In order to make a tighter connection between this and the previous verse, one may translate “So Joshua sent about three thousand Israelite men to attack the city.” The second clause (but they were forced to retreat) may be shifted to an active: “but the people of the city forced them to retreat.”

The Israelites were not able to force their way into Ai; they were repulsed at the city gate, and fled down the hill. The place name “Shebarim” (An American Translation, Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible) in Hebrew means “quarries” and has been translated that way by Good News Translation, New English Bible; Soggin translates “ravines”; the Septuagint seems to have understood the Hebrew text to mean, “and they defeated them.”

The sequence of events in this verse is not entirely clear in Good News Translation. One could assume that the sequence is (1) from the city gate, (2) as far as some quarries, and then (3) down the hill. However, the proper sequence seems to be: (1) from the city gate, (2) down the hill, and then (3) as far as some quarries. The verse may need to be restructured: “The men of Ai chased them from the city gate and all the way down the hill as far as some quarries. On the way down the hill they killed about thirty-six of the Israelite men.” Following a slightly different interpretation of the text, one may translate “The men of Ai chased them from the city gate to the place where the rock makes a steep slope, and they killed about thirty-six of the Israelite men.”

Before this unexpected defeat, the Israelites lost their courage and were afraid (literally “their hearts melted, and became like water,” see Revised Standard Version). Lost their courage and were afraid may sound either redundant or anticlimactic. The Hebrew in fact indicates only a single reaction, although two figures of speech are used (“hearts melted” and “like water”). Many languages will have idiomatic ways of expressing fear; moreover, it is also possible to translate either lost their courage or were afraid, without utilizing both figures of speech.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .