CONQUEST. | 55

into your hand.” He further directs them, when they
had taken the city, to set it on fire. These thirty thou-
sand men went forth, and remained in ambush on the
west side of Ai, between that city and Bethel. Karly in
the morning Joshua rose, and this is neither the first nor
the second time only that we have been told of his doing
so. When he had work to do he commenced it betimes,
an example which we would do well to follow. He num-
bered the people, and then he and the elders of Israel
led to Ai all the men of war. They pitched on the north
side of the city, with a valley between them and it. We
are then told that Joshua took five thousand and set
them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the
west of the latter city. 3

George. You said, grandfather, that Joshua sent
thirty thousand men there the night before.

Grandfather. You have started a difficulty, George,
which has been differently explained by different people.
Some think that the thirty thousand sent away by night
make up the sum of the whole force that was to be em-
ployed in the taking of Ai; that the open attack was to
be made with twenty-five thousand, and that the five
thousand were all who were to lie in ambush; but this
explanation does not agree well with the command given
by God to Joshua, to take all the people of war with him.

George. But that might have meant that though all
the soldiers were to go, only thirty thousand were to
fight.

Grandfather. Of course that is the opinion entertained