Joshua 8:25

And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:23-29 God, the righteous Judge, had sentenced the Canaanites for their wickedness; the Israelites only executed his doom. None of their conduct can be drawn into an example for others. Especial reason no doubt there was for this severity to the king of Ai; it is likely he had been notoriously wicked and vile, and a blasphemer of the God of Israel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

No doubt Joshua had ascended the heights, most likely those to the north of the valley, so as to separate himself from the flying Israelites on the lower ground, and to be visible to the men in ambush behind the city. He now, at the command of God, gives the appointed signal to the ambush.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword—the women, children, and old persons left behind, amounting, in all, to twelve thousand people [Jos 8:25].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Not strictly, but largely so called, who were now in Ai, either as constant and settled inhabitants, or as sojourners, and such as came to them for their help, such as being confederate with them are esteemed as one with them; for it is evident that the men of Beth-el are included in this number, Joshua 8:17, the Israelites who took this number being unable to distinguish who belonged to the one city, and who to the other.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And so it was, that all that fell that day,.... Partly in the city, and partly in the field, both by the ambush and the army: both of men and women:

were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai; so that the city was not a very large one, and the numbers of inhabitants were comparatively but few, as in Joshua 7:3.

Geneva Study Bible

And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - All the men of Ai. Clearly all the population, as the context shows. Joshua 8:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When all the men of Ai, who had come out to pursue the Israelites, had been slain upon the field (namely) in the desert, all Israel returned to Ai and smote it (the town, i.e., the inhabitants), so that on that day there fell of men and women, 12,000, all the people of Ai: for Joshua did not draw back his hand, which had been stretched out with the javelin, till all the inhabitants of Ai were smitten with the ban, i.e., put to death; according to the common custom of war, that the general did not lower the war-signal till the conflict was to cease (see Suidas in Σημεῖα, and Lipsius de militia, Rom. iv. dial. 12).