Now that Israel has been purged of sin, the Lord is ready to allow the Israelites to capture the city of Ai. He orders Joshua to proceed (verses 1-2). Joshua explains his strategy to his troops (verses 3-9), and the next day the campaign against the city is successfully executed. The city is captured and destroyed, and all its inhabitants, including the king, are killed (verses 10-29). Thus the Lord again demonstrates his invincible power, to which the ruins of the city and the huge pile of stones over the king’s grave are eloquent if mute witnesses.
Good News Translation rearranges the sequence of God’s instructions to Joshua by placing the command Take all the soldiers with you and go on up to Ai as the first part of God’s instructions. For the actual order of the Hebrew, see Revised Standard Version, which begins with the command for Joshua not to be afraid.
All the soldiers may be translated “all the soldiers of Israel” or “all your soldiers.” And the command go on up to Ai may need to be more specific: “attack the city of Ai a second time.” In Hebrew the natural way of saying this would be to use the directive “go up,” because the cities of Ancient Palestine were customarily built on hills or mountains for the sake of protection.
The Lord says to Joshua, Don’t be afraid or discouraged (as in 1.9), for he, the Lord, will give Joshua and his men victory. The Hebrew verbs translated be afraid and discouraged are virtually synonyms, except that the verb translated discouraged literally means “be shattered” or “be filled with terror.” This is a very strong formula in Hebrew, and it should be rendered in a way which is most effective in the receptor language, whether with a single verb or with two verbs. If the pattern of Good News Translation is followed, one may translate “Do not be afraid of the people of Ai! Do not be discouraged because of what happened before!” Using a single verb one may render “Do not be frightened!” or “Do not be the least bit frightened!”
The city, its king, his people, and all his land will be handed over to Joshua (Revised Standard Version “I have given into your hand”). Give you victory over and will be yours translate the one verb rendered “given into your hand” by Revised Standard Version. Many languages will have quite vivid idioms for describing power over one’s enemies. It may be more effective if a single verb is used; for example, “I have placed in your power the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.”
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 .