Глава 8

1. Divine Encouragement of Joshua. 3. The military trick with the help of which Guy was captured. 28. Burning of Ai and execution of its king. 30. Construction of the altar on Mount Ebal. 32. Writing the law on stones and reading it in the presence of all the people. Joshua 8:1. The Lord said to Jesus: Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed; take with you all the people capable of war, and, getting up, go to Ai; Behold, I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai and his people, his city and his land; Joshua 8:2. do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, only divide its spoils and its cattle for yourselves; set up an ambush behind the city. After the people were cleared of the guilt that lay upon them, a divine revelation followed to Joshua, invigorating him with the promise to deliver Ai into his hands and commanding him to march against him not with a small detachment, as before, but with all his forces (with the exception, of course, of that part that was supposed to remain in Gilgal to guard the Israeli camp). Although the number of troops that marched is not indicated, in any case it should be very significant. If about 40 thousand troops were chosen from 2 1/2 East Jordanian tribes, i.e. about 15 thousand from the tribe, then about 180 thousand should have come out from the 12 tribes of Israel. The reason for assigning such a large number of troops against an insignificant city of 12 thousand inhabitants (Josh. 8:25) could lie in the defeat suffered earlier, which weakened the courage of the Israelites, and in general, in the fact that the capture of even a small city for them, as they grew up in the desert, presented great difficulties. This is also the reason for the command to “make an ambush behind the city,” i.e. on the west side (Joshua 8:9). Appeal to such a technique, invented by human art, does not represent anything inconsistent with divine greatness. Since the capture of the city of Ai was left to the Israelis themselves, without any special supernatural help, they could and should have used the most appropriate methods for this. And since they were not familiar with the latter, the Lord points to one of them, which consists in setting up an ambush. Commanding this to be done, the Lord, in the words of Blessed Theodoret, “teaches those who have trusted in His beck to use human industries. Since they took the first city with one sound of trumpets, it is very opportune for them to learn how to struggle, work and wait for God’s help” 71 . Joshua 8:3. Jesus and all the people capable of war arose to go to Ai, and Jesus chose thirty thousand brave men and sent them by night, Joshua 8:4. and he gave them orders and said: Look, you will lay an ambush at the city behind the city; do not go far from the city and be ready; Joshua 8:5. and I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and when [the inhabitants of Ai] come against us, as before, we will flee from them; Joshua 8:6. they will follow us, so that we will distract them from the city; for they will say: “They flee from us, as before”; when we run from them, Joshua 8:7. then rise from ambush and take possession of the city, and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands; Joshua 8:8. When you take the city, set the city on fire, do it according to the word of the Lord; look, I command you. Joshua 8:9. So Joshua sent them, and they went into ambush and sat down between Bethel and between Ai, on the west side of Ai; and Jesus slept that night among the people. The detachment assigned to the ambush was supposed to go to Ai at night and, at a short distance from Gilgal (about 20 versts), could reach the outskirts of the city early in the morning of the next day and take refuge in a deep valley called by researchers 72 Wadi Garit, which is located between Ai (for its place see Joshua 7:2) and Bethel. Those sent into ambush were to, by order of Joshua, not stray far from the city and be constantly ready to invade it when its defenders came out to pursue the Israeli army, which feigned flight; Having captured the city, those in ambush were supposed to set it on fire. Joshua 8:10. Rising early in the morning, Jesus looked around at the people, and he and the elders of Israel went ahead of the people to Ai; Joshua 8:11. and all the people capable of war, who were with him, went, drew near and approached the city [from the eastern side, the ambush was to the west of the city], While the sent detachment took the place assigned to it to the west of the city near Ai, Joshua, who spent the night among the army assigned to the campaign, examined it early in the morning of the next day and then headed to Ai, walking along with the elders at the head of the army. He approached the city from the eastern side, and the ambush was located from the western side. This exact idea of ​​the location of the main Israeli army is expressed in the Greek translation of LXX, which is conveyed by the words of Joshua 8:11, according to the Russian translation, which is consistent with the Slavic: “he approached and approached the city [from the eastern side, the ambush was to the west of the city]” 73. In the current Hebrew text and the translation of Blessed Jerome, instead of the above words of the end of Joshua 8:11, it reads: “and they encamped on the north side of Ai, and between it and Ai there was a valley.” These words of the Hebrew text were not read in the LXX according to its most ancient copies (Vatican, Alexandria, etc.); they were included in the Greek translation by Origen in his Hexaplas, from which they then passed into later Greek copies and