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Joshua 8:21

in Joshua 8

When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.

KJV

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.

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This verse in Joshua 8

Commentary

3 notes on this verse
And when Joshua,.... Or "for Joshua" (z): and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city; which they knew by the smoke, as follows: and that the smoke of the city ascended; in large columns, which sufficiently indicated that the whole city was taken and fired by the ambush: then, or, "and": they turned again and slew the men of Ai; great numbers of them. (z) ויהושע "et enim Josua", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Masius.

This site's exposition

When the men of Ai turned and looked back

on Joshua 8:20-22

Israel runs this tactic against Benjamin at Gibeah in Judges 20, with an ambush, a feigned flight and a signal of smoke. The tactic God prescribes here against a Canaanite city is turned on an Israelite tribe two books later. The men of Ai are caught between the two forces.

This site's exposition

smoke was rising from it

Israel reads the capture from the smoke, which John Gill pictures rising in large columns. Gill notes that the verse can open with for rather than when, as Junius, Tremellius and Piscator render it. Read that way, it explains the turn in verse 20.

The words behind it

18 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וִיהוֹשֻׁ֨עַand Joshua

    vihoshua'H3091 →218 times

  • וְכָֽל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֜לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • רָא֗וּthey saw

    rauH7200 →1300 times

  • כִּֽי־that

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • לָכַ֤דit had captured

    lakhadH3920 →121 times

  • הָֽאֹרֵב֙the ambush

    haorevH693 →41 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הָעִ֔ירthe city

    hairH5892 →1090 times

  • וְכִ֥יand that

    vekhiH3588 →4482 times

  • עָלָ֖הit went up

    ʾalahH5927 →890 times

  • עֲשַׁ֣ן[the] smoke of

    ʾashanH6227 →

  • הָעִ֑ירthe city

    hairH5892 →1090 times

  • וַיָּשֻׁ֕בוּand they turned back

    vaiyashuvuH7725 →1056 times

  • וַיַּכּ֖וּand they attacked

    vaiyakuH5221 →499 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • אַנְשֵׁ֥י[the] men of

    ʾansheiH582 →566 times

  • הָעָֽי׃<the> Ai

    haaiH5857 →40 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Joshua

Joshua Burns the Town of Ai — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Joshua Burns the Town of Ai — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Joshua: the study guide →Read Joshua 8 →

This page draws on John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth.

Read on in Joshua 8 →