; it is “be established, in position, prepared” — the same root behind a throne being “established”. Gill paraphrases the aim: “to enter into it, as soon as the forces are drawn out.”
• מְאֹ֑ד תַּרְחִ֥יקוּ The compact not too far spreads across three Hebrew words — ʼal … məʽōḏ tar·ḥî·qû, lit. “do not make-distant exceedingly.” The Hifil tarḥîqû (râchaq, H7368) is causative: “do not put a great distance between yourselves and the city,” so the snare can spring the instant the gates empty.

Where the English smooths the original

• בָּרִֽאשֹׁנָ֔ה BSB’s the first time renders bā·ri·šō·nâh (riʼshôn, H7223), “at the first / formerly.” It points back precisely to the disaster of Joshua 7:4–5; the very memory of defeat is now weaponized as bait. The men of Ai will trust a pattern Joshua has secretly broken.
• וְנַ֖סְנוּ We will flee translates wə·nas·nû (nûs, H5127), a real flight-verb — but here a feigned one. Hebrew has no word for “pretend to flee”; the deception lives entirely in the plan, not the verb. The Pulpit calls it “the celebrated feigned flight of William the Conqueror at Hastings.”

Where the English smooths the original

• הַתִּיקֵ֤נוּ BSB’s drawn them away renders hat·tî·qē·nû (nâthaq, H5423), a Hifil whose root means to tear / pull / snap apart. The Pulpit is exact: “Literally, caused to pluck away” — Luther’s reissen, the LXX’s apospâsōmen. The army of Ai is to be torn loose from its walls, like a thing wrenched from its socket.
• נָסִ֣ים Are running away for nā·sîm (nûs, H5127) is again the flight-verb — but now in the mouths of the men of Ai. The narrative lets us overhear the enemy’s fatal confidence: they flee, as before. Their own taunt scripts their destruction.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְהוֹרַשְׁתֶּ֖ם BSB’s mild seize the city renders wə·hō·w·raš·tem (yârash, H3423), a Hifil that means dispossess / drive out / take as an inheritance. It is the great conquest-verb of Deuteronomy: Israel does not merely “grab” Ai, it dispossesses the city as covenant inheritance. The act of capture is framed as taking possession of a gift.
• וּנְתָנָ֛הּ Will deliver it is û·nə·ṯā·nāh (nâthan, H5414), the same “give into the hand” verb as v. 1 — but spoken now by Joshua, not God. The commander has so internalized the divine promise that he repeats it as his own certainty: “great confidence, having the promise of God, and relying on it” (Gill).

Where the English smooths the original

• כְּתָפְשְׂכֶ֣ם BSB’s taken the city renders the infinitive kə·ṯā·ḛə·śə·ḵem (tâphas, H8610), “to grasp / lay hold of / capture.” This is the same verb that will describe taking the king of Ai alive in v. 23 — the city and its king are both “laid hold of,” one for burning, one for the gallows.
• כִּדְבַ֥ר As the LORD has commanded softens kiḏ·ḇar Yahweh — literally “according to the word (dāḇār, H1697) of Yahweh.” The whole operation is governed by a spoken word; Cambridge hears in Joshua’s closing “See, I have commanded you” a conscious echo of God’s “Have not I commanded thee?” to Joshua in 1:9.

