Joshua 8:3

"So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai: and Joshua chose out 30,000 men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night. And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in ambush, against the city; go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready: and I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city. And it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them; and they will come out after us, till we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us as at the first: so we will flee before them; and ye shall rise up from ambush, and take possession of the city: for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand. And it shall be, that when ye have seized upon the city, that ye shall set the city on fire; according to the word of Jehovah shall ye do: see, I have commanded you. And Joshua sent them forth; and they went to the ambushment, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people."

Due to Ai's location only two or three miles from Bethel, the commentators "have a fit" about the IMPOSSIBILITY of hiding 30,000 men in an ambush between the towns. Well, it is hard to imagine, but we do not know anything at all of the terrain, in fact not even for sure WHERE these places were located. We admire the zeal by which scholars have tried to get the Lord out of a difficulty like this, and perhaps the most plausible job was done by Clarke, who found that, "The Hebrew word [~'eleph] means `chief' or `mighty man of valor,' and which is here rendered thousands."[11] If this should be allowed, then it would reduce the size of the ambush from 30,000 men to 30 men, who if they were the equivalent of squad commanders, would also be accompanied by one hundred or so others. The text itself favors this kind of an understanding, due to the fact of Joshua's having "chosen out" these particular men, which seems unlikely enough with regard to 30,000. If one needs help with this problem, we recommend this view as being as good as any.

Pink's understanding of why so many Israelites were engaged in such various ways in the reduction of Ai stressed the lesson that these events carry for Christians. "God's predestination of an event does not render needless our use of means to bring it about."[12] This principle has reinforcement in the N.T. in the event where Paul had already been assured by the Lord that no lives were to be lost in the forthcoming shipwreck, but when Paul noted the sailors about to abandon ship, he firmly stated that without them many lives would be lost (Acts 27:22-31). Pink also pointed out that Joshua's knowledge of the devices of the enemy were turned to good account in this second effort to take Ai. Joshua knew that the men of Ai would come out and chase them, as they did at first, and that proved to be the key to the winning strategy. Concerning the Christian's war against Satan, "We are not ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11). Just as Joshua here turned the sure knowledge of what the king of Ai would do into a victory for Israel, Christians should be forewarned and ready to frustrate all of the devices of the Devil.

"Joshua lodged that night among the people ..." The critical scholars seize any pretext as an excuse for "emending," changing, the Word of God. Sizoo thought Joshua 8:9 contradicts Joshua 8:13 and proposed "emending the text (adding one letter) to make it harmonize with Joshua 8:13."[13] Blair stated that, "Such emendations are not necessary, and they serve only to support the contention that here we have TWO parallel accounts of the same incident.[14] Boling also refused suggestions that the text needs emending, writing:

"That night means the night previously mentioned in Joshua 8:3. This is the first of two nights. During this first night, the men who were in the ambush were sent on ahead so as to be already in a concealed position when the main force arrived the next day. There is NO contradiction between Joshua 8:9 and Joshua 8:13; they refer to TWO successive nights. The first night, Joshua spent with the main force; the next night, he was in the valley."[15]