27aOnly the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had bcommanded Joshua.
28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it aa heap forever, a desolation to this day.
29aAnd the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening. bAnd as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and craise over it a great heap of stones thatremains to this day.
Joshua Renews the Covenant
30 Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel ain Mount Ebal,
31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: a“an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And bthey offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.
32 And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, ahe wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.
33 Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, awho bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, bthe stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, cas Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.
34 And afterward ahe read all the words of the law, bthe blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the cBook of the Law.
35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, awith the women, the little ones, band the strangers who were living among them.
Hanged on a tree - He dealt more severely with the kings of Canaan than with the people, because the abominable wickedness of that people was not restrained and punished (as it should have been) but countenanced and encouraged by their evil examples; and because they were the principal authors of the destruction of their own people, by engaging them in an obstinate opposition against the Israelites. Down from the tree - According to God's command in that case, Deuteronomy 21:22. The gate of the city - Which place he chose either as most commodious, now especially when all the city within the gate was already turned in to an heap of stones and rubbish; or because this was the usual place of judgment; and therefore proper to bear the monument of God's just sentence against him, not without reflection upon that injustice which he had been guilty of in that place.
Other John Wesley's Notes entries containing Joshua 8:29:
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