Joshua’s plan worked: “all the people” (Revised Standard Version) of Ai joined in the pursuit of the fleeing Israelites. (“All the people,” of course, means all the men, that is, all who were fit and able for battle.) It is possible to translate this first clause by an active construction: “The leaders of the city had called together all the men of the city to go after them.”

They kept getting farther away from the city represents a slight shift in focus from the Hebrew, which indicates that the Israelite men intentionally drew the men of Ai away from the city. The entire verse may be translated more economically than Good News Translation. For example, “The leaders of the city had commanded all the men in the city to go after the Israelites. And the Israelites led them farther and farther away from the city.”

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 .