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: and the people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.
Additional Resources
Referenced Verses
- Gen 19:28 : 28 He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
- Job 11:20 : 20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, They shall have no way to flee; Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."
- Ps 48:5-6 : 5 They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed, They hurried away. 6 Trembling took hold of them there, Pain, as of a woman in travail.
- Ps 76:5 : 5 Valiant men lie plundered, They have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands.
- Isa 34:10 : 10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke of it shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.
- Amos 2:14-16 : 14 Flight will perish from the swift; And the strong won't strengthen his force; Neither shall the mighty deliver himself; 15 Neither shall he stand who handles the bow; And he who is swift of foot won't escape; Neither shall he who rides the horse deliver himself; 16 And he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked in that day," says Yahweh.
- Rev 6:15-17 : 15 The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. 16 They told the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?"
- Rev 18:9 : 9 The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her, will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning,
- Rev 19:3 : 3 A second said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever."
Similar Verses (AI)
These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.
- Josh 8:21-299 verses89%
21When 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.
22The others came forth out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23The king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.
24It 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 were 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.
25All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
26For Joshua didn't draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of Yahweh which he commanded Joshua.
28So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
29The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening: and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, to this day.
- Josh 8:1-1919 verses83%
1Yahweh 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, and his people, and his city, and his land;
2You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king: only the spoil of it, and the cattle of it, shall you take for a prey to yourselves: set you an ambush for the city behind it.
3So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.
4He commanded them, saying, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city; don't go very far from the city, but be all ready:
5and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them;
6and they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: so we will flee before them;
7and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city: for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand.
8It shall be, when you have seized on the city, that you shall set the city on fire; according to the word of Yahweh shall you do: behold, I have commanded you.
9Joshua sent them forth; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.
10Joshua arose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11All 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.
12He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13So they set the people, even all the host who was on the north of the city, and their liers-in-wait who were on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14It 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.
15Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El, who didn't go out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18Yahweh 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.
19The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it; and they hurried and set the city on fire.
- Judg 20:40-423 verses76%
40But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.
41The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them.
42Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it.
- Josh 7:2-54 verses75%
2Joshua 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.
3They 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 they are but few.
4So there went up there of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.
5The men of Ai struck of them about thirty-six men; and they chased them [from] before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent; and the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
- 73%
3A fire devours before them, And behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, And behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.
- 72%
38Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers-in-wait was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
- 72%
3But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
- 71%
8Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they struck them, and chased them to great Sidon, and to Misrephoth Maim, and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they struck them, until they left them none remaining.
- Josh 10:19-202 verses71%
19but don't stay; pursue after your enemies, and strike the hindmost of them; don't allow them to enter into their cities: for Yahweh your God has delivered them into your hand.
20It happened, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of killing them with a very great slaughter, until they were consumed, and the remnant which remained of them had entered into the fortified cities,
- 70%
8Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after that Israel has turned their backs before their enemies!
- 70%
11They struck all the souls who were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was none left who breathed: and he burnt Hazor with fire.
- 70%
5Why have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and don't look back: terror is on every side, says Yahweh.