Note: This view shows ‘verses’ which are not natural language units and hence sometimes only part of a sentence will be visible. Normally the OET discourages the reading of individual ‘verses’, but this view is only designed for doing comparisons of different translations. Click on any Bible version abbreviation down the left-hand side to see the verse in more of its context. The OET segments on this page are still very early looks into the unfinished texts of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check these texts in advance before using in public.
OEB No OEB JOS 8:28 verse available
WEBBE So Joshua burnt Ai and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
WMBB (Same as above)
NET Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day).
LSV And Joshua burns Ai, and makes it a continuous heap—a desolation to this day;
FBV So Joshua burned the town of Ai, making it permanently into a heap of ruins where no one lives to this very day.
T4T Joshua and his soldiers burned Ai city and caused it to become a pile of ruins. It is still like that today.
LEB So Joshua burned Ai and made it an everlasting heap of rubbish, a desolate place until this day.
BBE So Joshua gave Ai to the flames, and made it a waste mass of stones for ever, as it is to this day.
Moff In the morning the townsmen rose and marched out to fight Israel. They beat Joshua and all Israel, who fled in the direction of the desert; 16 all the townsmen of Ai were called out to pursue them, and in their pursuit of Joshua they left the town unguarded. Then said the Eternal to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin in your hand towards Ai, for I put Ai in your power.” And as soon as Joshua stretched out the javelin 19 towards the town, the men in ambush rushed into the town and captured it, while the Israelites who were flying towards the desert turned upon their pursuers, seeing that the men in ambush had captured the town. When the Israelites and Joshua had finished slaughtering the townsmen of Ai who had run into the desert and when they had cut them down, giving no quarter, all Israel then returned to Ai and sacked it. All the folk of Ai fell that day, both men and women, twelve thousand in all; Joshua never withdrew the hand that held his javelin until he had massacred all the folk of Ai. Only the Israelites took the spoils and cattle of the town for themselves, as the Eternal had given orders to Joshua. Ai itself Joshua burned, and made it a heap of ruins; to this day it lies desolate. When the king of Ai saw this, he and his men made an early start; not knowing that an ambush had been laid behind the town they allowed themselves to be drawn away from the town, till not a man was left in Ai who did not go out after Israel. The men in ambush then came out quickly and hurried to set the town on fire, so that when the men of Ai turned round to look, there was smoke rising from the town! They had no chance to flee this way or that, for the pursued turned upon the pursuers when they saw the smoke rising from the town, and the men in ambush rushed from the town to join them, so that the men of Ai were caught between Israelites, some on one side and some on the other; they were slaughtered till not a soul escaped or remained alive. The king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua, who hung him on a tree till evening; at sunset Joshua ordered his body to be taken down from the tree and thrown down at the entrance to the town-gate. They raised a cairn of stones over it, which is there to this day.
JPS So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap for ever, even a desolation, unto this day.
ASV So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap for ever, even a desolation, unto this day.
DRA And he burned the city, and made it a heap for ever:
YLT And Joshua burneth Ai, and maketh it a heap age-during — a desolation unto this day;
Drby And Joshua burned Ai, and made it an everlasting heap of desolation to this day.
RV So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation, unto this day.
Wbstr And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap for ever, even a desolation to this day.
KJB-1769 And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day.
(And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap forever, even a desolation unto this day. )
KJB-1611 And Ioshua burnt Ai, and made it an heape for euer, euen a desolation vnto this day.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above)
Bshps And Iosuah set Ai on fire, and made it an heape for euer, & a wildernesse, euen vnto this day.
(And Yoshua set Ai on fire, and made it an heap forever, and a wilderness, even unto this day.)
Gnva And Ioshua burnt Ai, and made it an heape for euer, and a wildernes vnto this day.
(And Yoshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap forever, and a wilderness unto this day. )
Cvdl And Iosua burned vp Hai and made an heape therof for euer, which is there yet vnto this daye.
(And Yoshua burned up Hai and made an heap thereof forever, which is there yet unto this day.)
Wycl which brente the citee, and made it an euerlastynge biriel.
(which burnte the city, and made it an everlasting biriel.)
Luth Und Josua brannte Ai aus und machte einen Haufen daraus ewiglich, der noch heute da liegt.
(And Yosua brannte Ai out_of and made a Haufen daraus ewiglich, the/of_the still heute there liegt.)
ClVg Qui succendit urbem, et fecit eam tumulum sempiternum:
(Who succendit city, and he_did her tumulum sempiternum: )
BMM BibleMapper.com Maps:
The Israelites Conquer Ai
Joshua 8
[Author’s note: This map and article assume that Ai was located at Khirbet al-Maqatir and Bethel was located at al-Bira. It is beyond the scope of this article to present all the convincing reasons for these assumptions, but they are well summarized in the following articles: “Traditional Site of Bethel Questioned,” “Location of Biblical Bethel and Ai Reconsidered,” and “The Khirbet el-Maqatir Excavations.” The expected locations for Roman mile markers are also included on this map, which confirm that al-Bira is located precisely at the twelfth mile marker from Jerusalem, as Eusebius and Jerome both asserted. All other maps in this Atlas have been recently updated to use these same locations for Ai and Bethel.
Soon after the Israelites entered the Promised Land and captured the city of Jericho, they sent a force of only three thousand men to capture the much smaller fortified town of Ai (Joshua 7). They suffered defeat, however, and the Lord revealed to them that this happened because a man named Achan had taken some of the devoted items from Jericho. So Joshua took Achan and his family to the Valley of Achor and executed them there (see Israel Enters the Promised Land map). Later the Lord told Joshua to attack Ai again, because this time he was going to give them the town. It appears that Ai, which had a direct line of sight to the more powerful city of Jerusalem to the south, must have served as a sort of early warning outpost for the larger city. Thus, capturing Ai was critical to staging an effective battle campaign throughout southern Canaan. So Joshua advanced with thirty thousand troops during the night and camped north of the city, and he positioned a force of five thousand men in ambush between Bethel and Ai, just to the west of Ai. The men in ambush were also just east of the mountain where Abraham had pitched his tent centuries earlier (Genesis 12:8). Joshua himself spent the night in the valley between Ai and the main Israelite camp. Early the next morning, the king of Ai led all the inhabitants of the town in an attack on the main camp of the Israelites, who feigned retreat into the wilderness. After the Israelite army had drawn the people of Ai away from the town, the Israelites hiding in ambush rose up and captured Ai. They set the town on fire, sending a signal to the the main army of Israelites to turn back upon the forces of Ai. The Israelites completely destroyed the people of Ai and reduced the town to a burning heap of ruins.