Bible Encyclopedia: Ai

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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a'-i (`ay, written always with the definite article, ha-`ay, probably meaning "the ruin," kindred root, `awah):

(1) A town of central Palestine, in the tribe of Benjamin, near and just east of Bethel (Genesis 12:8). It is identified with the modern Haiyan, just south of the village Der Diwan (Conder in HDB; Delitzsch in Commentary on Genesis 12:8) or with a mound, El-Tell, to the north of the modern village (Davis, Dict. Biblical). The name first appears in the earliest journey of Abraham through Palestine (Genesis 12:8), where its location is given as east of Bethel, and near the altar which Abraham built between the two places. It is given similar mention as he returns from his sojourn in Egypt (Genesis 13:3). In both of these occurrences the King James Version has the form Hai, including the article in transliterating. The most conspicuous mention of Ai is in the narrative of the Conquest. As a consequence of the sin of Achan in appropriating articles from the devoted spoil of Jericho, the Israelites were routed in the attack upon the town; but after confession and expiation, a second assault was successful, the city was taken and burned, and left a heap of ruins, the inhabitants, in number twelve thousand, were put to death, the king captured, hanged and buried under a heap of stones at the gate of the ruined city, only the cattle being kept as spoil by the people (Joshua 7; Joshua 8). The town had not been rebuilt when Jos was written (Joshua 8:28). The fall of Ai gave the Israelites entrance to the heart of Canaan, where at once they became established, Bethel and other towns in the vicinity seeming to have yielded without a struggle. Ai was rebuilt at some later period, and is mentioned by Isaiah (Isaiah 10:28) in his vivid description of the approach of the Assyrian army, the feminine form (`ayyath) being used. Its place in the order of march, as just beyond Michmash from Jerusalem, corresponds with the identification given above. It is mentioned also in post-exilic times by Ezra 2:28 and Nehemiah 7:32, (and in Nehemiah 11:31 as, `ayya'), identified in each case by the grouping with Bethel.

(2) The Ai of Jeremiah 49:3 is an Ammonite town, the text probably being a corruption of `ar; or ha-`ir, "the city" (BDB).

Edward Mack

Greek

3588. ho, he, to -- the
... (ai) -- 154 Occurrences. (e) -- 1409 Occurrences. (o) -- 3184 Occurrences. (oi) --
1150 Occurrences. (ta) -- 836 Occurrences. (tais) -- 203 Occurrences. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3588.htm - 8k

Strong's Hebrew

7671. Shebarim -- perhaps "quarries," a place near Ai
... Shebarim. 7672 . perhaps "quarries," a place near Ai. Transliteration: Shebarim
Phonetic Spelling: (sheb-aw-reem') Short Definition: Shebarim. Word Origin pl. ...
/hebrew/7671.htm - 6k

5857. Ay -- a Canaanite city
... Ay or Ayya or Ayyath. 5858 . a Canaanite city. Transliteration: Ay or Ayya or
Ayyath Phonetic Spelling: (ah'ee) Short Definition: Ai. ... Ai, Aija, Aijath,. ...
/hebrew/5857.htm - 6k

5892. iyr -- excitement
... 5891, 5892. iyr. 5892a . excitement. Transliteration: iyr Phonetic Spelling:
(eer) Short Definition: excitement. Ai, city, town ...
/hebrew/5892.htm - 5k

Library

The Capture of Jericho and Ai
... THE OLD TESTAMENT THE CAPTURE OF JERICHO AND AI. Now Jericho had ... this day. Then
Joshua set out with all the warriors to go up to Ai. And ...
/.../sherman/the childrens bible/the capture of jericho and.htm

Achan's Sin, Israel's Defeat
... of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against
the children of Israel.2. And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture f/achans sin israels defeat.htm

The Great Furnace for a Great Soul
... THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL. BEING THE STORY OF AI DO. MRS. ... The years
passed by, and little Ai Do won the love and approval of all. ...
/.../cable/the fulfilment of a dream of pastor hsis/chapter xi the great furnace.htm

