‘ And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.'
Joshua wanted them well away from their strongpoint and so he and the army pretended to be beaten, probably after a minor skirmish, and retreated into barren land, probably the rugged territory between Ai and the Jordan valley. The text reads ‘they were beaten before them.' This was the appearance of what happened from the point of view of the men of Ai. This probably took the king of Ai by surprise. He had expected stronger resistance. But it made him recognise that the people he was attacking had no stomach for a fight. It was a repeat of what had happened before all over again.