Where the English smooths the original

• הַמַּאְרָ֔ב BSB’s place of ambush renders ham·maʾ·rāḇ (maʼarâb, H3993) — a different noun from the ʽōrēḇ (“lier-in-wait”) of v. 2. Ellicott catches the shift: this is “the lurking-place,” the ambush as a location; Keil notes ʽōrēḇ is the men, maʼarâb the place they hide.
• וַיָּ֧לֶן Spent that night for way·yā·len (lûn, H3885) is precisely “lodged / passed the night.” The detail is pointed: while his ambush lies in cold concealment, the commander does not retire to safety but “lodged that night among the people” — sharing the camp, not above it.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּפְקֹ֖ד BSB’s mobilized for way·yiḽ·qōḏ (pâqad, H6485) is one rendering of a famously many-sided verb. Barnes, Cambridge and the Pulpit prefer “mustered / arrayed / reviewed”; the Pulpit notes the word “is frequently translated visited … a visit for the sake of inspection.” Poole adds a motive: to count them “that it might be evident this work was done without any loss of men.”
• וְזִקְנֵ֧י The elders renders wə·ziq·nê (zâqēn, H2205). Poole and Benson argue these are not “military tribunes” but “the chief magistrates and rulers of Israel,” present to see “that the cattle and the spoil … might be justly and equally divided.” The civil authority attends the battle to guard against another Achan.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְהַגַּ֖י BSB’s generic valley renders wə·hag·gay (gay, H1516), a narrow ravine / gorge — distinct from the wider ʽēmeq of v. 13. The Pulpit prizes this word as “a sign of personal acquaintance with the locality on the part of the historian” that “our version misses.” Ellicott keeps the Hebrew: “the ravine (or Gai) was between them and Ai.”
• וַֽיִּגְּשׁ֔וּ Approached for way·yig·gə·šû (nâgash, H5066) is a verb of formal, often military, drawing near to engage. Coupled with “came before the city” (neged, “in front of”), it stages a deliberate provocation — the host plants itself in plain view to bait the sally.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּקַּ֕ח BSB’s pluperfect had taken rightly reads way·yiq·qaḥ (lâqach, H3947) as a recapitulation, not a new event: “Rather ‘had taken;’ the words refer to the ambuscade which Joshua had detached during the previous night” (Barnes). Poole: “this is added by way of recapitulation.” The verse loops back, it does not move forward.
• כַּחֲמֵ֥שֶׁת אֲלָפִ֖ים The flat five thousand renders ka·ḥă·mē·šeṯ ʼă·lā·p̄îm — note the prefixed ka-, “about five thousand,” an approximation the English keeps. This is the figure Barnes, the Pulpit and Keil take as original against the “thirty thousand” of v. 3; Keil locates the textual slip in v. 3, “not … the 5000.”

Where the English smooths the original

• עֲקֵב֖וֹ BSB’s rear guard renders ʻă·qē·ḇōw (ʻâqēb, H6119), a rare military use of the word for “heel.” Keil insists it means “the lier in wait” (synonymous with ʽōrēḇ), not “the rear of the army” — the “heel” is the hidden force at the back, the ambush, not a separate column.
• הָעֵֽמֶק The valley here is hā·ʻē·meq (ʽēmeq, H6010), a broad, deep vale — not the narrow gay/ravine of v. 11. The Pulpit makes the distinction load-bearing: “Therefore the narrow waterless ravine … is not meant here, but a wider valley,” a vale “large enough for cultivation” or even a battle.

