What is the context?
The account describes the killing of the defenders and the population within Ai, totaling twelve thousand men and women. Joshua keeps his lance extended until the destruction is complete.
The livestock and plunder are taken because the Lord has permitted them. The city is burned and left a ruin. The king’s body is displayed on a tree, then removed at sunset and covered with a heap of stones at the gate.
The severe destruction remains part of the narrated conquest, while the taking of goods follows a different command from Jericho. Removal of the body before night also recalls the earlier requirement in Deuteronomy. None of this provides a present reader with authority to reproduce the killing or display.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley connects the removal at sunset with Deuteronomy 21:22–23. The USCCB cross-references make the same connection. The passage gives the king’s treatment and the destruction of the city; proposed reasons about every inhabitant’s personal offenses or the king’s unrecorded conduct should be distinguished from what it states.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.