Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, April 21st, 2026
the Third Week after Easter
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

The Darby Translation

Joshua 8:16

And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ambush;   Armies;   Strategy;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Sieges;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Ai;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Ambush;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Arms;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ai;   Bethel;   Joshua, the Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ai;   Israel;   Joshua;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Ai, Hai ;   Ambush, Ambushment;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Ai;   Journeyings of israel from egypt to canaan;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Conquest of Canaan;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Targum;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Ai;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Then all the troops of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
Hebrew Names Version
All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Yehoshua, and were drawn away from the city.
King James Version
And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
Lexham English Bible
All of the people who were in the city were called to pursue after them. As they pursued after Joshua, they were drawn away from the city.
English Standard Version
So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city.
New Century Version
The men in Ai were called to chase Joshua and his men, so they left the city and went after them.
New English Translation
All the reinforcements in Ai were ordered to chase them; they chased Joshua and were lured away from the city.
Amplified Bible
Then all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city.
New American Standard Bible
And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And all the people of the citie were called together, to pursue after them: and they pursued after Ioshua, & were drawen away out of the city,
Legacy Standard Bible
And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
Contemporary English Version
So he called out every man in Ai to go after Joshua's troops. They all rushed out to chase the Israelite army, and they left the town gates wide open. Not one man was left in Ai or in Bethel. Joshua let the men of Ai chase him and his army farther and farther away from Ai.
Complete Jewish Bible
All the people in ‘Ai were summoned together to pursue them, so they chased Y'hoshua and were drawn away from the city.
Easy-to-Read Version
The people in the city began to shout and started to chase them. All the people left the city.
George Lamsa Translation
And all the people of Ai shouted as they pursued them; and they followed Joshua, and were drawn out of the city.
Good News Translation
All the men in the city had been called together to go after them, and as they pursued Joshua, they kept getting farther away from the city.
Literal Translation
And all the people in the city were called to chase them. And they pursued Joshua, and were drawn away out of the city.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Then cried all the people in the cite, that they shulde folowe vpon them, and they folowed after Iosua and rußshed out of the cite,
American Standard Version
And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
Bible in Basic English
And all the people in Ai came together to go after them; and they went after Joshua, moving away from the town.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And all the people of the towne were called together, to folowe after them: And they folowed after Iosuah, and were drawen away from the citie.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
King James Version (1611)
And all the people that were in Ai, were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Ioshua, and were drawen away from the city.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And they pursued after the children of Israel, and they themselves went to a distance from the city.
English Revised Version
And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
Berean Standard Bible
Then all the men of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they followed Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and excitiden hem silf togidere, and pursueden hem. And whanne thei hadden go awey fro the citee,
Young's Literal Translation
and all the people who [are] in the city are called to pursue after them, and they pursue after Joshua, and are drawn away out of the city,
Update Bible Version
And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
Webster's Bible Translation
And all the people that [were] in Ai were called together to pursue them: and they pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
World English Bible
All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
New King James Version
So all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them. And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
New Living Translation
Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town.
New Life Bible
All the people in the city were called together to go after them. They went after Joshua, and were taken away from the city.
New Revised Standard
So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and all the people who were in the city were called out to pursue them, - and they pursued Joshua, and so were drawn out away from the city.
Douay-Rheims Bible
But they shouting together, and encouraging one another, pursued them. And when they were come from the city,
Revised Standard Version
So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.

Contextual Overview

9 And Joshua sent them forth; and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west of Ai. And Joshua lodged that night among the people. 10 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and inspected the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 11 And all the people of war that were with him went up, and drew near, and came before the city; and they encamped on the north of Ai; and the valley was between them and Ai. 12 Now he had taken about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city. 13 And when they had set the people, the whole camp on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. 14 And it came to pass when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hasted and rose early, and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the appointed place before the plain. But he knew not that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15 And Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten before them; and they fled by the way of the wilderness. 16 And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 17 And not a man remained in Ai and Bethel that went not out after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

called together: Judges 20:36-39

drawn away: Joshua 8:5, Joshua 8:6, Judges 20:31, Psalms 9:16, Ezekiel 38:11-22, Revelation 16:14, Revelation 19:19-21

Reciprocal: Joshua 8:4 - lie in wait Joshua 8:14 - Ai saw it Joshua 8:24 - returned unto Ai Judges 20:32 - Let us flee

Cross-References

Genesis 7:1
And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Genesis 7:7
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:13
On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
Genesis 8:16
Go out of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
Genesis 8:18
And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
Joshua 3:17
And the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel went over on dry ground, until all the nation had completely gone over the Jordan.
Joshua 4:10
And the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan, until everything was finished that Jehovah had commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hasted and passed over.
Psalms 91:11
For he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways:
Psalms 121:8
Jehovah will keep thy going out and thy coming in, from henceforth and for evermore.
Zechariah 9:11
As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I will send forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And all the people that were in Ai [were] called together to pursue after them,.... Because the host of Israel was very numerous, it was judged proper that all the people in Ai should assist in pursuing them, not only to kill the more in the pursuit, but to carry off the spoil and prisoners they should take; or rather the sense is, that all the people in Ai, which were come out with the king to battle, when they saw Israel flee, "cried" x, or shouted, as soldiers do when victorious, "in" or "while pursuing" y after them;

and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city; at some considerable distance from it; which was the design to be answered by feigning a flight.

x וזעקו "vociferantes", V. L. "vociferati sunt", Pagninus, Montanus. y לרדף "persequendo", Pagninus, Montanus.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile