约书亚记 8:17

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

艾城和伯特利城沒有留下一個人不出來追趕以色列人；他們撇下了敞開的城門，去追趕以色列人。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
艾 城 和 伯 特 利 城 没 有 一 人 不 出 来 追 赶 以 色 列 人 的 ， 撇 了 敞 开 的 城 门 ， 去 追 赶 以 色 列 人 。

Contextual Overview

⁹ Then Joshua sent them to wait in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua stayed the night with his people. ¹⁰ Early the next morning Joshua gathered his men together. He and the older leaders of Israel led them up to Ai. ¹¹ All of the soldiers who were with Joshua marched up to Ai and stopped in front of the city and made camp north of it. There was a valley between them and the city. ¹² Then Joshua chose about five thousand men and set them in ambush in the area west of the city between Bethel and Ai. ¹³ So the people took their positions; the main camp was north of the city, and the other men were hiding to the west. That night Joshua went down into the valley. ¹⁴ Now when the king of Ai saw the army of Israel, he and his people got up early the next morning and hurried out to fight them. They went out to a place east of the city, but the king did not know soldiers were waiting in ambush behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and all the men of Israel let the army of Ai push them back. Then they ran toward the desert. ¹⁶ The men in Ai were called to chase Joshua and his men, so they left the city and went after them. ¹⁷ All the men of Ai and Bethel chased the army of Israel. The city was left open; not a man stayed to protect it.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a man: Joshua 8:3, Joshua 8:24, Joshua 8:25, Joshua 11:20, Deuteronomy 2:30, Job 5:13, Isaiah 19:11-13

Bethel: Bethel is not mentioned in the Greek version, and some, with Houbigant and Pilkington, think it was not originally in the Hebrew; because, had the men of Bethel pursued, as well as those of Ai, it would have been said that they left the cities, and not the city, open. The principal strength of Bethel might have been previously taken into Ai, as the strongest place to make a stand in; Bethel being but about three miles westward from Ai.

Reciprocal: Genesis 12:8 - of Bethel Joshua 12:9 - Ai Joshua 12:16 - Bethel Ezra 2:28 - Ai Nehemiah 7:32 - Bethel

Cross-References

Genesis 1:22
God blessed them and said, "Have many young ones so that you may grow in number. Fill the water of the seas, and let the birds grow in number on the earth."

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said, "Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Genesis 8:13
When Noah was six hundred and one years old, in the first day of the first month of that year, the water was dried up from the land. Noah removed the covering of the boat and saw that the land was dry.

Genesis 8:14
By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the land was completely dry.

Genesis 8:15
Then God said to Noah,

Genesis 9:1
Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Have many children; grow in number and fill the earth.

Genesis 9:7
"As for you, Noah, I want you and your family to have many children, to grow in number on the earth, and to become many."

Psalms 107:38
God blessed them, and they grew in number. Their cattle did not become fewer.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that went not out after Israel,.... For as these two places were very near to each other, but a mile apart, they were in confederacy, and acted together, and could easily be called to the help of each other when required: though there is a difficulty how the men of Bethel could join those of Ai, when the ambush lay between them both, Joshua 8:12; they either went another way, or the ambush purposely let them pass, for fear of a discovery by a skirmish with them, and that Bethel as well as Ai might be cleared of its armed inhabitants, and so fall an easy prey to them as well as Ai: this must be understood only of men of war; for otherwise there were inhabitants left, as old men, and such as were unfit for war, afterwards slain, Joshua 8:24;

and they left the city open: they did not stay to shut the gates, nor left porters or any guards about, to take care of, protect, and defend the city:

and pursued after Israel; with great eagerness and vehemence, not having the least apprehension of their city being in any danger.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Or Bethel - See the Joshua 8:1 note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Joshua 8:17. There was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el — It is very likely that the principal strength of Beth-el had been previously brought into Ai, as the strongest place to make a stand in; Beth-el being but about three miles distant from Ai, and probably not greatly fortified. Therefore Ai contained on this occasion all the men of Beth-el - all the warriors of that city, as well as its own troops and inhabitants. Others think that the Beth-elites, seeing the Israelites fly, sallied out of their city as against a common enemy; but that, finding the men of Ai discomfited, and the city taken, they returned to Beth-el, which Joshua did not think proper to attack at this time. From Judges 1:24 we find that Beth-el was then a walled city, in the hands of the Canaanites, and was taken by the house of Joseph.