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Monday, April 13th, 2026
the Second Week after Easter
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THE MESSAGE

Joshua 8:16

This verse is not available in the MSG!

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.
Darby Translation
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.
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 Joshua sent them off. They set their ambush and waited between Bethel and Ai, just west of Ai. Joshua spent the night with the people. 10Joshua was up early in the morning and mustered his army. He and the leaders of Israel led the troops to Ai. The whole army, fighting men all, marched right up within sight of the city and set camp on the north side of Ai. There was a valley between them and Ai. He had taken about five thousand men and put them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. They were all deployed, the main army to the north of the city and the ambush to the west. Joshua spent the night in the valley. 14 So it happened that when the king of Ai saw all this, the men of the city lost no time; they were out of there at the crack of dawn to join Israel in battle, the king and his troops, at a field en route to the Arabah. The king didn't know of the ambush set against him behind the city. 15Joshua and all Israel let themselves be chased; they ran toward the wilderness. Everybody in the city was called to the chase. They pursued Joshua and were led away from the city. There wasn't a soul left in Ai or Bethel who wasn't out there chasing after Israel. The city was left empty and undefended as they were chasing Israel down.

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
Next God said to Noah, "Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you're the righteous one.
Genesis 7:13
That's the day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, accompanied by his wife and his sons' wives, boarded the ship. And with them every kind of wild and domestic animal, right down to all the kinds of creatures that crawl and all kinds of birds and anything that flies. They came to Noah and to the ship in pairs—everything and anything that had the breath of life in it, male and female of every creature came just as God had commanded Noah. Then God shut the door behind him.
Genesis 8:18
Noah disembarked with his sons and wife and his sons' wives. Then all the animals, crawling creatures, birds—every creature on the face of the Earth—left the ship family by family.
Joshua 3:17
And there they stood; those priests carrying the Chest of the Covenant stood firmly planted on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground. Finally the whole nation was across the Jordan, and not one wet foot.
Joshua 4:10
The priests carrying the Chest continued standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything God had instructed Joshua to tell the people to do was done (confirming what Moses had instructed Joshua). The people crossed; no one dawdled. When the crossing of all the people was complete, they watched as the Chest of the Covenant and the priests crossed over.
Zechariah 9:11
"And you, because of my blood covenant with you, I'll release your prisoners from their hopeless cells. Come home, hope-filled prisoners! This very day I'm declaring a double bonus— everything you lost returned twice-over! Judah is now my weapon, the bow I'll pull, setting Ephraim as an arrow to the string. I'll wake up your sons, O Zion, to counter your sons, O Greece. From now on people are my swords."

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.


 
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