Women's Bible Training School
... evangelistic work. Foremost amongst these was Mrs. Liang, mother of Ling
Ai, the headmistress of the girls' school. Strong, true ...
/.../the fulfilment of a dream of pastor hsis/chapter xvi womens bible training.htm

Restraining Prayer: is it Sin?
... of God's presence. 2. Defeat and failure are always owing to the loss
of God's presence."It was thus at Ai. God had brought His ...
/.../murray/the ministry of intercession/chapter vi restraining prayer is.htm

With the Rev. William Burns
... native dress. The T'ai-p'ing rebellion, commenced in 1851, had by this time
reached the height of its ephemeral success. The great ...
//christianbookshelf.org/taylor/a retrospect/chapter xi with the rev.htm

Joshua
... This initial success was followed by a sharp and unexpected disaster at Ai, for
which Achan, by his violation of the law of the ban, was held guilty and ...
//christianbookshelf.org/mcfadyen/introduction to the old testament/joshua.htm

Chapter xiii
... 3, 4. So he went in stages from the Negeb to Bethel, to the place where his tent
had been in the previous instance between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the ...
/...//christianbookshelf.org/leupold/exposition of genesis volume 1/chapter xiii.htm

How Joshua, the Commander of the Hebrews, Made War with The
... Now, a few days after the calamity that befell Jericho, Joshua sent three thousand
armed men to take Ai, a city situate above Jericho; but, upon the sight of ...
/.../josephus/the antiquities of the jews/chapter 1 how joshua the.htm

Five Kings in a Cave
... It is rather singular that when the children of Israel had taken Jericho they failed
at Ai, and yet not singular when we realize that one man had sinned in all ...
//christianbookshelf.org/chapman/and judas iscariot/five kings in a cave.htm

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

or Hai, mass; heap

Smith's Bible Dictionary

(heap of ruins).

A city lying east of Bethel and "beside Bethaven." (Joshua 7:2; 8:9) It was the second city taken by Israel after the passage of the Jordan, and was "utterly destroyed." (Joshua 7:3-5; 8:1; Joshua 9:3; 10:1,2; 12:9)
A city of the Ammonites, apparently attached to Heshbon. (Jeremiah 49:3)

ATS Bible Dictionary

Called also Hai, Genesis 12:8; Aija, Nehemiah 11:31; and Aiath, Isaiah 10:28. A royal city of the Canaanites, east of Bethel, near which Abraham once sojourned and built an altar, Genesis 12:8; 13:3. It is memorable for Joshua's defeat on account of Achan, and his subsequent victory, Joshua 7:2-5; 8:1-29. It was rebuilt, and is mentioned by Isaiah. Its ruins are spoken of by Eusebius and Jerome, but the exact site cannot now be fixed with certainty.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Ruins.

(1.) One of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Joshua 10:1; Genesis 12:8; 13:3). It was the scene of Joshua's defeat, and afterwards of his victory. It was the second Canaanite city taken by Israel (Joshua 7:2-5; 8:1-29). It lay rebuilt and inhibited by the Benjamites (Ezra 2:28; Nehemiah 7:32; 11:31). It lay to the east of Bethel, "beside Beth-aven." The spot which is most probably the site of this ancient city is Haiyan, 2 miles east from Bethel. It lay up the Wady Suweinit, a steep, rugged valley, extending from the Jordan valley to Bethel.

(2.) A city in the Ammonite territory (Jeremiah 49:3). Some have thought that the proper reading of the word is Ar (Isaiah 15:1).

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

(n.) The three-toed sloth (Bradypus tridactylus) of South America. See Sloth.