appear in them either in the margins of the text in the form of notes, or in the text itself, as in the Lucian lists (Field) and the Complutensian and Aldine editions, with which the current Slavic translation of Nav. 8:12, and with it the Russian one, is agreed upon. Thus, this passage of the biblical text is conveyed according to the Russian translation in two forms: according to the oldest copies of the LXX translation, Joshua approached Ai from the eastern side, and according to the Hebrew text and some later Greek copies, from the north. The oldest, pre-Ostrog, Slavic translation here followed the LXX translation according to its oldest copies 74: the current Slavic translation, like the Russian one, agrees here in Joshua 8:11 with the oldest copies of the LXX translation, and in Joshua 8:12 - with the current Hebrew text and with the later Greek copies. Which of these translations of the end of Joshua 8:11 and the beginning of Joshua 8:12 has the advantage will be explained by considering the following verses. Joshua 8:12. and he pitched his camp on the north side of Ai, and between it and Ai there was a valley. Then he took about five thousand people and put them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the western side of the city. Joshua 8:13. And the people arranged the whole camp, which was on the north side of the city, so that the rear part was on the west side of the city. And Jesus came that night into the middle of the valley. What is read in these verses according to the Russian translation and the current Slavic, constitutes, as has been noted, the transmission of the Hebrew text, the later Greek copies consistent with it and based on the latest editions of the Greek translation, such as the Complutensian Polyglot and the Aldinian Bible 75. In the most ancient Greek copies of the translation of the LXX and the publications based on them, such as the Sistine, what is missing in these verses according to our current translations. In ancient Greek copies, after the final words of Joshua 8:11 “[the ambush was to the west of the city]” followed directly by Joshua 8:14: καί ἐγένετο ὡς εἶδεν βασιλεὺς Γαι – “when the king of Ai saw it.” The ancient pre-Ostrog translation also did not read what is in Joshua 8:12–13 76 This coincidence of the pre-Ostrog translation with the ancient Greek copies in the omission of Joshua 8:12–13 is significant in the sense that this indicates the right path to eliminating the confusion caused by the content of these two verses. What is said in them is clearly different from what is stated in the previous verses. Instead of the eastern side of Ai, the place for the Israelite camp is indicated here on the northern side; instead of an ambush of 30 thousand, located “between Bethel and Ai, on the western side of the latter” (Joshua 8:9), here we speak of an ambush of 5 thousand: “also between Bethel and Ai, on the western side of the city” (Joshua 8:12). Resolving this second difference presents particular difficulties for commentators explaining the translation from the current Hebrew text 77 . The explanation accepted in our educational literature 78 that two ambushes were set up at Ai, the first of 30 thousand, the second of 5 thousand, seems implausible due to the fact that the first ambush was too large compared to the number of residents of Ai to require reinforcement. The last words of Joshua 8:13 are also unclear: “And Jesus came that night into the middle of the valley.” From them it is clear that, having approached Ai with an army, Joshua did not attack him that day and was not himself attacked by the Ai king; Only on the next night did he come out to the valley in front of the city and, when morning came, he was noticed by the king of Gai (Joshua 8:15). And this delay in attacking the city and the undetectedness of an entire army near it for some part of the day and night naturally arouses bewilderment, for which the biblical text does not provide an explanation. A way out of these difficulties presented by the content of Joshua 8:12–13 is provided by the translation of LXX according to its most ancient copies, as excluding these verses from the text; and the ancient Slavic translation, which does not have them, also reinforces the importance of this feature of the LXX translation: if neither the LXX interpreters nor our ancient translators included these verses in the biblical text, then with a clear conscience we can follow their example and not introduce into the Russian translation what in this place appeared in later Greek copies under the influence of the current Hebrew text 79 . Based on this, what was said in Joshua 8:11, that the Israeli army approached the city from the eastern side, retains its full strength. Joshua 8:14. When the king of Ai saw this, immediately with the inhabitants of the city, rising early, he and all his people went out against Israel for battle, he and all his people, to the appointed place in front of the plain; but he did not know that there was an ambush for him behind [his] city. As soon as the Ai king saw the approaching Israeli army, he hastily set out with his soldiers to meet him at the appointed place in front of the plain. The words “rising up early” constitute a translation of the saying read in the Complutensian and Aldine editions and in some Greek copies, as well as in the Hebrew text (“vaiashkimu” - ὤρθρισε); in the most ancient Greek copies (Vatican, Alexandria, etc.) they are not readable. The place where the inhabitants of Ai were to gather to repel the Israelites, whose attack was obviously expected (cf. Josh. 8:17), was appointed in advance; it was located in