Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
Joshua 8:1-29
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:
Conquest and Burning of Ai. - Vv. 1, 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 Deut 1:21; 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 contributed by the two tribes and a half to cross over into Canaan and take part
in the war (see p. 25), the other tribes also are not likely to have levied more than a
third, say about 160,000, which would form altogether an army of about 200,000
men.
But even such an army as this seems out of all proportion to the size of Ai, with its
12,000 inhabitants (v. 25). On the other hand, however, we must bear in mind that the
expression "all the people of war" simply denotes the whole army, in contrast with
the advice of the spies that only a portion of the army should be sent (Josh 7:3), so
that we are not warranted in pressing the word "all" to absolutely;
(Note: "As we have just before seen how their hearts melted, God consulted their weakness , by putting
no heavier burden upon them than they were able to bear, until they had recovered from their alarm, and
hearkened readily to His commands." - Calvin. ) and also that this command of God was not given with
reference to the conquest of Ai alone, but applied at the same time to the conquest of the whole land,
which Joshua was not to attempt by sending out detachments only, but was to carry out with the whole of
the force at his command. `aalaah (OT:5927), to go up, is applied to the advance of an army against a
hostile town, independently of the question whether the town was situated upon an eminence or not, as
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