The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 7:3
Make not all the people to labour thither; or, weary not the people with the journey thither. "Good successe lifts up the heart with too much confidence" (Bp. Hall). read more
Joshua 7:2-5 Niv
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
Spence, H. D. M., etc.
The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 7:5
Unto Shebarim. LXX ; καὶ ἕως συνέτριψαν αὐτούς , as though we had שְׁבָרוּם (or, as Masius suggests, הַשְׁבִירִים ) from שָׁבַר to break in pieces. So the Syriac and Chaldee versions. But this is quite out of the question. The Israelites were not annihilated, for they only lost about 36 men. Nor is Shebarim a proper name, as the Vulgate renders it. It has the article, and must be rendered either with Keil, the stone quarries (literally, the crushings or breakings ) ... read more
Albert Barnes
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joshua 7:2
Ai, Bethel - See Genesis 12:8 note. (Modern travelers place the former at Khan Haiy, in the neighborhood of Deir Diwan.) read more
Albert Barnes
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joshua 7:3
The total population of Ai was about twelve thousand Joshua 8:25. It could therefore hardly muster three thousand warriors. read more
Albert Barnes
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Joshua 7:5
Shebarim - Rather, perhaps, “the stone quarries.” The smallness of the slaughter among the Israelites indicates that they fled early, probably without real conflict in battle. read more
Joseph Benson
Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joshua 7:2-3
Joshua 7:2-3. Go up and view the country They were not to go into the city of Ai, but into the country belonging to it, that they might understand the state of the place and people. Let two or three thousand go up and smite Ai There was no little self-confidence and presumption in this counsel: Ai, it appears, was strong by its situation, and guarded by twelve thousand men; so that there was no probability of taking it with two or three thousand. God, however, wisely permitted this advice... read more
Joseph Benson
Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joshua 7:4
Joshua 7:4. They fled before the men of Ai Not having courage, it seems, to strike a stroke, a plain evidence that God had forsaken them, and an instructive event, to show them what they were when God left them; that they did not gain their victories by their own valour, but that it was God that gave the Canaanites into their hands. And may we not hence conclude, however little it may be thought of, that victory or superiority in war between different nations, depends more upon the will of... read more
Joseph Benson
Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Joshua 7:5
Joshua 7:5. The men of Ai smote thirty-six men A dear-bought victory to them, whereby Israel was awakened and reformed, and they hardened to their own ruin. They smote them in the going down That is, till they came to the plains of Jericho, Ai standing upon a hill. The hearts of the people melted, and became as water Soft and weak, and full of fluctuation and trembling. They were undoubtedly struck with this panic from God; for otherwise there was no sufficient reason for it. read more
Donald C. Fleming
Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Joshua 7:1-26
Achan’s sin (7:1-26)God was angry that Israel had not been fully obedient to him in the conquest of Jericho. One of the people, Achan, secretly kept for himself what he should have destroyed (7:1). Therefore, when the Israelites moved on to attack the much smaller town of Ai, God allowed them to be driven back and to suffer losses (2-5). Joshua was distressed, not just because Israel had been defeated, but because their defeat would encourage the Canaanites. If all the Canaanites joined forces,... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Joshua 7:2
Ai . עַי or הָעַי "the ruins" (cf. Iim and Ije-abarim, the ruins or heaps of Abarim, Numbers 33:44 , Numbers 33:45 ; and Iim, Joshua 15:29 . Probably it is the same as הָעַוּים which we find mentioned in conjunction with Bethel in Joshua 18:22 , Joshua 18:23 . It becomes עַיָּא in Nehemiah 11:31 , and the feminine form is found in Isaiah 10:28 . The latter, from the mention of Michmash in the route of Sennacherib immediately afterwards, is probably the same as Ai.... read more