Ai
City
One of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Josh. 10:1; Gen. 12:8; 13:3). It was the scene of Joshua’s defeat, and afterwards of his victory. It was the second Canaanite city taken by Israel (Josh. 7:2-5; 8:1-29). It lay rebuilt and inhibited by the Benjamites (Ezra 2:28; Neh. 7:32; 11:31). It lay to the east of Bethel, “beside Beth-aven.” The spot which is most probably the site of this ancient city is Haiyan, 2 miles east from Bethel. It lay up the Wady Suweinit, a steep, rugged valley, extending from the Jordan valley to Bethel.
Named in 31 verses
- Genesis 12:8 He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Y
- Genesis 13:3 He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
- Joshua 7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went
- Joshua 7:3 They returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don’t make all the peopl
- Joshua 7:4 So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai.
- Joshua 7:5 The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the peo
- Joshua 8:1 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed. Take all the warriors with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the
- Joshua 8:2 You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city
- Joshua 8:3 So Joshua arose, with all the warriors, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.
- Joshua 8:9 Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night
- Joshua 8:10 Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
- Joshua 8:11 All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up and came near, and came before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a val
- Joshua 8:12 He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
- Joshua 8:14 When the king of Ai saw it, they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appoin
- Joshua 8:16 All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
- Joshua 8:17 There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who didn’t go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.
- Joshua 8:18 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in
- Joshua 8:20 When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. Th
- Joshua 8:21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned back and killed the men of Ai.
- Joshua 8:23 They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
- Joshua 8:24 When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of th
- Joshua 8:25 All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the people of Ai.
- Joshua 8:26 For Joshua didn’t draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
- Joshua 8:28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
- Joshua 8:29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening. At sundown, Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of th
- Joshua 9:3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
- Joshua 10:1 Now when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai
- Joshua 10:2 they were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
- Joshua 12:9 the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;
- Ezra 2:28 The men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred twenty-three.
- Nehemiah 7:32 The men of Bethel and Ai: one hundred twenty-three.