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Chapter 8: The Capture of Ai
Joshua 8:1-9 ~ Joshua's battle plan
God commands Joshua to set an ambush for the king of Ai and his soldiers. St. Augustine wrote that deception in war is permissible if the war was a just war to right an injustice or remedy crimes against the innocent (Augustine, Questions on Joshua, 10-11). They will march about twelve miles "up" to Ai because the town in located in the central hill country at a higher elevation that Jericho and Gilgal. Joshua is told to take "all your fighting men." "All" in Scripture does not necessarily mean the entire amount "it often means the complete amount or is used as a general term.
Question: What is different in Yahweh's orders concerning the capture of Ai compared to the capture of Jericho?
Answer: Unlike Jericho, the Israelites are permitted to take spoils and cattle.
Scripture does not tell us why the Israelites are allowed to keep the spoils of war taken from Ai. Perhaps it is Yahweh's reward for their faithfulness in discovering the sin of Achan and for rendering the very difficult and harsh punishment for a respected family of the community. The Church is often called upon to make such harsh or unpopular judgments. Ten percent of those condemned to death in the notorious Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland were Catholic clergy and religious who condemned Catholics in their congregations and communities for supporting the evil Nazi regime or actively worked against it. A few fearless bishops in the United States have refused communion in their diocese to popular Catholic politicians who actively support abortion legislation in Congress. And fearless priests have risked the displeasure of their congregations by preaching against divorce, abortion, and couples openly living together in sin. These fearless men and women understood that taking a stand against sin includes the responsibility of disciplining professing Christians who support it, no matter what the cost to them personally in offending a powerful person or persons, or damaging their popularity within their parishes.
Joshua 8:9-13 ~ The Israelites prepare for the battle
There are two groups of Israelite warriors. Unlike the first attack on Ai, Joshua will lead the warriors in the second attack. They marched from Gilgal to Ai at night. According to Egyptian records, their armies, much larger and more cumbersome than the lightly armed Israelites, could travel about a dozen miles in a day from dawn to evening camp (Boling and Wright, Joshua, page 238) and Ai was about 12 miles from Gilgal. Verse 9 is the night previously mentioned in verse 3; it is the first of two nights. There is no contradiction between verses 9 and 13; these refer to successive nights "the first night Joshua is with the main force and the second night he is in the valley with the ambush force. The main advance camped north of the town in a valley. Joshua then took five thousand or five contingencies of men and hid them to the west of Ai, the rear of the town (8:14) between Ai and Bethel. As before the battle for Jericho (5:13), Joshua walked out alone on to the plain to view of the targeted city.
Joshua 8:14-23 ~ The capture of Ai
"Arabah" means "desert plain" or "steppe." The region called the Arabah in this passage is the desert region of the rift valley north of the Dead Sea, sometimes called the "Sea of the Arabah" (2 Kng 14:25), and the valley along which the Jordan River runs. It was an important north-south route in biblical times. When the forces of Ai and Bethel set out in pursuit of the Israelites very early in the morning they chase them east toward the Jordan River valley, the ambush unit rose up from their hidden position in the small valley to the west and rushed toward the undefended town.
The object Joshua held out is identified in Hebrew by the rare word kidon (kee-dohn'). It is a weapon that is distinct from a sword (hereb) or a spear (hanit). It was undoubtedly some sort of fighting instrument, perhaps even the curved sickle-like Egyptian weapon called a kafish. The word in Hebrew comes from the root meaning "to strike," "destruction." The straight sword wasn't introduced until the end of the second millennium (Boling and Wright, Joshua, page 240). Joshua's weapon may have been the signal for the ambush troops, but it is uncertain if they could have seen it. It is more likely that it is a sign like Moses holding up his arms in the Exodus battle with the Amalekites (Ex 17:8-15). See other biblical references to this weapon (Job 39:23; 41:21; 1 Sam 17:6, 45; Jer 6:33; 50:42).
