ABSTRACT
Few stories in the Bible are more dramatic than that told about the city of ˛Ai in Joshua 7-8 (˛Ai is mentioned in the Bible a total of 31 times. All but five of these references are in Josh. 8-12. The site is mentioned twice in Genesis (12: 8; 13: 3), and once each in Ezra 2: 28; Neh. 7: 32; and Jer. 49: 3). Biblical ˛Ai is identified by most scholars with Khirbet et-Tell (“ruin of the tell”) which is located about nine miles northeast of Jerusalem. The story of the battles between the Israelites and the citizens of ˛Ai seems on the surface to be straightforward and matter-of-fact. After an initial humiliating defeat in which “about thirty-six” Israelites were killed ( Josh. 7: 5), Joshua prepared and carried out a ruse ( Josh. 8: 3ff.) that resulted in drawing the men of ˛Ai out of the “city” where they were ambushed and slaughtered. In all, counting men and women, we are told that 12,000 people were killed (8: 25). The “city” was burned, and the body of its king, who had been hung, was cast into the “city” gate, implying that the “city” was fortified ( Josh. 8: 24-29). The story of ˛Ai is told within the larger context of the “conquest” of Canaan by the “Israelites,” who after a “forty”-year wandering in the wilderness invaded Canaan from the Transjordan opposite Jericho. The destruction of ˛Ai thus serves as a paradigm of “Holy War” reflecting the theology of the biblical writer(s).
