AI

(Aʹi) [heap of ruins].

In the Authorized Version also called “Hai,” with the definite article prefixed, as it always is in the Hebrew. The name also occurs in the feminine forms Aiath and Aija.—Isa. 10:28; Neh. 11:31.

1. A royal city of the Canaanites, the second city taken during the Israelite invasion. Some 470 years earlier Abraham had pitched his tent “with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east,” shortly after arrival in Canaan (1943 B.C.E.). He built an altar there and revisited the place after his sojourn in Egypt. (Gen. 12:8; 13:3) In 1473 B.C.E., following the victory over Jericho, Ai was attacked by a small force of about 3,000 Israelite soldiers, since the spies said of the inhabitants of Ai, “they are few.” (Josh. 7:2, 3) However, due to Achan’s sin Israel suffered defeat. (Josh. 7:4-15) After correction of this matter, Joshua employed a stratagem against Ai, setting in ambush at the rear of the city, on its W side. The main force was deployed before the city to the N, where a valley or low desert plain lay, and from here Joshua prepared for a frontal attack on Ai. Having lured the king of Ai and a body of men out of Ai, Joshua’s force feigned retreat until their pursuers were far from their fortress. Then the ambush was signaled into action, the city captured and set on fire. (Josh. 8:1-27) Ai’s king was executed and the city was reduced to “an indefinitely lasting mound [Heb., tel], as a desolation down to this day.”—Josh. 8:28, 29.

By Isaiah’s time (c. 778-732 B.C.E.) the city, or perhaps an adjoining site, was inhabited and was prophesied to be the first to be taken by the king of Assyria in his march on Jerusalem. (Isa. 10:28) Following the Babylonian exile, Benjamites from Ai returned with Zerubbabel’s caravan.—Ezra 2:28; Neh. 7:32; 11:31.

Ai is shown to have been situated “close by Bethaven, to the east of Bethel,” with a valley plain to the N. (Josh. 7:2; 8:11, 12) Michmash apparently lay to the S. (Isa. 10:28) Ai has been generally identified with the site et-Tell (“the heap, or mound”), which preserves the meaning of the ancient name. It is two miles (3.2 kilometers) SE of Bethel (modern Beitin). However, excavations made there in 1933-1935 indicate that it was a large city, devastated about 2000 B.C.E. and thereafter uninhabited until about 1050 B.C.E. (according to archaeological methods of dating). Because of this, various attempts have been made by archaeologists to alter the sense of the Scriptural references to Ai. However archaeologist J. Simons finds the identification with et-Tell unacceptable on the basis of the city’s size (Josh. 7:3), that there is no broad valley to the N of et-Tell (Josh. 8:11), and on other grounds. (Archaeological Digest, July-September 1947, p. 311) If the archaeological dating is correct, then the site must be located elsewhere. The name itself would not necessarily identify the place, since as Sir Frederic Kenyon states: “The transference of a name from a ruined or abandoned site to another near by is a common phenomenon in Palestine.”—The Bible and Archaeology, p. 190.

2. A city mentioned along with Heshbon in Jeremiah’s prophecy against the Ammonites. (Jer. 49:3) The location is unknown.