seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Joshua 8:1 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”
3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”
I see two subjects for discussion here. 3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”
First, in verse 2, the Israelites get to keep all their plunder this time. I guess God knows no one will be taking shiny little objects for their own without permission any more. The Israelites know now that it will draw capital punishment. They also know that God must have eyes everywhere. None of them saw Achan take that little shiny object but God knew anyway.
Second, The plan is to ambush those people in Ai. After killing 36 Israelites, and running them off with hearts melting in fear, the people in Ai are not expecting any attacks from the Israelites anytime soon. The soldiers at Ai should be totally surprised.
This is the plan according to Bible.org.
The strategy for the capture of Ai was ingenious. It involved placing an ambush behind (west of) the city. God Himself told Joshua to do this. The outworking of this plan involved three detachments of soldiers. The first was a group of commando-type warriors who were sent by night to hide on the west side of the city. Their mission was to rush into Ai and burn it after its defenders had deserted it to pursue Joshua and his army as they had previously done. This unit is said to have numbered 30,000. The presence of large rocks in the region made it possible for all these men to remain hidden, yet, this seems like an excessively large number of soldiers for this particular mission. Regarding the 30,000 Ryrie points out,
A seemingly large number for an ambush. It has been suggested that “thousand” should read “chief.” If so, Joshua sent 30 chiefs on a commando-type ambush.
The second contingent was the main army which walked the 15 miles from Gilgal early the next morning and camped in plain view on the north side of Ai. Led by Joshua, this army was a diversionary force to decoy the defenders of Ai out of the city.
The third contingent was another ambush numbering 5,000 men who were positioned between Bethel and Ai to cut off the possibility of reinforcements from Bethel to aid the men of Ai.
A seemingly large number for an ambush. It has been suggested that “thousand” should read “chief.” If so, Joshua sent 30 chiefs on a commando-type ambush.
The second contingent was the main army which walked the 15 miles from Gilgal early the next morning and camped in plain view on the north side of Ai. Led by Joshua, this army was a diversionary force to decoy the defenders of Ai out of the city.
The third contingent was another ambush numbering 5,000 men who were positioned between Bethel and Ai to cut off the possibility of reinforcements from Bethel to aid the men of Ai.
This is from the easy English site.
When Joshua attacked Ai the first time, the Lord had not told him to do so. Now that the Israelites had punished Achan, God gave instructions to Joshua. God told Joshua to take the whole army. God would give Ai to the Israelites.
God told the Israelites that they could keep the valuable things from Ai. Achan should have waited. He could have taken any valuable things from Ai.
God told the Israelites that they could keep the valuable things from Ai. Achan should have waited. He could have taken any valuable things from Ai.
Have you ever felt completely safe in times of real danger?
I found this really excellent video explanation.
[video=youtube;CF-Mh9AUB_I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF-Mh9AUB_I[/video]
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