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In the second effort to conquer Ai, God gave detailed instructions, and Joshua carefully followed them. As Jericho guarded the entrance into the hill country from the valley, Ai guarded the entrance from the hilltop. If Israel were to gain access to the hill country, Ai could not be bypassed; it must be taken.
Ai has been identified traditionally with et-Tell, east of Bethel (modern Beitin). Whether this identification is correct is perhaps still open to question. Et-Tell does not appear, from the excavations carried out on the site, to have been occupied as a city at the time of the Israelite entry into Canaan. Whatever the proper identification of Ai, it guarded the upper reaches of one or more of the passes from the Jordan Valley up into the hill country.
The author described in considerable detail the preparations for the battle against Ai, the strategem of the ambush, the battle itself, and its outcome. Throughout, his emphasis is on God’s direction of the Israelite forces; Joshua took his orders in every detail directly from God. Ai also was put under the ban, and all its inhabitants were killed. However, Israel was allowed to keep the cattle and the spoils of Ai for themselves. The site of Ai itself and the burial place of its king were left as memorial heaps for the instruction of future generations.
Ch. 8 ends at the pass of Shechem with the ceremony that Moses had commanded (Dt 31:12). This began with the building of an altar on Mount Ebal, the northern of the two mountains that form the pass. Then Joshua read the stipulations of blessing for obedience and of curse for disobedience. Apparently the whole camp of Israel came up to Shechem for the ceremony. The implication is that Shechem did not have to be conquered; we do know that Jacob had bought land there (Ge 33:18-20).
This occasion marked a sense of taking possession of the land, though the campaigns against the Canaanite coalitions were still to come. As a ritual of sacrifice and reading of the law, it brought to Israel’s memory, individually and collectively, the promises and obligations of the covenant that had been mediated to them through Moses. As a ritual of anticipated possession, it demonstrated their faith in God’s promise, whose fulfillment was beginning to unfold before them. The solemnity and inclusiveness of the affair are emphasized throughout this short account.