7:5a

And: The Hebrew prefix that the Berean Standard Bible translates as And introduces the next event in the storyline. Introduce the next event in a way that is most natural in your language.

the men of Ai: The phrase the men of Ai refers to the soldiers who were fighting to defend the town.

struck down about thirty-six of them: The soldiers of Ai killed thirty-six Israelite soldiers.

7:5b

The Hebrew prefix that the Berean Standard Bible leaves untranslated but some English versions translates as “and” introduces some additional detail about the death of the Israelite soldiers. This adds emphasis to the defeat of the Israelites. The details specify where and when the Israelite soldiers were killed.

chasing them: The word them refers to the Israelite soldiers.

from the gate: The word from means “in front of.” The men of Ai chased the Israelite soldiers away from the area in front of the town gate all the way to the stone quarries.

the gate: Ai town (like Jericho town) was surrounded by a town wall. In the wall was a gate, and people could enter the town only through this gate.

7:5c

as far as the quarries: There are two ways to interpret the Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as quarries.

(1) It means rock quarries. For example:

They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries (New International Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word, New Century Version, NET Bible, New Living Translation (2004), Revised English Bible, Good News Translation)

(2) It is a place named Shebarim. For example:

pursued them from the town gate as far as Shebarim (New Jerusalem Bible)

(New Jerusalem Bible, Revised Standard Version, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). Interpretation (2) is a transliteration of the Hebrew word and does not communicate the meaning as it was probably understood in Hebrew.

quarries: The word quarries refers to a place where people dig rock from the ground to use in construction.

7:5d

and: The Hebrew prefix that the Berean Standard Bible translates as and introduces more details of where and when the Israelite soldiers were killed.

striking them down: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as striking them down means “killing.” The phrase striking them down refers to the thirty-six Israelite soldiers who were killed. It restates the information in 7:5a. It does not indicate that additional Israelites were killed.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

the men of Ai killed them

on the slopes: The phrase on the slopes refers to the hillside going down to the stone quarries.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

on the slope of the hill
-or-
while they were fleeing down the hill

General Comment on 7:5b-d

This story is told in a way that is common in Hebrew narrative style. It tells a summary of an event first, and then it adds the details. Use the natural grammar of your language to make this clear. Your readers should understand that only thirty-six Israelite people were killed. These are some ways that English versions have handled this style:

The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them, chasing them from outside the gate as far as Shebarim and killing them on the slope. (God’s Word)
-or-
The men of Ai chased them from the city gate as far as some quarries and killed about thirty-six of them on the way down the hill. (Good News Translation)

7:5e

So the hearts of the people melted and became like water: This is a Hebrew idiom. It means that the people became very afraid. They no longer felt any courage. Many languages have their own idioms to express fear. Here are some English idioms that express this meaning:

And the heart of the troops sank in utter dismay. (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)
-or-
they lost their courage (New Century Version)
-or-
The Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events, and their courage melted away. (New Living Translation (2004))

In some languages it may be more natural to express the meaning directly without using an idiom. For example, you could say:

The Israelite soldiers were very afraid

Express the meaning in the most natural way in your language.

the people: This phrase refers to the Israelite soldiers.

© 2001, 2011, 2020, 2022, 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.