Joshua 8:28

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

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Joshua	יְהוֹשֻׁ֖עַ ye.ho.Shu.a'	H3091	Jehoshua (i.e. Joshua) · proper noun, a man's name
burnt	וַיִּשְׂרֹ֥ף vai.yis.Rof	H8313	to be (causatively · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Ai	הָעָ֑י ha.'Ai	H5857	Ai · definite article + proper noun, a place name
made	וַיְשִׂימֶ֤הָ vay.si.Me.ha	H7760	to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
heap	תֵּל tel-	H8510	a mound · noun, common masculine singular construct
ever	עוֹלָם֙ o.Lam	H5769	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
desolation	שְׁמָמָ֔ה she.ma.Mah	H8077	devastation · noun, common feminine singular absolute
day	הַיּ֥וֹם hai.Yom	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + 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 13:16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof…
Joshua 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood:…
2 Kings 19:25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou should…
Isaiah 17:1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
Isaiah 25:2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
Jeremiah 9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Jeremiah 49:2 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be…
Jeremiah 50:26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Joshua 8:23-29

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, Jos 8:24. 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, Jos 8:17. 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, Jos 12:16), yet A…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 8:28

Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever--"For ever" often signifies "a long time" (Gen 6:3). One of the remarkable things with regard to the tell we have identified with Ai is its name--the tell of the heap of stones--a name which to this day remains [VAN DE VELDE].

Adam Clarke on Joshua 8:28

Unto this day - This last clause was probably added by a later hand.

John Gill on Joshua 8:28

And Joshua burnt Ai,.... The whole city, fire being only set before to a few houses, to make a smoke as a signal; he did with it as he had done with Jericho, for so he was ordered, Joshua 8:2, and made it an heap for ever; that is, for a long time, for it appears to have been rebuilt, and to have been inhabited by the Jews, after their return from their Babylonish captivity, Nehemiah 11:31, even a desolation unto this day; to the time of the writing of this book; and by what has been just observed, it appears that Ezra could not be the writer of it, since this city was inhabited in his time.

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…

The Church Fathers

But let us see what follows in the sequel: "and Jesus burned Ai," he says, "and it was made a wasteland, that it should not be inhabited forever." You see that these things which follow pertain more to the truth of the mystery than of the history. For that place of earth is not so much uninhabitable forever as the place of the demons will then be uninhabitable, when now no one will sin, "neither will sin reign" in anyone, when the devil and his angels will be delivered to eternal fire, our Lord Jesus Christ sitting as king and judge and saying to those who conquered, both the first and the last: "come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you by my Father." But to the others he will say: "go into the eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels," until he takes counsel with remedies for every soul, for those whom he himself knows, and "all Israel is made safe."
— Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.5

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…
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,…

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).

Joshua 8:28

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Joshua 8:23-29

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 8:28

Adam Clarke on Joshua 8:28

John Gill on Joshua 8:28

John Calvin on Joshua 8:1-29

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Joshua 8:28

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Joshua 8:23-29

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Joshua 8:28

Adam Clarke on Joshua 8:28

John Gill on Joshua 8:28

John Calvin on Joshua 8:1-29

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Joshua 8:1-29

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Joshua 8:28

Rashi on Joshua 8:22