The Ark Helped Joshua Conquer the City of Ai

The conquest of the city of Ai in Canaan is not one, but two horror stories… and both are most likely historical fiction (albeit, as usual, inspired by yet unidentified true stories).

The Ai’s ruins are commonly thought to be in the modern-day archeological site of Et-Tell. Excavations revealed a large urban settlement dating back to around 3100 BC, with cycles of destruction and rebuilding until roughly 2400 BC. It remained uninhabited until a small village emerged in the Early Iron Age.

In light of these findings, scholars interpret the biblical account of Ai’s conquest as… well, historical fiction – similar to the Fall of Jericho (very possibly written by the same author – and with the same objective in mind).

According to Book of Joshua, it all started with… well, theft committed by a character by the name of Achan (or Achar). Achan pillaged an ingot of gold, a quantity of silver, and a “beautiful Babylonian garment” from Jericho, in contravention of Joshua’s directive that

“…  all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord“.

This act resulted in the Israelites being collectively punished by God, in that they failed in their first attempt to capture Ai, with about 36 Israelites lost. The Israelites used cleromancy (rolling of the dice… sort of) to decide who was to blame.

They identified Achan, and stoned him, along with his children and livestock, to death (a genuine horror story indeed). Their remains were burnt and stones piled on top. God’s anger against Israel later subsided… and they took the city.

However, Book of Joshua mentions that the latter lamented and prayed before the Ark of the Covenant and, being an intelligent living being with supernatural powers, it told him how to do the job right the second time. Or God told him via the Ark… the specifics do not matter actually.

What matters is that Ai suffered the same fate as Jericho. After Joshua and his men took the city, 12,000 men and women were killed, and it is razed to the ground. The ruler of the city was captured and hanged on a tree until the evening. His body was then placed at the city gates and stones were placed on top of his body. The Israelites then burned Ai completely and “made it a permanent heap of ruins.”

Interestingly enough, Joshua took the city precisely Hannibal-style… about a millennium before Hannibal won Battle of Cannae this way.