Where the English smooths the original

• לַמּוֹעֵ֖ד BSB’s an appointed place renders lam·mō·w·ʻēḏ (môʻēd, H4150), a word usually of an appointed time (the same noun behind Israel’s “appointed feasts”). Barnes and the older voices split: Barnes reads “the place appointed,” while Benson, Poole and JFB hear an appointed hour — the men of Ai picking “the same hour … looking upon it as a lucky hour.” The ambiguity is in the Hebrew, not the English.
• לֹ֣א יָדַ֔ע He did not know for lōʼ yā·ḏaʻ (yâdaʽ, H3045) is the quiet theological pivot of the chapter. The king’s ignorance is not mere bad scouting: Benson and Poole read it as judicial — “God also blinding his mind, and infatuating him, as he is wont to do with those who have filled up the measure of their iniquities.” The unseen ambush is the visible edge of an unseen verdict.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּנָּֽגְע֛וּ BSB’s let themselves be beaten back renders way·yin·nā·ḡə·ʻû (nâgaʽ, H5060), a Niphal of the verb “to strike / touch / be smitten.” The reflexive-passive is exact and theologically charged: Israel allowed itself to be struck, a chosen defeat. Keil renders it tightly: “the Israelites let them beat them.” The victory is hidden inside a surrender.
• וַיָּנֻ֖סוּ They fled is way·yā·nu·sû (nûs, H5127), the same flight-verb planned in vv. 5–6, now executed. Benson is careful: “All Israel made as if they were beaten — that is, they fled … as it were for fear of a second blow.” The flight is real motion, feigned meaning.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיִּזָּעֲק֗וּ BSB’s passive were summoned renders way·yiz·zā·ʻă·qû (zâʽaq, H2199), “were called together / cried out.” The Pulpit prefers “raised a cry” — “we hear the exultant shout of the men of Ai, as they thought the victory won.” The verb may carry their triumphant war-whoop, the sound of doom mistaken for victory.
• וַיִּנָּתְק֖וּ Were drawn away is way·yin·nā·ṯə·qû (nâthaq, H5423), the Niphal of the very “tear-loose” verb Joshua used in v. 6 (“until we have drawn them away”). The plan’s verb and the event’s verb are identical: the men of Ai are torn from their walls exactly as foretold. Prophecy and fulfilment share one root.

Where the English smooths the original

• פְּתוּחָ֔ה BSB’s wide open renders the single Qal passive participle pə·ṯû·ḥāh (pâthach, H6605), “(left) opened.” One Hebrew word carries the whole reversal: the gates that should guard the city stand unbarred, and the snare planned in v. 4 (“be ready”) springs the instant the city is pətûḥâh.
• וּבֵ֣ית אֵ֔ל Or Bethel translates û·ḇêṯ ʼēl, and the words are textually contested. JFB notes “the words ‘or Beth-el’ are not in the Septuagint, and are rejected by some eminent scholars, as an interpolation”; the Pulpit and Cambridge weigh both sides. The MT keeps Bethel’s men in the pursuit; the LXX omits them. The synthesis records the dispute, it does not resolve it.

Where the English smooths the original

• בַּכִּיד֤וֹן BSB’s battle lance renders bak·kî·ḏō·wn (kîdôn, H3591), a rare word (only eight verses) for a javelin / short lance — distinct from the heavy chănît spear. Cambridge: “a dart, or javelin which is hurled … could easily be held outstretched for some considerable time and was probably furnished with a flag.” The Vulgate read it as a shield; the LXX as a short lance. The rarity of the word is itself a clue — it ties this scene to the few other kîdôn texts.
• נְ֠טֵה Hold out for nə·ṯēh (nâtâh, H5186) is “stretch out / extend.” It is the same verb, the same gesture, as Moses stretching out his hand and rod — Ellicott and Poole both reach instinctively for Exodus 17:11. The outstretched kîdôn is at once a military signal, a sign of the divine promise, and (Poole) “a mean by God’s appointment contributing to their good success.”

Where the English smooths the original

• וַֽיִּלְכְּד֑וּהָ BSB’s captured it renders way·yil·kə·ḏû·hā (lâkad, H3920), “seized / took / captured” — the same verb used for the capture of Jericho and, ominously, for Achan being “taken” by lot in 7:16. The conquest-word and the judgment-word are one: the city is “taken” as Achan was “taken.”
• מְהֵרָ֨ה Quickly for mə·hē·rāh (məhērâh, H4120) is doubled in the verse by the verb wayəmahărû (“they hurried,” v. 19b end) — a deliberate drumbeat of haste: the trap that waited all night now springs in a single rushed instant the moment the signal lifts.

