Joshua 8:24-29 meaning

In Joshua 8:24-29, the fallout of Ai's defeat by Israel is recorded. The Israelites take spoils for themselves and the king of Ai is executed and buried.

During Israel's first attempt to conquer Ai, the enemy defeated them and caused them to retreat to their camp (Joshua 7:4-5). This was because the LORD was not blessing Israel's military efforts due to Achan's disobedience during the conquest of Jericho (Joshua 7:1).

God put a curse upon Israel to fail in their military efforts, due to Achan's sin, because Israel was the chosen people of God, and there was a covenant/treaty between God and Israel. Israel had promised to obey the conditions of the treaty. God promised blessings for obedience and cursings for disobedience, to which Israel agreed. The cursings would be the negative consequences for disobedience to the provisions in the Suzerain-Vassal style treaty that God entered into with Israel, that had just been renewed by this current generation of Israelites (Deuteronomy 26:17). In this renewal, God stated,

"But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…The LORD shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth."
(Deuteronomy 28:15, 25)

After Joshua discovered that it was Achan who had sinned and brought the curse upon Israel, Achan was duly punished, and God removed the curse, then encouraging Joshua to be strong and courageous as the Israelites marched against Ai a second time (Joshua 8:1).

The king of Ai and his people thought the second battle against Israel would be a replay of the first. But this time, the LORD was once again with His people. If the Israelites obeyed him, which they had, He promised to ensure victory over their enemies (Deuteronomy 28:7).

Once the soldiers of Ai saw that the Israelite forces were gathering to attack them, they acted quickly to meet them, not knowing there was an ambush waiting for them on the west side of Ai. Joshua and the main fighting force pretended to lose strength. They fled to the desert to trick their enemy and draw them away from their city, allowing the ambush to unfold. The plan worked to perfection.

When Joshua prepared to attack Ai, the LORD commanded him to raise his javelin toward Ai, symbolizing Israel's victory. Joshua obeyed the divine instructions. He stretched out his javelin, and the Israelites in hiding seized the abandoned city and burned it, confusing the Ai soldiers who pursued Joshua and his forces. God's people surrounded the forces of Ai on all sides and slew the enemy, but brought their king alive to Joshua (vv. 18-23):

Now when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword (v. 24).

After the Israelites had killed all the soldiers of Ai, they turned their attention to its inhabitants. In so doing, they defeated them completely: All who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000 (v. 25). This number includes all the people of Ai. Thus, Israel's second battle against Ai was successful because the LORD was with them. They dedicated the battle to the covenant God.

From a divine perspective, Israel's battle against Ai depended solely on the LORD, who accompanied His covenant people and gave them all the necessary instructions (Joshua 8:2). Israel's victory was due to Joshua's obedience to the divine commands because he did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai (v. 26). He followed the LORD's instructions thoroughly.

Having eliminated the inhabitants of Ai, Israel took only the cattle and the spoils of that city as plunder for themselves (v. 27). The plunder refers to any removable goods seized during war (1 Samuel 30:19). During the conquest of Jericho, the Israelites were to refrain from taking any plunder for themselves (Joshua 6:18-19). They could only take spoils for the Tabernacle. However, in the conquest of Ai, God permitted them to gather spoils and livestock. Thus, they did according to the word of the LORD which He had commanded Joshua (vv. 1-2). The Israelites obeyed their leader Joshua who obeyed God. As a result, He granted them victory over their foes.

After the city was plundered, then it was burned completely: Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever (v. 28). Only part of the city had been set on fire during the battle, apparently, but now every inch of it was burned into an ash heap. As a result, the Israelites left Ai in ruins, making it a desolation until this day. The temporal phrase until this day refers to when the writer wrote this book.

Lastly, Joshua executed the king of Ai: He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening (v. 29). To hang up someone on a tree means to fix his dead body to a pole or a stake driven into the ground. Many ancient Near Eastern nations used this practice to execute criminals and shame them (Genesis 40:19, 2 Samuel 4:12, Esther 2:23).

Joshua put the king of Ai to shame by hanging his body on a tree, and by extension, putting to shame the false gods the Canaanites worshipped. But Joshua did not let the body stay there overnight. The Mosaic Law explicitly states, "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day" (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). Thus, at sunset Joshua gave command, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate.

Joshua follows the Law of Moses exactly. The king hangs on a tree as a sign of shame and judgment. He is taken down before sunset, as the Law requires. That law explains why: anyone hung on a tree is "accursed of God." The body on a tree declares: this person came under God's judgment.

Many centuries later, Paul quotes that exact verse from the Law in Deuteronomy when he explains what Jesus did on the cross: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13; see others: Acts 5:30, 10:39). The king of Ai, who ruled a Canaanite city devoted to the worship of idols and all the evils entailed thereof, bore the curse he earned. But Jesus was innocent and bore the curse we earned.

In biblical times, city gates were places of central activities. It was where many people conducted business transactions and made public announcements. The elders usually sat there to decide cases and pass judgment (Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Ruth 4:1-11). Since the city gate was essential for community action, Joshua exposed the king’s body there to shame him. It was the most central place for traffic, where the victorious Israelites and any other witnesses could observe the total defeat of the fallen Canaanite king.

After taking the body down, Joshua also raised over it a great heap of stones that stands to this day. A burial cairn was raised, built of stones into a great heap, a hill of rocks which covered the body and protected it from the elements and scavenging animals. The king’s tomb served as a memorial to confirm the totality of Ai’s defeat and the king’s death by God’s covenant people, and was still standing during the time in which the author of Joshua made this record. Those who read this account when it was first written could go and see the desolation of the city of Ai and the great heap of stones which covered the body of its dead king.