tise his people for meddling with the accursed thing, and this had puffed them up with a conceit, that they must have the honour of delivering their country from these formidable invaders; but they were soon made to see their mistake, and that when the Israelites had reconciled themselves to their God, they could have no power against them. God had made use of them only for the rebuking of Israel, with a purpose, when the correction was over, to throw the rod itself into the fire; howbeit, they meant not so, but it was in their heart to destroy and cut off, Isa. 10. 5··7.
4. What a complete victory Israel obtained over them by the favour and blessing of God. Each did his part, the divided forces of Israel, by signals agreed on, understood one another, and every thing succeeded according to the project; so that the men of Ai, then when they were most confident of victory, found themselves surrounded, so that they had neither spirit to resist nor room to fly, but were under a fatal necessity of yielding their lives to the destroyers. And now it is hard to say, whether the shouts of the men of Israel, or the shrieks of the men of Ai, were the louder, but easy to imagine what terror and confusion they were filled with, when their highest assurances sunk so suddenly into the heaviest despair. Note, The triumphing of the wicked is short, Job 20. 5. They are exalted for a little while, that their fall and ruin may be the sorer, Job 24. 24. See how easily, how quickly, the scale turns against them that have not God on their side.
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, that all the Israelites returned unto 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. 26. For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 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 a 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.
We have here an account of the improvement which the Israelites made of their victory over Ai.
1. They put all to the sword, not only in the field, but in the city, man, woman, and child, none of them remained, v. 24. God, the righteous Judge, had passed this sentence upon them for their wickedness, so that the Israelites were only the ministers of his justice, and the executioners of his doom. Once in this story, and but once, mention is made of the men of Beth-el, as confederates with the men of Ai, v. 17. Though they had a king of their own, and were not subjects to the king of Ai, (for the king of Beth-el is reckoned among the thirty-one kings that Joshua destroyed, ch. 12. 16.) yet Ai being a stronger place, they threw themselves into that, for their own safety, and the strengthening of their neighbours' hands, and so (we may presume) were all cut off with them; thus, that by which they hoped to prevent their own ruin hastened it. The whole number of the slain, it seems, was but twelve thousand, an inconsiderable body to make head against all the thousands of Israel; but whom God will destroy, he infatuates. Here it is said, v. 26, that Joshua drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out the spear, v. 18. till the slaughter was completed. Some think the spear he stretched out, was not to slay the enemies, but to animate and encourage his own soldiers, some flag or ensign being hung out at the end of this spear; and, they observe it as an instance of self-denial, that though the fire of courage wherewith his breast was filled, would have pushed him forward, sword in hand, into the hottest of the action, yet, in obedience to God, he kept the inferior post of a standard-bearer, and did not quit it till the work was done. By the spear stretched out, he directed the people to expect their help from God, and to him to give the praise.
2. They plundered the city, and took all the spoil to themselves, v. 27. Thus the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just; the spoil they brought out of Egypt, by borrowing of their neighbours, was much of it expended upon the tabernacle they had reared in the wilderness, for which they are now reimbursed with interest. The spoil here taken, it is probable, was all brought together, and distributed by Joshua in due proportions, as that of the Midianites was, Numb. 31. 26, &c. It was not seized with irregularity or violence, for God is the God of order and equity, and not of confusion.
3. They laid the city in ashes, and left it to remain so, v. 28. Israel must yet dwell in tents, and therefore this city, as well as Jericho, must be burnt. And though there was no curse entailed upon him that should rebuild it, yet, it seems, it was not rebuilt, unless it be the same with Aija, which we read of, long after, Neh. 11. 31. Some think it was not rebuilt, because Israel had received a defeat before it, the remembrance of which should be buried in the ruins of the city.
4. The king of Ai was taken prisoner and cut off, not by the sword of war, as a soldier, but by the sword of justice, as a malefactor. Joshua ordered him to be hanged, and his dead body thrown at the gate of his own city, under a heap of stones, v. 23, 29. Some particular reason, no doubt, there was for this severity against the king of Ai; it is likely he had been notoriously wicked and vile, and a blasphemer of the God of Israel, perhaps, upon occasion of the repulse he had given to the forces of Israel in their first onset. Some observe, that his dead body was thrown at the gate where he had been wont to sit in judgment, that so much the greater contempt might thereby be poured upon the dignity he had been proud of, and he might be punished for the unrighteous decrees he had made in the very place where he had made them. Thus the Lord is known by the judgments which he executes.
30. Then Joshua built an altar 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