Joshua 8:26-29 ~ Ai is placed under herem "the curse of destruction
The king of Ai is captured and killed. No mention is made in this part of the narrative of the Bethel's king, but Joshua 12:16 records that Joshua and the Israelites also killed the king of Bethel.
Question: What is the significance of handing a condemned man on a tree? Why must the body be removed before sundown? See Dt 21:22-23.
Answer: It is the sign that he is cursed by God. Such a condemned man was not to remain on the tree after sundown. Sundown signals the next day, but the point was that the body not be allowed to decompose and fall upon the earth, thereby polluting the land.
Question: How does that verse apply to Jesus and the reason the Jews took Jesus to the Romans and demanded His crucifixion? See Jn 19:13, 31; Gal 3:13-14.
Answer: They wanted Jesus to be executed like a common criminal. They also wanted the Jews who followed Him to view Him as a man who was cursed by God and therefore not the Messiah. However, they failed to understand that Jesus was taking all the curses of the Sinai Covenant upon Himself and was fulfilling the Messiah's mission to bring His people to salvation: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by being cursed for our sake since Scripture says: Anyone hanged is accursed,' so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles in Christ Jesus, and so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (Gal 3:13-14).
In accordance with the Law, Jesus was removed from His Cross before sundown (Mt 27:57-60; Mk 15:42-47). The Jewish "evening" is our afternoon.
The Covenant Treaty Renewal Ceremony
The obligation of remaining faithful to the oath sworn of a covenant treaty will be the sub-theme of the narrative that runs from Joshua 8:30-10:15. It is a sub-theme that began with the covenant the Israelite's spies made with Rahab in chapter 2. The next part of the narrative answers the question why the central campaign was the first objective of the army of Israel "they had a rendezvous to keep between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim in central Canaan.
Joshua 8:30-35 ~ The treaty renewal ceremony on Mt. Ebal
The distance from Ai to Mt. Ebal is about twenty miles. In the valley between Ebal and Gerizim, Joshua convened the Assembly of Israel. In gathering this assembly (kahal/qahal in Hebrew meaning the "called out ones"), Joshua is fulfilling the instructions laid down by Moses for the covenant treaty renewal ceremony after the Israelites had entered the Promised Land and claimed possession of the territory (Dt 27:1-26). Reading that passage you will notice that more information is given concerning the ceremony than is given in Joshua 8:30-35.
Question: What additional information about the ceremony is included in Moses' instructions?
Answer:
- In addition to the altar of undressed stones, they were commanded to set up tall memorial stones coated with lime (plaster) upon which they were to write the Law [torah].
- The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin were to stand on the Mt. Ebal side of the valley pass between the two mountains while Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali will stand on the opposite side, with the Ark in the middle.
- The two groups must exchange the covenant blessings and curse-judgments.
- The priests were then to summarize twelve curse-judgments for the assembly, to which all the people were to answer "Amen" after each curse-judgment.
- The renewal with be sealed with whole burnt offerings and a communion meal.
"All the people" includes the Gentile resident aliens and Rahab's kinsmen. The covenant blessings and curse-judgments recited by the two groups are probably from the list in Deuteronomy chapter 28.
The ceremony is a renewal of the vassal-suzerainty covenant treaty ratified at Mt. Sinai. The altar Joshua built for the ceremony on the Mt. Ebal side of the valley is not a permanent altar. The Sanctuary altar can be the only permanent altar (Ex 27:1-8; 38:1-7; Lev 17:5-7; Dt 12:5-7, 11-12). This is a temporary altar only for the covenant treaty renewal ceremony like the altar Moses built at Mt. Sinai for the covenant treaty ratification ceremony (Ex 20:25; 24:4) before the Sanctuary altar was built. Unlike the Sanctuary altar that is made of bronze (Ex 27:1-8), this altar is made of undressed stones (Ex 20:24-25) like the primitive altars of the Patriarchs. The only other time such an altar is mentioned is in Moses' instructions for this future ceremony (Dt 27:5-6). The prohibition against using iron tools on the temporary altar may be to resist the temptation of making it an object of beauty that might tempt the Israelites to keep it as a permanent altar. While it has been suggested that the prohibition against iron was to keep the Israelites from carving pagan forms on the altar or using a man-made implement, wouldn't this temptation have been even greater in the forged bronze altar for the Sanctuary which was a man-made structure with a grate that covered a mound of earth?
