Joshua 8:28

28. a heap] “an everlasting toumbe,” Wyclif. Heb. a “Tel,” always with the article, The Tel, or Heap. “For a long time modern explorers in vain sought for the site of Ai, where they knew it must have stood. “The inhabitants of the neighbouring villages,” writes Canon Williams, “declared repeatedly and emphatically that this was Tel and nothing else. I was satisfied that it should be so when, on subsequent reference to the original text of Jos_8:28, I found it written that ‘Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a Tel for ever, even a desolation unto this day.’ There are many Tels in modern Palestine, that land of Tels, even Tel with some other name attached to it to mark the former site. But the site of Ai has no other name ‘unto this day.’ It is simply et-Tel = the Heap, ‘par excellence’.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jos 8:28 And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, [even] a desolation unto this day.

Ver. 28. And Joshua burnt Ai.] {See Trapp on "Jos 8:8"}

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.

8:28 Prior to its destruction, Ai was called by an unknown name. The writer of Joshua always referred to it as Ai (meaning “ruin”), the name it was given after its destruction.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That it could never be built again.

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

Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever--"For ever" often signifies "a long time" (Gen 6:3). One of the remarkable things with regard to the tell we have identified with Ai is its name--the tell of the heap of stones--a name which to this day remains [VAN DE VELDE].

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

Verse 28. Unto this day.] This last clause was probably added by a later hand.

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

(28) An heap for ever.—Heb., Tel-ôlam; modern name, Et-tel.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Joshua burnt Ai,.... The whole city, fire being only set before to a few houses, to make a smoke as a signal; he did with it as he had done with Jericho, for so he was ordered, Jos 8:2,

and made it an heap for ever; that is, for a long time, for it appears to have been rebuilt, and to have been inhabited by the Jews, after their return from their Babylonish captivity, Neh 11:31,

even a desolation unto this day; to the time of the writing of this book; and by what has been just observed, it appears that Ezra could not be the writer of it, since this city was inhabited in his time.

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

For ever, or for a long time. It was rebuilt before the captivity, 2 Esdras vii. 31.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

For ever, or, for a long time, as that word oft signifies, as Gen 6:3; Isa 42:14; for that it was after some ages rebuilt, may seem from Neh 11:31, unless that were another city built near the former, there being some little difference in the name also.

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

28. A heap for ever — [The word translated heap is תל, Tel, and strikingly confirms Capt. Wilson’s identification of the site of Ai with the mound still bearing, after the lapse of ages, the name Et-Tel, the ruined heap. Compare note on Jos_7:2.] Because the meaning of Ai is a heap of ruins the Rationalists build up a theory that the history of its conquest is a myth, growing out of ruins of unknown origin. But the city destroyed by Joshua may have taken the name of Ai or Hai, the ruins, from the ruins of a more ancient city out of which it may have been built.

Unto this day — This clause seems awkward, coming immediately after for ever, but it shows that the word for ever sometimes has a limited reference. Perhaps, however, the historian, or some later editor, meant by the former clause, closing with for ever, to express Joshua’s purpose to make Ai a perpetual desolation, and by the latter clause to indicate its fulfilment. The name of Ai appears again, after a thousand years, as inhabited. Neh_11:31. But it was probably on another site, just as there were an Old and a New Troy, an Old and a New Tyre.

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

And Joshua burnt Ai. He continued the work of destruction which the ambush had begun, until the city was entirely destroyed. The word in ver. 19 (prc) has rather the sense of kindling a fire; the word here (txy), more the sense of destruction by fire. A heap forever. a heap of eternity; i.e., a heap forever, at least up to the time of our writer. But the Ai mentioned in Ezr_2:28 may have been a city built, not on precisely the same spot, but near enough to it to take its name. And if Ai signifies ruins, and Dean Stanley be right in regarding it as referring to ruins in the days of the Philistines, the name would be particularly suitable to this particular city. Travellers have identified the place with Tel-el. Hajar, immediately to the south of the Wady Mutyah. But see note on Jos_7:2 for Robinson"s conclusion, which is confirmed by Canon Tristram, from the belief that Tel-el-Hajar does not answer to the description of Ai in the Scripture narrative. Hanged on a tree. Literally, "on the tree." Perhaps after his death, But see Gen_40:22 Deu_21:22. Until eventide. We find here a remarkable coincidence with the precept in Deu_21:23. The fact that no notice is here taken of that passage is conclusive against its having been inserted with a view to that precept in later times, and this affords a strong presumption against the Elohist and Jehovist theory. Heap. Here lG, an expression usually applied to a heap of stones, a cairn, though not always in precisely this sense. (see Jer_9:10)

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