ay · Ai

What it means

ay (עַי) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “Ai”.

A town near Bethel. The Hebrew also writes it עַיָּה "Ayyah" (1 Chronicles 7:28; Nehemiah 11:31) and עַיַּת "Aiath" (Isaiah 10:28).

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

The place

• Ai ?

  Today: possibly et-Tell or Khirbet el-Maqatir, West Bank

  A city east of Bethel; its exact site is not certain.

  Israel was defeated there because of Achan's sin (Josh 7:2-5), and later God gave them the victory (Josh 8:1).

  Joshua 7:2Joshua 8:1Genesis 12:8

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• Ai ×38
• Aiath ×1
• Aija ×1
• Ayyah ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Joshua×33
• 1 Chronicles×1
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×2
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×1

• Genesis 12:8

  From there he moved on to the mountain east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to YHWH and called on the name of YHWH.

• Genesis 13:3

  He went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

• Joshua 7:2

  Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai.

• Joshua 7:3

  They returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up; let about two thousand men or about three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for they are few.”

• Joshua 7:4

  So about three thousand men from the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai.

• Joshua 7:5

  The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them, and pursued them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them on the descent. And the heart of the people melted and became water.

• Joshua 8:1

  YHWH said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed. Take with you all the people of war, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

• Joshua 8:2

  And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; only its spoil and its livestock you may plunder for yourselves. Set for yourself an ambush against the city behind it.”

• Joshua 8:3

  So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them out by night.

• Joshua 8:9

  So Joshua sent them, and they went to the place of ambush and stayed between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; and Joshua spent that night among the people.

• Joshua 8:10

  Joshua rose early in the morning and counted the people, and he and the elders of Israel went up before the people to Ai.

• Joshua 8:11

  And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and came in front of the city and camped on the north of Ai, with the valley between him and Ai.

• Joshua 8:12

  He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

• Joshua 8:14

  And it came about, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people, at the appointed time before the Arabah; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

• Joshua 8:16

  All the people who were in Ai were called out to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.

• Joshua 8:17

  Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel; and they abandoned the city open and pursued Israel.

• Joshua 8:18

  Then YHWH said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for into your hand I will give it.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

• Joshua 8:20

  The men of Ai turned back and looked, and look, the smoke of the city was going up to the heavens, and they had no strength to flee this way or that way; and the people who were fleeing to the wilderness turned back against the pursuer.

• Joshua 8:21

  When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was going up, they turned back and struck the men of Ai.

• Joshua 8:23

  But the king of Ai they captured alive and brought him to Joshua.

• Joshua 8:24

  And it came about, when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were finished, that all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

• Joshua 8:25

  All who fell that day, from man to woman, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai.

• Joshua 8:26

  Joshua did not draw back his hand that he had stretched out with the javelin until he had devoted to destruction all the inhabitants of Ai.

• Joshua 8:28

  So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap of ruins forever, a desolation, to this day.

• Joshua 8:29

  And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the time of evening; and at the going down of the sun Joshua gave command, and they took down his corpse from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which is there to this day.

• Joshua 9:3

  But the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

• Joshua 10:1

  And it came about, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and devoted it to destruction —as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he had done to Ai and its king— and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them,

• Joshua 10:2

  they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the cities of the kingdom, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty men.

• Joshua 12:9

  the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;

• 1 Chronicles 7:28

  And their possession and their dwelling places: Bethel and its towns; and to the east, Naaran; and to the west, Gezer and its towns; and Shechem and its towns, as far as Ayyah and its towns;

• Ezra 2:28

  the men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred twenty-three;

• Nehemiah 7:32

  the men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred twenty-three;

• Nehemiah 11:31

  And the sons of Benjamin, from Geba: Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel and its settlements,

• Isaiah 10:28

  He has come to Aiath, he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage.

• Jeremiah 49:3

  Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated! Cry out, daughters of Rabbah! Gird on sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro among the enclosures; for their king will go into exile, his priests and his princes together.

And 6 more times.