for the first time on the day of the battle itself, or, what is more probable, had already sent men to Ai, to help to repulse the expected attack of the Israelites upon that town.
Verses 18-19
At the command of God Joshua now stretched out the javelin in his hand towards the town. At this sign the ambuscade rose hastily from its concealment, rushed into the town, and set it on fire. בּכּידון נטה signifies to stretch out the hand with the spear. The object יד, which is missing (cf. Jos 8:19, Jos 8:26), may easily be supplied from the apposition בּידך אשׁר. The raising of the javelin would probably be visible at a considerable distance, even if it was not provided with a small flag, as both earlier and later commentators assume, since Joshua would hardly be in the mist of the flying Israelites, but would take his station as commander upon some eminence on one side. And the men in ambush would have scouts posted to watch for the signal, which had certainly been arranged beforehand, and convey the information to the others.
Verses 20-22
The men of Ai then turned round behind them, being evidently led to do so by the Israelites, who may have continued looking round to the town of Ai when the signal had been given by Joshua, to see whether the men in ambush had taken it and set it on fire, and as soon as they saw that this had been done began to offer still further resistance to their pursuers, and to defend themselves vigorously against them. On looking back to their town the Aites saw the smoke of the town ascending towards heaven: “and there were not hands in them to flee hither and thither,” i.e., they were utterly unable to flee. “Hand,” as the organs of enterprise and labour, in the sense of “strength,” not “room,” for which we should expect to find להם instead of בּהם. There is an analogous passage in Psa 76:6, “None of the men of might have found their hands.” For the people that fled to the wilderness (the Israelitish army) turned against the pursuers (the warriors of Ai), or, as is added by way of explanation in Jos 8:21, when Joshua and all Israel saw the town in the hands of the ambuscade, and the smoke ascending, they turned round and smote the people of Ai; and (Jos 8:22) these (i.e., the Israelites who had formed the ambuscade) came out of the town to meet them. “These” (Eng. the other), as contrasted with “the people that fled” in Jos 8:20, refers back to “the ambush” in Jos 8:19. In this way the Aites were in the midst of the people of Israel, who came from this side and that side, and smote them to the last man. “So that they let none of them remain:” as in Num 21:35 and Deu 3:3, except that in