Where the English smooths the original

• יָדַ֛יִם BSB’s smooth they could not escape erases a stark Hebrew idiom: wə·lō-hā·yāh ḇā·hem yā·ḏa·yim, literally “there were no hands in them.” Cambridge keeps it: “no hand.” Keil reads yāḏayim as “strength,” not “room” (citing Psalm 76:6, “none … found their hands”); the Pulpit prefers “no direction” to flee. The doubled-hand noun, used of the men of Ai, answers Joshua’s single outstretched hand (v. 18) — his hand holds the javelin; theirs are gone.
• הַשָּׁמַ֔יְמָה Into the sky renders haš·šā·may·māh (shâmayim, H8064) with the directional -ah ending: “heaven-ward.” The smoke does not merely rise; it ascends toward the heavens, the same word as “the heavens” God made — the city’s ruin offered up, as it were, before heaven’s court.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיָּשֻׁ֕בוּ BSB’s turned around renders way·yā·šu·ḇû (shûb, H7725), “turned back / returned.” The verb of return is the turning-point: the feigned flight halts and reverses on a single sign — the rising smoke. The same shûb recurs in v. 24, where “all Israel returned to Ai” to finish it.
• וַיַּכּ֖וּ Struck down for way·yak·kû (nâkâh, H5221) is the Hifil of the great smiting-verb of holy war — the same root behind “smite the Canaanites.” It will toll again in v. 22 and v. 24; the chapter’s slaughter is told in one repeated hammer-blow of a word.

Where the English smooths the original

• בַּתָּ֔וֶךְ BSB’s trapped between renders bat·tā·weḵ (tâvek, H8432), simply “in the midst.” The men of Ai are caught “in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side” — Gill’s vivid image: “between two fires.” The pincer is named not by a word for “trap” but by sheer geometry: Israel is the middle into which Ai falls.
• שָׂרִ֥יד וּפָלִֽיט No survivor or fugitive renders the doom-pair śā·rîḏ û·pā·lîṭ (sârîd, H8300, “remnant”; pâlît, H6412, “escapee”). Keil notes this is the formula of Numbers 21:35 and Deuteronomy 3:3 (Sihon and Og), “strengthened still further by û·pālît, ‘or escape.’” The total-destruction language of the wilderness victories is deliberately reused for Ai.

Where the English smooths the original

• תָּ֣פְשׂוּ BSB’s took renders tā·ḛə·śû (tâphas, H8610) — the same “grasp / lay hold of” verb used in v. 8 for seizing the city. The city was “laid hold of” to be burned; its king is “laid hold of” to be hanged. One verb binds the two fates.
• חָ֑י Alive is the single adjective ḥāy (chay, H2416), “living.” The word is pointed: every other man of Ai is dead, but the king is kept chay — “reserved for a more ignominious death” (Poole, JFB). His preserved life is not mercy but a deferred, heavier judgment.

Where the English smooths the original

• כְּכַלּ֣וֹת BSB’s had finished renders the infinitive kə·ḵal·lō·wṯ (kâlâh, H3615), “to complete / make an end of.” The verse is bracketed by completion: they finish killing in the field (kâlâh), “until they were finished” (tummâm, H8552, end of the verse). The slaughter is narrated as a thing brought to its end — the ban executed entire.
• לְפִי־חֶ֖רֶב By the sword renders lə·p̄î-ḥe·reḇ, literally “to the mouth of the sword” (peh, H6310, “mouth”). The Hebrew gives the blade a devouring mouth; the city is fed to it. Repeated twice in this one verse, the idiom turns the sword into a consuming thing, an eater of Ai.

Where the English smooths the original

• הַנֹּ֨פְלִ֜ים BSB’s fell renders the participle han·nō·p̄ə·lîm (nâphal, H5307), “the ones falling.” The same verb that named the warriors “falling by the edge of the sword” in v. 24 now totals the dead of the whole city; “falling” is the chapter’s gravity, drawing every soul of Ai down.
• מֵאִ֣ישׁ וְעַד־אִשָּׁ֔ה Men and women renders the totalizing idiom mē·ʼîš wə·ʻaḏ-ʼiš·šâh, “from man and unto woman” — the Hebrew “from… to…” construction meaning every last one without exception. Poole reckons the men of Bethel are folded into the twelve thousand, “the Israelites … being unable to distinguish who belonged to the one city, and who to the other.”