front of the plain (according to the Hebrew text “gaaraba,” as the Jordan Valley was usually called), which probably means the desert area east of Ai in the direction of the Jordan, along which the Israeli army marched to this city. Joshua 8:17. there was not a single man left in Ai and Bethel who did not pursue Israel; and they left their city open, pursuing Israel. The soldiers of Bethel, located not far from Ai, were apparently invited by the king of the latter to help in view of the expected new attack of the Israelites. Joshua 8:18. Then the Lord said to Jesus: Stretch out the spear that is in your hand towards Ai, for I will deliver him into your hands [and the ambush will immediately rise from its place]. Jesus stretched out [his hand and] the spear that was in his hand toward the city. Joshua 8:19. Those sitting in ambush immediately rose from their place and ran, as soon as he stretched out his hand, they entered the city and took it and immediately set the city on fire. The raising of a spear could be visible to those in ambush if it was done from a high place, where the Israeli leader was probably located during the battle, and it could immediately become known to those in ambush if special people were sent from the latter to receive orders from Joshua. Joshua 8:20. The inhabitants of Ai, looking back, saw that the smoke from the city was ascending to the sky. And there was no place for them to run - neither here nor here; for the people who had fled to the wilderness turned against their pursuers. “And there was no place for them to run,” or, according to the literal translation from the Hebrew: “and they had no hands to run here or there,” i.e. there was no power, the organ of which is the hands, or, according to the translation of Blessed Jerome: non poluerunt ultra huc illucque diffugere - “they could not run here or there.” The expression in Ps.75:6, similar to this, has the same meaning: “all the men did not find the strength of their hands.” Joshua 8:29. and he hung the king of Ai on a tree, [and he was on the tree] until evening; When the sun set, Jesus commanded, and they took his corpse down from the tree, and threw it at the city gate, and threw a large pile of stones over it, which has survived even to this day. The king of Gai was hanged on a tree after he was killed; this was done with other Canaanite kings according to the clear testimony of Joshua 10:26; the corpse remained on the tree until evening (Deut. 21:22–23). Joshua 8:30. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, Joshua 8:31. as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, which is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of solid stones, on which no iron was lifted; And they offered burnt offerings to the Lord on it and made peace offerings. Joshua 8:32. And [Jesus] wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written before the children of Israel. Joshua 8:33. All Israel, its elders and its overseers and its judges, stood on both sides of the Ark against the priests [and] Levites who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, both strangers and natural inhabitants, one half of them at Mount Gerizim, and the other half at Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had previously commanded, to bless the people of Israel. Joshua 8:34. And then [Jesus] read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, as it is written in the book of the law; Joshua 8:35. Of all that Moses commanded [Jesus], there was not one word that Jesus did not read before all the congregation of Israel, [men,] and women, and children, and the strangers who were among them. “Then Jesus built an altar to the Lord on Mount Ebal.” The immediate meaning of the expression “then arranged” is, of course, that the construction of the altar on Mount Ebal took place after the conquest of Ai, which was discussed before. This understanding, however, raises bewilderment in the fact that in the previous narrative there was no mention of the conquest of the area in which Mount Ebal is located with nearby Gerizim; undertaking a journey to an unconquered area, located at a considerable distance from Jericho Gilgal (about 60 versts), with wives, children and strangers (Joshua 8:35) and staying here for several days near an enemy city (Shechem) could be unsafe due to possible hostile clashes with the local population, which the biblical writer does not talk about, however, in these verses. This consideration leads many biblical scholars to the idea that the event set forth in Joshua 8:30–35 took place not after the capture of Ai, but much later, and that these verses occupy a different place in the biblical text than was originally given to them by the biblical writer 80 . Despite its apparent likelihood, this explanation cannot be considered plausible simply because Joshua 8:30–35 invariably takes its present place at the end of Chapter VIII according to the Hebrew text and ancient translations 81 . As for the above-mentioned bewilderment, it can be eliminated, apart from the thought that the event set forth in Joshua 8:30–35 occurred at a different, later time. It is eliminated by the plausible assumption that the Israelite campaign against Ai was not limited to the conquest of this city, but extended to other cities of middle Canaan. And the basis for this assumption is that the middle part of Canaan, in which the named mountains were located, was undoubtedly conquered by Joshua and that its conquest must have preceded the conquest of southern and northern Canaan. The certainty of the conquest of middle Canaan is obvious from its very position in the land of