Question: What will be offered on the altar?
Answer: Communal whole burnt offerings and communion/peace sacrifices.
The Ark of the Covenant, carried by the priests was in the valley between the two mountains.
Question: What is the composition of the two groups that will stand in the pass in front of the mountains on either side of the Ark?
Answer: There were Israelite men, women, and children, and there were also foreigners.
This treaty renewal ceremony is then a civil national Assembly. The kahal/qahal in Hebrew is the "Assembly/Congregation of Yahweh," serving as the national governing body similar to a national legislature. It was responsible for a broad range of judicial, political, and national policy matters (for example see Dt 5:19; 9:10; 10:4; 18:16; 23:2, 3, 4, 9; 31:30; 33:4 [khlt/qhlt]; Judg 20:2; 2 Sam 5:1-3; 20:14; 1 Kng 12:1, 3, 20 and verb forms in Dt 4:10; 31:12, 28). The national governing Assembly was the deliberative, decision-making assembly of the people, composed of all the adult male Israelites and resident aliens meeting in plenary session and sometimes refers to their tribal representatives acting as an executive committee. The Assembly of Israel convened to declare war on an enemy state, to elect a king, to adjudicate legal cases, to distribute land, and in covenant renewal ceremonies (where even women and children attended) allegiance was sworn anew in obedience to the Law of Yahweh as Israel's King.
The location of Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim is significant. These mountains are near the ancient city of Shechem. Shechem is located just east of Mt. Ebal and was overlooked by Mt. Ebal on the north and Mt. Gerizim on the south. Mt. Ebal is the higher of the two mountains and the only part of Canaan that cannot be viewed from Mt. Ebal is the Negeb to the far south. Shechem is located at a strategic position in the central hill country about 30 to 35 miles north of Jerusalem at the east end of the pass between the two mountains. It was where several trade routes converged with Shechem controlling the major north-south highway through the central hill country that led as far north as Megiddo, to Jerusalem and Hebron in the south and the east-west highway that moved westward from Shechem to Samaria on the coastal plain trade route called the "Way of the Sea." Whoever controlled the pass around Mt. Ebal could control all the hill country from a point just north of Jerusalem nearly to the Plain of Esdraelon in the north "a vast sweeping plain through which the Way of the Sea passed, connecting Canaan to both Egypt and Mesopotamia.
In his commentary on the Book of Joshua, Origen saw the Israelites divided into two groups on either side of the pass between the mountains as symbolic the two kinds of people who compose the covenant community: those who conform their lives to His statutes and laws out of love and gratitude to God and those who only profess love but who either serve Him out of fear of retribution or because of their fear of losing their status in the community. Mt. Gerizim will become the site of the Samaritan temple built in opposition to the Jerusalem Temple in the 6th century BC (read about the origins of the Samaritans in 2 Kng 17:24-41; also see 2 Mac 6:2 and Jn 4:20).
Chapter 9: The Israel's Covenant Treaty with the Gibeonites
Joshua 9:1-6 ~ The Canaanite coalition against Israel and the deception of the Gibeonites
Israel's victories at Jericho and Ai have united the Amorite and Canaanite kingdoms against Israel.
The Gibeonites were a group of Amorites and Hivites that lived in a region northwest of Jerusalem and belonged to a confederacy of four small towns (Josh 9:7, 17; 2 Sam 21:2). After hearing about Israel's victory over the city of Jericho and the small town of Ai, they decided not to throw in with the alliance of the Amorite and Canaanite kingdoms but instead sent their envoys to attempt to form a treaty relationship with the Israelites.
Joshua 9:6-18 ~ The Gibeonites make a covenant treaty with Israel
Question: Why was it clever of the Gibeonites to say that they had come from a distant place outside of Canaan? Why did the Israelites make a covenant treaty with them? See Dt 7:1-6 and 20:11, 15-18.
