Joshua 8:3

3. Joshua arose… to go up That is, set himself about the preliminary arrangements necessary for the march.

Chose out thirty thousand There is some apparent confusion in the details of this movement of Joshua. Some eminent commentators think that the entire army of more than six hundred thousand fighting men (Numbers 26:51) was engaged in this enterprise. The difficulties of this interpretation are: (1) the impossibility of handling advantageously so vast a body of soldiers in a country cut up by deep and narrow mountain gorges; (2) The exposure of the camp left behind them; (3) The presence of so vast an array before Ai would so appal the inhabitants that they would not venture to sally out and attack it; (4) The extreme difficulty of hiding so large an ambuscade as that of thirty thousand men not very far from the city. Some expositors have even supposed that there were two ambuscades, one of thirty thousand and the other of five thousand. But if so, Joshua 8:9; Joshua 8:12 would argue that both were in the same place, namely, “between Bethel and Ai,” on the west side of Ai, and this is hardly supposable. Further, in Joshua 8:19; Joshua 8:21 mention is made of only one ambush. The other theory is, that this number of men were all who were engaged. These were divided into two corps one of five thousand for the ambush and the other of twenty-five thousand for the feigned assault. The latter theory being more reasonable, and involving less difficulties, is assumed by us. [On this hypothesis the order of events must be understood as follows: Joshua, having made all necessary arrangements, arose early one morning, and, accompanied by the elders, went up with the thirty thousand men who were, in this siege, all the people of war, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Joshua 8:10-11. This march occupied the day, so that it was evening when they approached Ai. That same night Joshua sent the five thousand men to lie in ambush on the west side of the city, (Joshua 8:4; Joshua 8:9; Joshua 8:12,) but he and the twenty-five thousand remained en-camped in the valley north of Ai. Joshua 8:13. The next day the king of Ai, not knowing Joshua’s stratagem, hasted out early with his people to attack the Israelites, but was caught in the snare prepared to deceive him, and he and his people and city were utterly ruined. On the apparent confusion of the narrative, see remarks in the Introduction on the style of the Hebrew historians.]

And sent them away by night A portion of them, five thousand in number. A part is here loosely put for the whole. See Joshua 8:12, rendering the verb took, had taken, as does the Vulgate.