Joshua 7:2-5
They are but few
The scouting report is accurate and the conclusion drawn from it is wrong. Thirty-six men die and the nation loses its nerve.
Places of the Bible
Ai
A small town that beat a nation, because of something buried under a tent thirty miles away.
The scouts are confident and the advice is sensible: make not all the people to labour thither, for they are but few. Three thousand go up and are chased from before the gate, and thirty-six men die, and the hearts of the people melted and became as water. The account has already told the reader what the scouts did not know, in a single verse at the head of the chapter about Achan and a wedge of gold and a Babylonish garment.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Ai
- 01
- 02
Joshua 7:10-12
Wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face
Prayer is interrupted rather than answered. The reason for the defeat is stated as a fact about the camp, not about Ai.
- 03
Joshua 7:16-21
I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid
The search narrows by lot through tribe, family and household. The confession is four verbs long and entirely accurate.
- 04
Joshua 8:1-8
Lay thee an ambush for the city behind it
The second attempt is given a plan, and this time the spoil is explicitly allowed, which is what the first attempt lacked.
- 05
Joshua 8:30-35
He read all the words of the law
Straight after the battle the whole law is read aloud to everyone, including the women, the little ones, and the strangers among them.
Why it matters
Joshua tears his clothes and lies before the ark until evening, and the answer he gets is blunt: get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face. Israel hath sinned. The defeat is treated as information rather than misfortune, and the search that follows narrows by tribe, family and household until it reaches a man who confesses in one sentence, I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. Then Ai is taken on the second attempt with an ambush and a spear held out, and the altar on Ebal is built immediately afterwards.
2 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