Canaan, as a central strip, the possession of which opened access to other parts of this country. For Joshua, this conquest had, as was noted before, the special significance that, by owning this strip, through this he separated southern and northern Canaan and made it easier for himself to defeat both separately. He, one must think, accomplished this task after the conquest of Ai, and extended his weapon to Shechem. The biblical writer, except for what he said about Gibeon and the cities allied with it (Joshua 9:1), does not particularly speak about the conquest of middle Canaan, as it probably did not represent such remarkable events as were marked by the struggle with the kings of southern and northern Canaan described by him in Joshua 10 and 11, and only by mentioning the Bethel king, defeated along with other Canaanite kings ( Joshua 12:16), shows that he knew about the conquest of the cities of middle Canaan. And if the conquest of the latter falls in the time following the capture of Ai, then there could not be any obstacles to the nationwide journey 82 to the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, of course, and Joshua in the very success of this conquest could find an incentive to immediately fulfill the will of his great predecessor about promulgating the law and making a sacrifice to the Lord as soon as possible (Deut. 27:2: “when you have crossed over beyond the Jordan") after entering the land of Canaan. The construction of the altar “to the Lord God of Israel” on Mount Ebal and the offering of burnt offerings and peace offerings on it in the presence of all the people (Joshua 8:35) served as a solemn national expression of devotion to the Lord, who chose the Israeli people as his people for the great mercies bestowed. The altar was built in accordance with the book of the law (Exodus 20:25) and the commandment of Moses (Deut.27:5–7). The inscription of the law of Moses on the stones served as its promulgation as the law of the land of Israel. By the “list” (Josh. 8:32) (in Hebrew “mishneh” - “repetition, copy”) of the law of Moses we mean not only Deuteronomy (το δευτερονόμιον - “second law”), but namely the “reproduction”, or “list” of the law of Moses; the word “list” used here in Deut. 27:3 corresponds to the expression “write all the words of this law.” For the priests and Levites, see Joshua 3:3. Works of Blessed Theodoret, vol. I, p. 279–280. Tristram. Bible places, 110. To the north of the hill Tell el-Gajjar, which is recognized by some as the place of Ai, there is also a deep valley with steep edges. Keil, Iosua, 62. In the Greek text, as in the Slavic, there are no brackets here. The Greek translation, which is quite consistent with the Slavic-Russian translation of Joshua 8:12–13, is read in the Moscow Greek Bible, although the Alexandrian list does not contain what is read in this place in this edition. See V. Lebedev, p. 361, where it is said that Nav.8:12–13, omitted in the pre-Ostrog text, in accordance with AB (i.e., with the Alexandrian and Vatican lists), in Ostrog were borrowed from the Aldinsky and Complutensian editions. For various explanations of this difference, see Cook, II, 42. In the domestic literature, see V. Lebedev, p. 322. See the above-mentioned study guides by Archpriests M. Kheraskov and P. A. Vladimirsky. Consideration of the current Hebrew text of Joshua 8:12-13 leads some of the Western Christian biblical scholars, who exclusively use the Hebrew text, to view these verses as a later insertion or gloss, providing a more accurate information about the number of people sent into the ambush (i.e., about 5 thousand only) than that given in Joshua 8 (i.e., about 30 thousand); the last number is recognized as changed against the original (5 thousand), which was designated by the Hebrew letter ge - 5 thousand; it is assumed that the copyist of the Hebrew text mistakenly mistook this letter for lamed - 30 thousand. This last number, as erroneous, was corrected by the indicated gloss. Keil, Iosua, 62–63. Although the author of this interpretation has abandoned his view of Joshua 8:12-13 as a later interpolation, its very appearance in the German commentator indicates the great perplexity aroused by the current Hebrew text of these verses. This understanding is partly accepted in our textbooks named above by Archpriests M. Kheraskov and P. A. Vladimirsky. The only exception, as far as is known, in this regard is the ancient Vatican list, in which Nav.8:30–35 does not follow Nav.8:29, but after Nav.9:1–2; but even according to this reading of the Vatican list, the contents in Joshua 8:30–35 do not move further away from the conquest of Ai, since Joshua 9:1–2 sets out not what was done by Joshua after this conquest, but what the Canaanite kings were doing at that time. The possibility of this journey immediately after the conquest of Ai is explained by some of the Western Christian commentators by the fact that the Israeli camp was transferred at that time from Jericho Gilgal to another Gilgal, named in Deuteronomy (Deut. 11:30) and located closer to Shechem, currently known as Giljilie, southwest of Shiloh; due to this position of the second Gilgal, wives and children could be present at the celebration described in Joshua 8:30–35 (Keil. Iosua, 66–70). This assumption seems, however, unlikely due to the absence of any indications of the transfer of the Israeli camp at this time to another place. The silence of the biblical writer about this is all the more significant because he did not leave the subsequent transfer of the Tabernacle from Gilgal to Shiloh without mention (Joshua 18:1). You might be interested in: