Bible Strands
Joshua 8:24
When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and put it to the sword as well.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Israel’s movements immediately after the ambush at Ai succeeds and the city’s king is secured. The account falls within the conquest narrative at the moment the Israelite forces transition from pursuit to total occupation.
The words — כַלּוֹת (kha.Lot) marks the completed action of finishing or exhausting, paired with הֲרֹג (ha.Rog), the infinitive construct for killing. These terms frame the verse as a report of total execution rather than a partial engagement.
The thread — The pattern of complete conquest recurs in Joshua 10:30 and Joshua 11:10, where captured cities and their rulers are similarly delivered and put to the sword. Numbers 21:24 establishes the earlier precedent of Israel putting a king to the sword and taking possession of his territory.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that the campaign’s objective was total elimination, not territorial negotiation. It requires the reader to track the precise fulfillment of the commanded judgment without softening the reported violence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.
Cross-references
- Joshua 11:10 At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword, because Hazor was formerly the head of all these kingdoms.
- Numbers 21:24 And Israel put him to the sword and took possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok—but only up to the border of the Ammonites, because it was fortified.
- Joshua 10:30 And the LORD also delivered that city and its king into the hand of Israel, and Joshua put all the people to the sword, leaving no survivors. And he did to the king of Libnah as he had done to the king of Jericho.