Verse 24. - In the wilderness. The LXX. must have read בַמּורָד in the going down, or descent. Returned unto Ai and smote it. According to God's command, the defenceless inhabitants must share the fate of the army (see Deuteronomy 20:17).

8:23-29 God, the righteous Judge, had sentenced the Canaanites for their wickedness; the Israelites only executed his doom. None of their conduct can be drawn into an example for others. Especial reason no doubt there was for this severity to the king of Ai; it is likely he had been notoriously wicked and vile, and a blasphemer of the God of Israel.And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai,.... That came out against them:

in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them; both in the arable lands that were sown with corn, and now clothed with it, the wheat especially, not being gathered in, as not yet ripe, and in the pasture ground, designed by the wilderness, see Joshua 8:15; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it:

and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword; and were slain by it:

until they were consumed; and not one left:

that all the Israelites returned unto Ai; both the ambush that came out of it, and the army that came against it:

and smote it with the edge of the sword; that is, the inhabitants that were left in it unfit for war, as old men, infirm persons, women and children, as follows.