Joshua 8:2

Only the spoil thereof. Ai was not solemnly devoted, like Jericho, though (see Deuteronomy 20:16 , Deuteronomy 20:17 ) the Canaanitish people were. Behind it. Joshua was advancing from the southeast. The ambush ( אֹרֵב literally, "a lier in wait," here a band of liers in wait, the word itself originally signifying to plait, weave, hence to design ) was therefore (verse 12) on the opposite, or west side of the city. The question which has been raised whether God could rightly command a stratagem seems scarcely to require discussion.