Joshua 8:12
◄  Joshua 8:12  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

New Living Translation (©2007)
That night Joshua sent 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town.

English Standard Version (©2001)
He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
And he took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Now Joshua had taken about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Taking about 5,000 men, he set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai to the west of the city,

NET Bible (©2006)
He took five thousand men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel and Ai.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Joshua had taken about five thousand men and had them hide between Bethel and Ai, west of the city.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

American King James Version
And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

American Standard Version
And he took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the city.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he had chosen five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the same city:

Darby Bible Translation
Now he had taken about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city.

English Revised Version
And he took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the city.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he took about five thousand men; and set them to lie in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the city.

World English Bible
He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

Young's Literal Translation
And he taketh about five thousand men, and setteth them an ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city;

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:3-22 Observe Joshua's conduct and prudence. Those that would maintain their spiritual conflicts must not love their ease. Probably he went into the valley alone, to pray to God for a blessing, and he did not seek in vain. He never drew back till the work was done. Those that have stretched out their hands against their spiritual enemies, must never draw them back.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - And he took about five thousand men (see above, ver. 3). We must translate had taken. The repetition is quite in the manner of the Hebrew writers. This passage is of course, according to the Jehovist and Elohist theory, "quite irreconeilable" with the rest of the narrative. So we are told that this is a Jehovistic interpolation (Knobel). Of the city. The Masorites and LXX. prefer the reading Ai (i.e., עַי for עִיר.), in the margin of our Bibles, to that in the text, which is followed by the Vulgate and Luther.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush,.... This was another ambush, as both Jarchi and Kimchi observe; and the latter adds, perhaps he set them nearer the city than the former; though some are of opinion that these are the same ambush spoken of, whose number is here given, being set on the same side of the city; and they suppose that Joshua had with him but thirty thousand men in all, five thousand of which he sent to lie in ambush, and the other twenty five thousand remained with him; but it seems clear that all the men of war were to be taken, and were taken by them, and that out of them thirty thousand were sent by him to lie in wait at first, and now five thousand more:

between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city; and though they were on the same side of the city with the first and larger ambush, yet, as Abarbinel observes, they might be set nearer the city and to the army; and he supposes the first ambush was to take the city, and the second little ambush, as he calls it, was placed, that when the men of the city came out, they might make a noise and a stir, and skirmish with them, that so they might not come upon the camp suddenly.

Joshua 8:12 Parallel Commentaries

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Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


The Conquest of Ai
…11And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai. 12And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 13And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. …

Genesis 12:8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.
Genesis 28:19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
Joshua 8:11 The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city.
Joshua 8:13 So the soldiers took up their positions--with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.
Judges 1:22 Now the tribes of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the LORD was with them.