Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Joshua, and here rendered trouble.

But there is reason

He is called

to believe, that Joshua used that word, because the name of the criminal was Achor, not Achan. Achor in 1 Chron. ii. 7, and by Josephus.

SECTION V.-THE FALL OF AI.
JOS. VIII.

1. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed; take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.

ambush, and seize upon the city; for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.

8. And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire: according to the commandment of the Lord shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.

9. Joshua therefore sent them

2. And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil there-forth, and they went to lie in amof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves. Lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.

3. So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai:

bush, and abode between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.

10. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the and Joshua chose out thirty thou-people, and went up, he and the sand mighty men of valour, and elders of Israel, before the people sent them away by night. to Ai

4. And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city; go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready:

5. 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,

6. (For they will come out after us,) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first; therefore we will flee before them.

7. Then ye shall rise up from the

[ocr errors]

11. And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.

12. And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

13. And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

Take all the people of war with thee. This time, though the Lord would favor the Israelites, he required that they should go against the city with a formidable

force. On the former occasion, besides resting under the guilt of Achan's sin, the number of men sent against the city was inadequate to the undertaking.

Joshua was to do by Ai as he had done by Jericho, with one exception The spoil should be saved including the cattle. The reason of this exception does not appear in the record. As the people had not eaten much animal food of late, there may have been danger of excess, if they had been allowed the animals of both these cities, an error that had proved fatal to many on another occasion before reaching Canaan.

This was but

Joshua chose out thirty thousand men. a fraction of his army-a small detachment, sent by night to form an ambuscade. If we can estimate how far such a body of men could march, in one night, we can make an estimate that will not vary far from the truth in regard to the distance.

Josephus speaks of Ai as above Jericho. Jericho was in the valley of the Jordan and near that river. Ai was on the high land back some miles from the valley. know its neighborhood, but not its exact location.

We

He pitched on the north side of Ai. He must therefore have gone nearly or quite round the city. He would be least expected from that quarter, as the Hebrew camp was in the opposite direction. Joshua was now on the north, and the ambush was on the west.

He took about five thousand men, &c. It is a little remarkable that Joshua should now send five thousand men, as an ambush, to precisely the same spot to which he had sent thirty thousand before. The probability is, that the five thousand were sent to a position farther west, and nearer to Bethel, to act with reference to the latter place, whose people fought on the side of the men of Ai. viii. 17.

JOS. VIII.

14. And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted, and rose up early; and the

men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his peo ple, at a time appointed, before the

plain; out he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

15. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

16. And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side, and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

23. And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

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,

all the Israelites returned us. to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

25. And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

17. And there was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.that 18. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. 26. For Joshua drew not his 19. And the ambush arose quick-hand back, wherewith he stretched ly out of their place, and they ran out the spear, until he had utterly as soon as he had stretched out his destroyed all the inhabitants of hand: and they entered into the city Ai. and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.

20. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven; and they had no power to flee this way or that way, and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

21. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai

22. And the other issued out of

27. Only the cattle, and the spoil of that city, Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the Lord, which he commanded Joshua.

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

29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until even-tide and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.

"Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand." This was the signal to the men in ambush to do their part. They may have been near enough to see it. Or the signal may have been made by men, stationed at different

points, till it reached those for whom it was intended. It was customary in ancient times to communicate important news in this way.

The ruse de guerre was entirely successful. How could it be otherwise, when Jehovah himself planned it?

They let none of them remain or escape. This must not be interpreted too strictly, for we find this place inhabited at a subsequent period. Ezra ii. 28; Neh. vii. 32. It may be added that both Bethel and Ai (the latter then called Hai) belong back to the time of Abram.

He once built an altar near the spot where the ambush of Joshua was stationed. Gen. xii. 8; xiii. 3. Bethel was then called Luz; it was not called Bethel till Jacob lodged there.

After smiting and destroying all the men of Ai in the field, the army of Joshua enters the city and puts its inhabitants to the sword. This shows the necessity of care not to interpret universal or unlimited expressions too literally. All the people of Ai went out against the Israelites, verse 16; and the latter slew them all, so as to let none remain, verse 22; and now these last enter the city and put the inhabitants to the sword!

Twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. It is not strange that Joshua succeeded, when thirty thousand was only a small detachment of his armymore than

all the people of Ai.

We have reason

The king of Ai he hanged on a tree. to believe that with the ancient Hebrews, hanging on a tree, as well as burning, was a post mortem infliction. See the law relating to hanging on a tree. Deut. xxi. 22, 23. The hanging was intended as a warning to passers-by, and therefore the criminal was not allowed to remain suspended over night. That killing took place, before hanging on the tree, may be seen by consulting x. 26. The heap of stones over the place where the king was buried, would be a memorial, for a long time, of the fact here recorded.

SECTION VI.—BLESSINGS AND CURSINGS.

JOS. VIII.

30. Then Joshua built an altar | Levites, which bare the ark of the unto the Lord God of Israel in mount Ebal;

31. As Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, An altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lifted up any iron; and they offered thereon burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peaceofferings.

32. And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presenee of the children of Israel. 33. And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark, and on that side, before the priests the

covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as he that was born among them: half of them over against mount Gerizim and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the children of Israel.

34. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings aud cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.

35. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the wo. men, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.

Moses, just before his death, had instructed the people, when they should be established in Canaan, to divide the tribes into two equal portions; and, placing one division on mount Ebal and the other on mount Gerizim, to pronounce certain cursings and blessings in their hear ing. Deut. xxvii. 1-26. See Bib. Review. Vol. iii. p. 477. The moral effect of such a scene was, no doubt, the ground on which it was enjoined.

The Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch differs from ours, in respect to the names of these mountains. Where we have Gerizim it has Ebal and vice versa. The Samaritans maintain that theirs is the true reading, and that the alteration in our copy has been made by the Jews; while the Jews throw back the charge of fraud, in altering the text, upon the Samaritans.

The ground of the dispute is, that the Jewish reading places the tribes of Judah and Benjamin on the mount of blessing, together with four of the other tribes, leaving the balance on the mount of cursing. Changing the names of the mountains, reverses the order, and places

« PredošláPokračovať »