Where the English smooths the original

• הֶחֱרִ֔ים BSB’s devoted to destruction renders he·ḥĕ·rîm (châram, H2763), the verb of the chērem, the sacred ban. The Pulpit flags it: “Hebrew, heḥĕrîm.” This is the same root as the “accursed thing” that destroyed Achan in chapter 7 — but here the ban falls where God commanded it, on Ai, not where a man stole it for himself. The word that was Israel’s ruin is now Israel’s obedience.
• לֹֽא־הֵשִׁ֣יב Did not draw back for lōʼ-hē·šîḇ (shûb, Hifil, H7725) is “did not cause to return.” The same shûb that turned the army back (v. 21) and brought Israel back to Ai (v. 24) is here refused: Joshua will not “bring back” his hand. JFB and Gill both reach for Moses’ unwearied hands at Rephidim — the outstretched arm held until the work of God is finished.

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• רַ֣ק BSB’s only renders raq (H7535), the same restrictive particle as v. 2 — a deliberate bookend. The command of v. 2 (“only the spoil … you may take”) is matched word-for-word by the obedience of v. 27 (“only the cattle and spoil … Israel took”). The narrative measures obedience by the exactness of the echo.
• כִּדְבַ֣ר אֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּ֖ה As the LORD had commanded renders “according to the word (dāḇār, H1697) which He commanded.” Where Achan despised the dāḇār and took forbidden spoil, Israel here takes permitted spoil precisely by the dāḇār. The same divine word that condemned the thief now licenses the soldier — the difference is obedience, not appetite.

Where the English smooths the original

• תֵּל־עוֹלָם֙ BSB’s permanent heap of ruins renders tēl-ʻō·w·lām (tēl, H8510, “mound” + ʻôlâm, H5769, “forever”). Tēl is a very rare word — only five verses in the whole Bible. Ellicott and Cambridge dwell on it: the modern Arabic name of the site is still et-Tel, “the Heap, par excellence” — “the site of Ai has no other name unto this day.” The name God gave the ruin is the name it bears now.
• שְׁמָמָ֔ה A desolation renders šə·mā·māh (shəmâmâh, H8077), the prophetic word for a land made waste, appalling, uninhabited — the same term Jeremiah and Ezekiel hurl at doomed cities. Ai is not merely burned; it is made a shəmâmâh, a standing horror, “to this day.”

Where the English smooths the original

• תָּלָ֥ה … עַל־הָעֵ֖ץ BSB’s hung … on a tree renders tā·lāh … ʻal-hā·ʻēṣ (tâlâh, H8518, “hang”; ʻēṣ, H6086, “tree/wood”). Hebrew has the article: “on the tree.” Ellicott asks why the tree, and wonders whether the kings of Jericho and Ai hung on the same tree, each “exhibited … as ‘the curse of God.’” This is the precise vocabulary of Deuteronomy 21:22–23, the law of the hanged man who is a curse (see Threads and Christ).
• נִבְלָת֣וֹ The body softens niḇ·lā·ṯōw (nəbēlâh, H5038), which means not a neutral “body” but a carcass / corpse — a defiling, dishonoured cadaver, the same word used for an unclean dead animal. Gill, Geneva and Keil all link the taking-down to Deuteronomy 21:23 — the nəbēlâh must not defile the land overnight.
• גַּל־אֲבָנִ֣ים A large pile of rocks renders gal-ʼă·ḇā·nîm (gal, H1530, “heap/cairn”). Cambridge distinguishes it sharply from the tēl of v. 28: “Two words … The first (Tel) indicates the ruins of the city itself, the second (Gal) the cairn over the king’s grave.” The same cairn was raised over Achan (7:26): the thief of Israel and the king of Canaan lie under matching heaps.