Joshua 7:2
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai,.... Which was the next city of importance, though not so large as Jericho, and was, as the Jews say {l}, three miles distant from it; Abarbinel says {m} four miles, and so Bunting {n}; Jerom {o} says, that in his times very few ruins of it appeared, only the place was shown where it stood:
which is beside Bethaven; a name by which Bethel in later times was called, Hosea 4:15; but here it is manifestly a distinct place from it; just hard by or near to this place, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it, was the city of Ai: Bethaven seems to have been the suburbs of it, or however was very near unto it:
on the east side of Bethel; near to which Abraham built an altar, as did Jacob also, and which in former times was called Luz, Genesis 12:8; and was well known in later ages by the name of Bethel; it was reckoned about a mile from Ai: the situation of this city is so particularly described to distinguish it from another city of this name, Ai of the Amorites, Jeremiah 49:3; and is here called "that Ai", that well known Ai, as Kimchi observes:
and spake unto them; at the time he sent them, when he gave them their orders to go thither:
saying, Go up and view the country; the mountainous part of it; for they were now in a plain, where Jericho was seated; and observe what place was most proper to attack next, and which the best way of coming at it:
And the men went up and viewed Ai; what a sort of a city it was, how large, and what its fortifications, and what avenues were to it: by this it appears that Ai was built upon a hill, or at least was higher than Jericho and its plains; and with this agrees what a traveller says {p} of it, it is a village full of large ruins (in this he differs from Jerom) and from hence are seen the valley of Jericho, the dead sea, Gilgal, and Mount Quarantania, and many other places towards the east.
{l} Shemoth Rabba, sect. 32. fol. 185. 2.
{m} In Josh. xx. fol. 34. 1.
{n} Travels Of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 95.
{o} De loc. Heb. fol. 87. E.
{p} Baumgarten. Peregrinatio, l. 3. c. 1. p. 105.