约书亚记 8:3

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

於是，約書亞和所有能作戰的人都起來上艾城去；約書亞選了三萬英勇的戰士，漏夜派他們出去，

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
於 是 ， 约 书 亚 和 一 切 兵 丁 都 起 来 ， 要 上 艾 城 去 。 约 书 亚 选 了 三 万 大 能 的 勇 士 ， 夜 间 打 发 他 们 前 往 ，

Contextual Overview

³ So Joshua led his whole army toward Ai. Then he chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night. ⁴ Joshua gave them these orders: "Listen carefully. You must set up an ambush behind the city. Don't go far from it, but continue to watch and be ready. ⁵ I and the men who are with me will march toward the city, and the men in the city will come out to fight us, just as they did before. Then we will turn and run away from them. ⁶ They will chase us away from the city, thinking we are running away from them as we did before. When we run away, ⁷ come out from your ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give you the power to win. ⁸ After you take the city, burn it. See to it! You have your orders." 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

by night: Matthew 24:39, Matthew 24:50, Matthew 25:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10

Reciprocal: Genesis 12:8 - Hai Joshua 8:12 - five thousand Joshua 8:17 - a man

Cross-References

Genesis 7:11
When Noah was six hundred years old, the flood started. On the seventeenth day of the second month of that year the underground springs split open, and the clouds in the sky poured out rain.

Genesis 7:24
And the waters continued to cover the earth for one hundred fifty days.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai,.... As the Lord had commanded him:

and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour; out of all the men of war; these were a select company, picked men, not the whole army, as some have thought, for he was ordered to take all the people of war, as he did:

and sent them away by night; from the main army, that they might pass the city and get behind it undiscovered, for they were sent for an ambush; and of these some were to take the city, and be left in it to burn it, and some to smite the men of Ai, as Abarbinel notes.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thirty thousand men - comparing Joshua 8:3 and Joshua 8:12 (“five thousand men”), there is probably a mistake in the numbers of this verse, where an early copyist may have written the sign for 30,000 instead of that for 5,000.

Sent them away by night - The selected 5,000 would accordingly post themselves in the main ravine between Ai and Bethel in the night and early morning. The neighhorhood in which Ai was situated is described as “a wild entanglement of hill and valley;” and amidst its recesses the detachment could easily shelter itself from observation until Joshua’s other measures were taken.