Monday, November 1, 2010

Question: What's Up With Ai?

In the Book of Joshua, Chapter 8 (referenced later tonight in the daily Tao Bible post), is the story of how the Israelites slaughtered the people of Ai and then burned the city to the ground. (It is interesting to note that there are no allegations in Joshua that the people of Ai had done ANYTHING against the chosen people.) Why was this city ransacked and its inhabitants murdered?

One might guess that the answer is that the Israelites wanted to possess what the people of Ai had. In this vein, one might figure the nomadic tribe wanted the land of Ai for their own. However, according to the bible, this does not turn out to be the case at all!
And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation unto this day. (Verse 28)
So, it looks like they destroyed the city just for the sake of destroying the city. They simply burned it to the ground, then moved on.

What's up with that?

To see what other questions I've asked about the Christian Bible, go here.

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