Thesaurus

Ai (32 Occurrences)
... See Sloth. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. AI. a ... transliterating. The most
conspicuous mention of Ai is in the narrative of the Conquest. ...
/a/ai.htm - 21k

Ai'jalon (10 Occurrences)
Ai'jalon. Aijalon, Ai'jalon. Aijeleth . Multi-Version Concordance
Ai'jalon (10 Occurrences). Joshua 10:12 Then Joshua ...
/a/ai'jalon.htm - 8k

Jeshish'ai (1 Occurrence)
Jeshish'ai. Jeshishai, Jeshish'ai. Jeshoaiah . Multi-Version
Concordance Jeshish'ai (1 Occurrence). 1 Chronicles 5:14 ...
/j/jeshish'ai.htm - 6k

Ma'ai (1 Occurrence)
Ma'ai. Maai, Ma'ai. Maalehacrabbim . Multi-Version Concordance
Ma'ai (1 Occurrence). Nehemiah 12:36 and his brothers ...
/m/ma'ai.htm - 6k

Ai'ja (1 Occurrence)
Ai'ja. Aija, Ai'ja. Aijah . Multi-Version Concordance Ai'ja
(1 Occurrence). Nehemiah 11:31 The children of Benjamin ...
/a/ai'ja.htm - 6k

Ai'ath (1 Occurrence)
Ai'ath. Aiath, Ai'ath. Aid . Multi-Version Concordance Ai'ath (1
Occurrence). Isaiah 10:28 He has gone up from Pene-Rimmon ...
/a/ai'ath.htm - 6k

Ai'ah (5 Occurrences)
Ai'ah. A'iah, Ai'ah. Aiah's . Multi-Version Concordance Ai'ah
(5 Occurrences). 2 Samuel 3:7 Now Saul had a concubine ...
/a/ai'ah.htm - 7k

Sar'ai (12 Occurrences)
Sar'ai. Sarai, Sar'ai. Saraiah . Multi-Version Concordance
Sar'ai (12 Occurrences). Genesis 11:29 And Abram and Nahor ...
/s/sar'ai.htm - 9k

Re-ai'ah (4 Occurrences)
Re-ai'ah. Reaiah, Re-ai'ah. Real . Multi-Version Concordance
Re-ai'ah (4 Occurrences). 1 Chronicles 4:2 Reaiah the son ...
/r/re-ai'ah.htm - 7k

Re-el-ai'ah (1 Occurrence)
Re-el-ai'ah. Reelaiah, Re-el-ai'ah. Reeled . Multi-Version
Concordance Re-el-ai'ah (1 Occurrence). Ezra 2:2 who came ...
/r/re-el-ai'ah.htm - 6k

Bible Concordance

Ai (32 Occurrences)

Genesis 12:8 He left from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on the name of Yahweh.
(Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Genesis 13:3 He went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, "Go up and spy out the land." The men went up and spied out Ai.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 7:3 They returned to Joshua, and said to him, "Don't let all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don't make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them."
(Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 7:4 So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 7:5 The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them, and they chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV)

Joshua 8:1 Yahweh said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid, neither be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land.
(Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:2 You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except its spoil and its livestock, you shall take for a plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it."
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:9 Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:10 Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:11 All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:12 He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:14 It happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn't know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:16 And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
(KJV JPS BBE WBS NIV)

Joshua 8:17 There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who didn't go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:18 Yahweh said to Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
(Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:20 When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai.
(Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:23 They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:24 It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:25 All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:26 For Joshua didn't draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:28 So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 8:29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at the sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 9:3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 10:1 Now it happened when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 10:2 that they were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
(Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Joshua 12:9 the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Ezra 2:28 The men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred twenty-three.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Nehemiah 7:32 The men of Bethel and Ai, a hundred twenty-three.
(WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Jeremiah 49:3 Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste; cry, you daughters of Rabbah, dress yourself in sackcloth: lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
(Root in WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV)

Subtopics

Ai: A City of the Ammonites

Ai: A Royal City of the Canaanites: Also Called Aija

Ai: A Royal City of the Canaanites: And Aiath

Ai: A Royal City of the Canaanites: Conquest and Destruction of

Ai: A Royal City of the Canaanites: Population of

Ai: A Royal City of the Canaanites: Rebuilt

Related Terms

Ai'jalon (10 Occurrences)

Jeshish'ai (1 Occurrence)

Ma'ai (1 Occurrence)

Ai'ja (1 Occurrence)