Joshua 8:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 8:22
And the other issued out of 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.
these or those · conjunction + demonstrative particle
out
יָצְא֤וּya.tze.'U
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
city
הָעִיר֙ha.'Ir
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
against
קִרְאָהqirʼâh
H7125
an encountering
midst
בַּתָּ֔וֶךְba.Ta.vekh
H8432
a bisection · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Israel
לְיִשְׂרָאֵל֙le.Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · preposition + proper noun, a place name
smote
וַיַּכּ֣וּvai.ya.Ku
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
that
עַד'ad-
H5704
as far (or long · preposition
let
הִשְׁאִֽירhish.'ir-
H7604
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
remain
שָׂרִ֥ידsa.Rid
H8300
a survivor · noun, common masculine singular absolute
escape
וּפָלִֽיטu.fa.Lit
H6412
a refugee · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with…
Joshua 6:21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the swo…
Joshua 10:28 And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the sou…
Joshua 11:11-12 And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and h…
Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Luke 17:26-30 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 8:3-22
We have here an account of the taking of Ai by stratagem. The stratagem here used, we are sure, was lawful and good; God himself appointed it, and we have no reason to think but that the like is lawful and good in other wars. Here was no league broken, no treaty of peace, that the advantage was gained; no, these are sacred things, and not to be jested with, nor used to serve a turn; truth, when once it is plighted, becomes a debt even to the enemy. But in this stratagem here was no untruth told; nothing was concealed but their own counsels, which no enemy ever pretended a right to be entrusted with; nothing was dissembled, nothing counterfeited but a retreat, which was no natural or necessar…
Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city--The uplifted spear had probably a flag, or streamer on it, to render it the more conspicuous from the height where he stood. At the sight of this understood signal the ambush nearest the city, informed by their scouts, made a sudden rush and took possession of the city, telegraphing to their brethren by raising a smoke from the walls. Upon seeing this, the main body, who had been reigning a flight, turned round at the head of the pass upon their pursuers, while the twenty-five thousand issuing from their ambuscade, fell back upon their rear. The Ai-ites surprised, looked back, and found their situation now desperate.
Adam Clarke on Joshua 8:20
They had no power to flee this way or that way - They were in utter consternation; they saw that the city was taken, they found themselves in the midst of their foes; that their wives, children, and property, had fallen a prey to their enemies, in consequence of which they were so utterly panic-struck as to be incapable of making any resistance.
John Gill on Joshua 8:22
And the other issued out of the city against them,.... That is, the ambush, or at least a part of them:
so that they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side; or, as we commonly say, they were between two fires, the ambush on one side, the army of Israel on the other:
and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape; not one was saved alive, excepting their king, as in Joshua 8:23; no quarter was given them, nor any suffered to make their escape.
The Church Fathers
But let us see what is also written in what follows: "and they struck them," he says, "with the edge of the sword, until there was not left of them one who might be saved, nor who might escape." When the Jews read these things, they become cruel and thirst for human blood, thinking that the saints too struck those who inhabited Ai, so that "there should not be left of them one who might be saved, nor who might escape," not understanding that in these words mysteries are foreshadowed, and that this is rather indicated to us, that of these whose dwelling is chaos and who reigned in the abyss, of the demons, we ought to leave none at all, but to slay them all. But we slay the demons not by destroying their very substance; but because their work and their zeal is this, to make men sin, and this is their life, if we sin, without doubt it is their destruction, if we do not sin. Therefore the saints slay the inhabitants of Ai and destroy them and do not let go one of them — those, without doubt, who with all diligence guard their heart, lest "evil thoughts proceed" from it; but also those who watch over their mouth, so that "every evil word may not proceed from" their "mouth": this is "to leave none who might escape," when no evil word escapes them either. Come, then, you too, let us prepare ourselves for battles of this kind, let us strike Ai "with the edge of the sword" and extinguish all who inhabit chaos, all the contrary powers. Would that I too, even now, while I speak the word of God to you, might be able to strike the heart of the sinner! For if I do so, it is certain that with the "sword of my mouth" I shall strike fornication, I shall strike malice, I shall repress fury and, if there are any other evils, "with the edge of the sword," that is, with the speech of my mouth, I shall quench them and "shall not leave of them one who might be saved, nor who might escape." For if we extinguish all these enemies of ours, then we shall truly celebrate a feast day to God and, our adversaries being vanquished, we shall rejoice with glad solemnity. Some such thing seems to me to be signified also by the holy prophet in the psalms, where he says of himself that "in the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity." For whether "the city of the Lord" is taken to be the church of the living God, the…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ai — Ruins. (1.) One of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Josh. 10:1; Gen. 12:8; 13:3). It was the scene of Joshua’s defeat, and afterwards of his victory. It was the second Canaanite city taken by…
Ambush — Joshua at the capture of Ai lay in ambush, and so deceived the inhabitants that he gained an easy victory (Josh. 8:4-26). Shechem was taken in this manner (Judg. 9:30-45. Comp. Jer. 51:12).
Heap — When Joshua took the city of Ai (Josh. 8), he burned it and “made it an heap [Heb. tel] for ever” (8:28). The ruins of this city were for a long time sought for in vain. It has been at length,…
Ambush · .At Ai — .At Ai
Strategy · In war — In war
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Joshua 8:1-29
Joshua 8:1-29
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:
1. Dixitque Jehova ad Josuam, Netimeas, nec formides, sume tecum omnem populum bellicosum, et surge, ascende in Hai. Vide, dedi in manu tua regem Hai, ac populum ejus, urbem ejus, et terram ejus.
2. And thou shall do to Ai and her king as thou did unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall you take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.
2. Faciesque Hai, et regi ejus, quemadmodum feci…
Conquest and Burning of Ai. - Jos 8:1, Jos 8:2. After the ban which rested upon the people had been wiped away, the Lord encouraged Joshua to make war upon Ai, promising him that the city should be taken, and giving him instructions what to do to ensure the success of his undertaking. With evident allusion to Joshua's despair after the failure of the first attack, the Lord commences with these words, "Fear not, neither be thou dismayed" (as in Deu 1:21; Deu 31:8), and then commands him to go against Ai with all the people of war. By "all the people of war" we are hardly to understand all the men out of the whole nation who were capable of bearing arms; but as only a third of these were contr…