Answer: The Israelites were forbidden to make covenant treaties with the population that lived within the boundaries of Canaan. However, they were permitted to make treaties with towns lying outside the borders of Canaan. For a community outside the borders of Canaan, it was wise politically for Israel to establish a vassal-suzerain treaty, making the foreigners vassals of Israel.
In sharing food with the Gibeonites, the leaders of Israel performed an act of entering into a vassal-suzerain treaty with the Gibeonites; the covenant treaty was ratified by oath swearing and a shared meal (see Gen 31:46-47, 53-54). A covenant cannot be formed without an oath confirming the relationship. An oath is a conditional self-curse, as we used to swear to tell the truth in courtrooms with the words "so help me God," asking God to help us keep our oath to tell the truth and at the same time to act as our Divine judge as our self-curse if we failed to be truthful.
Question: What were the two failures of the leaders of Israel?
Answer: The Israelites' leaders not only violated the command not to make treaties with the residents of Canaan, but they failed to consult God in the matter.
It wasn't until three days later that the Israelites discovered the truth about the Gibeonites (two days as we count).
The community of Israel was not pleased that their leaders had allowed themselves to be deceived.
Joshua 9:19-27 ~ Israel's discovery of the deception the Gibeonites' place in the community
Question: When the leaders of Israel realized that they had been duped, why didn't they just repudiate the treaty?
Answer: They had sworn an oath to the Gibeonites, and despite the deception they felt that must remain true to their oath of friendship sworn in the name of Yahweh or the covenant curse for violating the covenant would fall on Israel.
Question: What penalty did Joshua impose on the Gibeonites for their deception and what was their reaction? See Josh 8:21, 23.
Answer: They became responsible for providing the water for the Sanctuary (and perhaps the camp of Israel) and for providing the wood for the Sanctuary's altar fires. They willingly (and perhaps gratefully) submitted to Joshua's penalty.
Joshua's treaty with Gideon was violated about two centuries later by King Saul who attempted to exterminate the Gibeonites. The covenant violation and blood-guilt resulted in a three year famine in Israel. The crime against Gibeon was expiated by King David (2 Sam 21:1-14).
CHALLENGE: “If Jesus existed, why don’t we have statements about him from non-Christian eyewitnesses of his ministry?”
DEFENSE: Because we would not expect to.
Based on events like the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand (Matt. 14:13–21, 15:32–38), we may estimate that the number of people who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry was in the tens of thousands. However, the vast majority were not among his constant companions and only encountered him on one or a handful of occasions. They were thus unlikely to leave a written account.
Further, the vast majority of them—like the vast majority in first-century Palestine—belonged to the rural lower class and were illiterate. The ancient Mediterranean world had a primarily oral culture, and most could not write, especially in rural places like Galilee.
Consequently, information about popular figures like Jesus was primarily passed on by oral tradition. Those most interested in passing on traditions about a teacher—whether in oral or written form were his disciples, who in this case would be Christians, the people that this challenge is excluding. Non-Christians would have little interest in passing on Jesus’ traditions, much less writing them down.
The number of people who were eyewitnesses of Jesus, non-Christian, able to write, and motivated to write about him was probably very small. It probably included only a few people, like the governor Pontius Pilate, the high priest Caiaphas, and some in their circles. Some of these people probably did write about Jesus.
In particular, Pilate likely recorded Jesus’ execution in government records. However, we have no records from any of these people—about anything. All the primary source Roman records perished, as did any kept by the Jewish authorities (lost when the Romans burned the Jerusalem temple in A.D. 70).
We know about people in this period (e.g., popular Jewish figures such as Honi the Circle Maker, Judas the Galilean, Theudas, and the revolutionary known as “the Egyptian”) not because we have eyewitness accounts, which are rare, but because they are mentioned by ancient historians and other writers. The same types of sources that speak of them also speak of Jesus. In fact, our evidence for Jesus is even better, as in his case we do have statements by eyewitnesses, such as his Christian followers Matthew and John.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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