Joshua 8:1

CAPTURE OF AI

The shameful failure of Israel to capture Ai, as related in the previous chapter, having at this time been discovered as due to the treachery of Achan, and that sin having now been punished by the death of the offender, the people of Israel at this point in time are again considered to be in full favor with God as His covenant children. The disastrous failure at Ai had surely taught the whole nation an effective lesson, that, if they obeyed God, He would bless them, and that, if they did not obey Him, they would suffer.

Every student of this chapter is at once confronted with what is alleged to be a contradiction between the number of 30,000 chosen for the ambush in Joshua 8:3, and the number 5,000 mentioned allegedly for the same ambush in Joshua 8:12. We have read several explanations of this: (1) Keil and other very dependable scholars affirm that a scribal error is responsible, and that the number 5,000 is correct.[1] It is evident that the expedient of finding a scribal error here does not solve the problem, for Cook asserted that, "The error would have been in writing 30,000 instead of 5,000,"[2] but Holmes said, "the error would have been in writing 30,000 for 3,000."[3] (2) Woudstra mentioned the possibility that the 30,000 included the 5,000 later detached for the ambush, but mentioned earlier in Joshua 8:3, as the principal feature of the attack.[4] Holmes, and nearly all critical assailants against the Bible declare unequivocally, "That two accounts have been combined is obvious."[5] Of course, in this explanation, the great hoax of all allegedly higher criticism, the ubiquitous "editor," or the ever-ready "redactor," is identified as responsible for "combining" these allegedly different accounts! But, if any such person combined two accounts to give us this record, what an incredibly stupid, egregious person he must have been! The impossibility of even imagining such a character outlaws this explanation as absolutely untenable! We shall refrain from comment on those "scholars" who are constantly appealing to this very class of "editors" and "redactors." Could anyone in his right mind mention a group of people as being 30,000 in number, and then ten seconds later state that they numbered 5,000?

We do not pretend to know the proper solution of this obvious difficulty, but, in all probability, the difficulty itself lies in the complexity and weakness of the Hebrew style of narrative, with the problem of the Hebrew tenses making it virtually impossible, at times, to determine the chronology of several parallel actions occurring simultaneously. Aside from this one tiny problem, the grand action of this chapter is as clear as broad, open daylight.

We might summarize as follows:

(1) God commanded the deployment of a very large force, "all the people," against Ai.

(2) There was to be an ambush set behind the city.

(3) Another detachment was to protect against any assistance that Bethel might give Ai.

(4) The main body of Israel would make a feint of frontal assault against Ai.

(5) They would, at first, fall back, pretending to flee, before the king of Ai's attack.

(6) Joshua, with his javelin, or spear, situated strategically, would signal for the ambush to enter and burn Ai.

(7) All Israel would at that point turn and crush the men of Ai. Now, the Lord has not given us any detailed report of the orders that went out to the various detachments, nor any of the remainder of the devices by which this complicated strategy successfully destroyed Ai, but nobody can miss the main points of it, which we may be sure include all that Christians of the 20th century need to know about it!

"And Jehovah said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land; and thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: set thee an ambush for the city behind it."

"Fear not, neither be thou dismayed ..." Joshua indeed had much to fear, as Matthew Henry said, "The treacherous Israelites were more to be dreaded than the malicious Canaanites!"[6] As for the reason why God commanded so many to be involved in the capture of Ai, Calvin thought it was to give all the people a chance to view the struggle as their own, and "to reassure the people"[7] by giving them a close-up view of the coming victory. As Blair put it, "In order that the morale of all the people could be restored."[8]

"Take all the people of war with thee ..." Keil stated that this merely means "the whole army,"[9] but even that limitation indicated a tremendous number of people. The armed men of Israel at this point numbered over "600,000 fighting men."[10] With such a vast force under his command, whatever number might have been needed in a given task would have been available.