Joshua 7:2

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai,.... Which was the next city of importance, though not so large as Jericho, and was, as the Jews say (l), three miles distant from it; Abarbinel says (m) four

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai.

Ai, called Hai, , and Alia, . They were not to go into the city of Ai, but into the country bordering and belonging to it, and there to understand the state and quality of the place and people. Beside; so the Hebrew im is used, 35:4 18:3 19:11. Beth-aven; a city or town distinct from, but nigh unto Beth-el, though Beth-el was afterwards by allusion called Beth-aven, 10:5. Compare . On the east side of Beth-el: compare ,12.

Joshua 7:2 And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which [is] beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.Ver. 2. To Ai.] Called elsewhere Hai, and Aija; by the Septuagint, Gae; by Sulpitius, Geth. Which is beside Bethavon, on the east side of Bethel.] This Bethel, when Jeroboam had defiled it with his idolatry, is in scorn called Bethaven, the house of vanity. Har hamishca, Mount Olivet, is for the like cause called in derision Har hamaschith, the Mount of Corruption.

(2) Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai.—Why Ai should be the next town selected for attack after Jericho, is a question which perhaps we cannot answer with certainty. But we may observe that the next step after the capture of Ai, before the further conquest of the country, was to set up the Ten Commandments in Mount Ebal, in the heart of the country, and to pronounce there the blessing and the curse which are the sanction of the law of God. It may well be that the course of the first military operations was directed to this end. The capture of Ai would put the Israelites in possession of the main road running north and south through Palestine, and enable them to reach the centre immediately. Thus the character of the war, which was no mere human enterprise, is maintained; and it is probable that the Divine reason for the movement is that which we are intended to observe. For the first mention of Ai, see Genesis 12:8. It is noticeable that there Abram fitst pitched his tent after his return to Canaan out of Egypt. (See also on Joshua 8:1.) Note also that Beth-aven and Bethel are distinct, although adjacent, places. The one is not a later name of the other, as has been sometimes supposed, although one is “the house of vanity” (i.e., perhaps of idols) and the other “the house of God.”

Verse 2. Sent men from Jericho to Ai] This is the place called Hai, Genesis 12:8. It was in the east of Beth-el, north of Jericho, from which it was distant about ten or twelve miles. From Joshua 7:4-5 it appears to have been situated upon a hill, and belonged to the Amorites, as we learn from Joshua 7:7. It is very likely that it was a strong place, as it chose to risk a siege, notwithstanding the extraordinary destruction of Jericho which it had lately witnessed.

2. from Jericho to Ai] The country of Canaan seems in the time of Joshua to have been broken up into a number of small territories, each governed by an independent chief or “king,” who extended his rule from his fortified citadel to the district round. In Joshua 12:7-24, we find mention of no less than 32 such “kings.” A series of sieges, therefore, rather than of pitched battles, might be expected to characterise the campaigns of Joshua. which is beside Beth-aven] Ai had been already mentioned in Genesis 12:8, in connection with the history of Abraham, who is said to have removed from Shechem “to a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east.” Though smaller than Jericho, Ai was a position of great importance; (a) It dominated the road to Jerusalem, then called Jebus, and was situated only a few hours distant; (b) It commanded the approaches into the heart of the country, and especially the fertile district of Samaria; (c) Its fall virtually involved that of Bethel. Beth-aven lay between Bethel and Michmash (1 Samuel 13:5; 1 Samuel 14:23). In Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5, the name is transferred, with a play upon the word characteristic of the prophet, to the neighbouring Bethel, once the “house of God,” but then the house of idols, or “naught.” the east side of Beth-el] Bethel, formerly Luz (Genesis 28:19), was an ancient Canaanitish royal city. The name Bethel existed, it would seem, as early as the time of Abraham, who removed from the oaks of Mamre to the “mountain on the east of Bethel” (Genesis 12:8). Here he built an altar, and hither he returned from Egypt with Lot before their separation (Genesis 13:3-4). Even in those early times a distinction seems to have been drawn between the “city” of Luz and the consecrated “place” in its neighbourhood (Genesis 35:7) called “Bethel” by Jacob (a) Genesis 28:19, (b) Genesis 35:14-15, which name does not appear to have been appropriated to the city itself till after the conquest by Joshua (Joshua 16:1-2; Judges 1:22-26). Go up and view the country] So important did the Hebrew leader deem the position of Ai that he resolved to repeat the tactics already pursued at Jericho, and to send spies to “view the country.” For the use of “view” = to “survey,” “review,” comp. Ezra 8:15, “and I viewed the people and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi;” and Hall, Henry V., “Before whose arriuall the kyng was departed from Wyndsor to Winchester, entending to haue gone to Hampton and to haue vewed his nauie.” Shakespeare, Henry Josh v. 4. 21, “Therefore, I say,’tis meet we all go forth To view the sick and feeble parts of France.” See Bible Word Book, pp. 511, 512.

Ai, Bethel - See Genesis 12:8 note. (Modern travelers place the former at Khan Haiy, in the neighborhood of Deir Diwan.)

2. [From Jericho to Ai — A distance of about fifteen miles, and an ascent of more than 3,000 feet above the plain of the Jordan valley. See map below.