'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎338] (447/496)

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eendedj then they turned again and slew the men of Ai. And the
other issued out of the city against them ; so they were in the midst of
Israel, some on this side and some on that side: and they smote them so
that they let none of them remain or escape. And the king of Ai they
took alive and brought him to Joshua. And it came to pass, when Israel
made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the
wilderness wherein they qjiased them,” “ that all the Israelites re
turned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it
was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve
thousand, even all the inhabitants of Ai.” “ And Joshua burnt Ai, and
made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day. And the
king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun
was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down
from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and
raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.”
From Ai, Joshua went to mount Ebal, where he built an altar to the
Lord, and thence proceeded unto the camp in Gilgal. From Gilgal the
Israelites marched towards Gfibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath Jea-
rim, which are subsequently enrolled among the cities of Benjamin and
Judah, and appear to be next to Ai in geographical order, as Joshua
advanced westerly into the land from the Jordan on the east. When
Adoni-Zedek, who was at that time King of Jerusalem, heard of the
fall of Jericho and Ai, and the humiliation of the inhabitants of Gibeon,
which is described (Joshua, x. 2,) as “ a great city,—one of the royal cities,”
“ greater than Ai,” he feared greatly, and entered into a combination
with the four Kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, to arrest
the Israelitish conqueror’s progress. The only remaining mention of Ai
in Joshua occurs in the enumeration of vanquished Kings (xii. 9.) “The
King of Jericho, one; the King of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one
I have deemed it right to be thus minute in recalling the attention
of the reader to the descriptions of this once royal city, given in the
books of Genesis and Joshua, as they chiefly afford the topographical
details (more especially the latter) by which we are enabled to identify
the present heap of foundations with the Hai of Genesis and the Ai of
Joshua, as will appear in the sequel.
Hai probably remained u a desolation, a heap 5 ’ (which the word literally
signifies in Hebrew,) till long after Joshua’s death, as we hear no moie
of it until mentioned by Isaiah about 738 b, c., in his prophetical des