The Ambush at Ai

With Achan’s execution, God turns from His burning anger against Israel. Nevertheless, with Israel’s earlier defeat at Ai fresh in his mind, Joshua likely is unsure of what to do next. At this point, God graciously comes to him with encouragement and guidance. He tells Joshua to put aside his fears and hesitations, for He is about to give Ai’s king, people, and land to Israel. He then gives Joshua his battle orders: He is to take all the Israelite soldiers and set an ambush against Ai. Once it is taken, it is to be burned and all its inhabitants killed, just as at Jericho. But unlike at Jericho, the Israelites will be allowed to keep the plunder and the livestock of Ai for themselves. How gracious of God to permit this so soon after Achan’s covetousness brought “trouble” on the nation. And yet, how sad that Achan, grasping and impatient, could not await this blessing.

With orders in hand, Joshua wastes no time. He musters his troops and deploys them according to God’s designs. He selects thirty thousand soldiers and orders them to hide “ ‘behind the city,’ ” that is, on the west side. He and the rest of the army will attack the city, he explains, then feign defeat to draw all the men of Ai away from the walls. Then those in ambush shall come out of hiding and take the city, for, Joshua says, “ ‘the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.’ ” To this point, the Israelite strategy seems clear, but the narrative becomes more difficult with verse 12, which notes that Joshua arrives at Ai and then sends five thousand men off to hide in ambush. Is this a second ambush? Or is this simply a recapitulation of the earlier deployment, with a possible scribal error accounting for the different figures? Scholars disagree, but Matthew Henry and others believe there was but one ambush consisting of five thousand, more than enough to take the city with its soldiers drawn away.

Not surprisingly, God’s plan works to perfection. Joshua and his men feign defeat, so that “all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them.” All the men of Ai go out and leave the city open. Then God tells Joshua to spring the trap. At God’s command, he holds out his spear, and the men in ambush move into the city and set it on fire. Then, and only then, do the men of Ai grasp Israel’s strategy, but they are caught between the hammer and the anvil.