Joshua 8:24

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הָעַ֜י

ʻAy

H5857

“the · Ai”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Proper

Appears 40× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 12:8

Full BDB Definition

Origin: for H5856

TWOT: None

Ai or Aija or Aiath or Hai = "heap of ruins" - a city lying east of Bethel and beside Bethaven near Jericho and the 2nd city taken on the invasion of Canaan - a city of the Ammonites on the east of the Jordan and apparently attached to Heshbon

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

27: words
19: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הָעַ֜י Ai H5857 occurs in 34 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

9 verbs
13 nouns
2 prepositions
3 particles

Verb forms

וַיְהִ֣י Qal · Sequential Imperfect
כְּכַלּ֣וֹת Piel · Infinitive Construct
לַהֲרֹג֩ Qal · Infinitive Construct
יֹשְׁבֵ֨י Qal · Participle Active
רְדָפ֣וּם Qal · Perfect
וַֽיִּפְּל֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
תֻּמָּ֑ם Qal · Infinitive Construct
וַיָּשֻׁ֤בוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיַּכּ֥וּ Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

כָּל all H3605 ×3
יִשְׂרָאֵ֡ל Israel H3478 ×2
הָעַ֜י Ai H5857 ×2
לְפִי mouth H6310 ×2
חֶ֖רֶב sword H2719 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 56 words from the Hebrew and 48 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 27 Hebrew tokens and 41 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Joshua 8:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 11:10–14 Joshua turned back at that time, and took Hazor, and struck the king of it with the sword: for Hazor before was the head of all those kingdoms.
Numbers 21:24 Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
Joshua 10:30–41 and Yahweh delivered it also, and the king of it, into the hand of Israel; and he struck it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls who were therein; he left none remaining in it; and he did to the king of it as he had done to the king of Jericho.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Joshua 8:24 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיְהִ֣י כְּכַלּ֣וֹת יִשְׂרָאֵ֡ל לַהֲרֹג֩ אֶת כָּל יֹשְׁבֵ֨י הָעַ֜י בַּשָּׂדֶ֗ה בַּמִּדְבָּר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר רְדָפ֣וּם בּ֔וֹ וַֽיִּפְּל֥וּ כֻלָּ֛ם לְפִי חֶ֖רֶב עַד תֻּמָּ֑ם וַיָּשֻׁ֤בוּ כָל יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ הָעַ֔י וַיַּכּ֥וּ אֹתָ֖הּ לְפִי חָֽרֶב

It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 8:24 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὡς παύω ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ ἀποκτείνω πᾶς ὁ ἐν ὁ γαι ὁ ἐν ὁ πεδίον καί ἐν ὁ ὄρος ἐπί ὁ κατάβασις οὗ καταδιώκω αὐτός ἀπό αὐτός εἰς τέλος καί ἀποστρέφω ἰησοῦς εἰς γαι καί πατάσσω αὐτός ἐν στόμα ῥομφαία

And when the children of Israel had ceased slaying all that were in Gai, and in the fields, and in the mountain on the descent, from whence they pursued them even to the end, then Joshua returned to Gai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַהֲוָה כַּד שֵׁיצֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְקַטָלָא יַת כָּל יַתְבֵי עַי בְּחַקְלָא בְּמַדְבְּרָא דִי רְדָפוּנוּן בֵּיהּ וְאִתְקְטָלוּ כּוּלְהוֹן לְפִתְגַם דְחָרֶב עַד דִשְׁלִימוּ וְתָבוּ כָל יִשְׂרָאֵל לְעַי וּמְחוֹ יָתָהּ לְפִתְגַם דְחָרֶב:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 8:24 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jos 8:24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

Ver. 24. Returned unto Ai, and smote it.] Diruendi sunt corvorum nidi, crows’ nests are to be destroyed, lest they nest and lay there again the next year. If this city had been suffered to stand, the Canaanites might have fortified it again against them, while they were led farther to mount Ebal, and mount Gerizim.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Jos 8:24-25. The Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it — That is, the inhabitants of it, the men who, through age and infirmity, were unfit for war, and the women, Jos 8:25. Twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai — Not strictly, but largely so called; all who were now in Ai, either as constant and settled inhabitants, or as sojourners, and such as came to them for their help.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

For the fire, which they had before set in the city, was not to consume it, but to signify unto Joshua that they were entered.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword--the women, children, and old persons left behind, amounting, in all, to twelve thousand people [Jos 8:25].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 24. Returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.] This must refer to the women, children, and old persons, left behind; for it is likely that all the effective men had sallied out when they imagined the Israelites had fled. See Jos 8:16.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai,.... That came out against them:

in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them; both in the arable lands that were sown with corn, and now clothed with it, the wheat especially, not being gathered in, as not yet ripe, and in the pasture ground, designed by the wilderness, see Jos 8:15; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it:

and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword; and were slain by it:

until they were consumed; and not one left:

that all the Israelites returned unto Ai; both the ambush that came out of it, and the army that came against it:

and smote it with the edge of the sword; that is, the inhabitants that were left in it unfit for war, as old men, infirm persons, women and children, as follows.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

i.e. The inhabitants of it, the men, who through age or infirmity were unfit for war, and the women, Jos 8:25.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

24. Smote it with the edge of the sword — The non-combatant population, without regard to age or sex, were indiscriminately slain. For several considerations in justification of the total excision of the Canaanites, see note on Jos_6:21.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

In the wilderness. The LXX must have read drwOMb in the going down, or descent. Returned unto Ai and smote it. According to God"s command, the defenceless inhabitants must share the fate of the army. (see Deu_20:17)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Smote it - That is, the inhabitants of it, the men, who through age or infirmity were unfit for war, and the women, ver. 25.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants ... when all of them ... had fallen by the edge of the sword

The writer uses both of these sentences, which mean almost the same thing, to strongly say that the Israelites had obeyed God's command to kill everyone in Ai. (See: Parallelism)

had fallen by the edge of the sword

Here "fallen" is a euphemism for dying. Also, "the edge of the sword" represents whole swords, and swords represent either battle or the army of Israel. AT: "had died in battle" or "had died when the army of Israel attacked them" (See: Euphemism and Metaphor)

twelve thousand

"12,000" (See: Numbers)

translationWords

Israel

Ai

desert

sword

Joshua

spear

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 27 words (19 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻAy (“Ai”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʻAy carries the sense “Ai.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 12:8 shares the word «Ai» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“all” occurs 3× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַיְהִ֣י» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 27 Hebrew ↔ 41 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 19 words in this verse.
“all” occurs 3× in this single verse.
19 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 27 words in this verse.