Joshua 8

Jos 8:1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not fear, nor be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.

Fear not - The iniquity being now purged away, because of which God had turned his hand against Israel, there was now no cause to dread any other disaster, and therefore Joshua is ordered to take courage.

Take all the people - That all of them might be partakers of this first spoil, and thereby encouraged to proceed in their work.

Do not fear, nor be dismayed - With evident allusion to Joshua's despair after the failure of the first attack, the Lord commences with these words, “Fear not, neither be thou dismayed” These words are an echo of other verses: Deuteronomy 1:21 Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up. Possess it , even as the LORD God of your fathers has said to you. Do not fear, neither be troubled; Deuteronomy 31:8 And Jehovah is He who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not fail you nor forsake you. Do not fear; nor be dismayed.

Jos 8:2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take for a prize for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it.

Lay an ambush- This seems to cause concern among the commentators about ethics of God calling for a laying of an ambush, a form of deception. Personally I don’t see a problem with it. It is a part of war.

Jos 8:3 So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them away by night.

Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men; out of all the men of war; these were a select company, picked men, not the whole army, as some have thought, for he was ordered to take all the people of war, as he did: It looks like Joshua despatched thirty thousand men under cover of night, to station themselves at the place appointed for the ambush. Out of this number a detachment of five thousand was sent forward to conceal themselves in the immediate precincts of the town, in order to seize the first opportunity of throwing themselves into it Joshua 8:12 And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

Jos 8:4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, you will be an ambush against the city, behind the city. You shall not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.

Jos 8:5 And I, and all the people with me, shall go toward the city. And it shall be, when they come out against us, as at the first, we will flee before them,

Jos 8:6 (for they will come out after us) until we have drawn them out of the city. For they will say, They flee before us, even as at the first. And we will flee before them.

Jos 8:7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize on the city; for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand.

Then ye shall rise up from the ambush - When they should see a signal made, Joshua 8:18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear in his hand toward the city.

Jos 8:8 And it shall be, when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, according to the command of Jehovah you shall do. See, I have commanded you.

Ye shall set the city on fire - Probably this means no more than that they should kindle a fire in the city, possibly some outlying houses of it, the smoke of which should be an indication that they had taken it. For as the spoils of the city were to be divided among the people, had they at this time set fire to the city itself, all the property must have been consumed, for the five thousand men did not wait to save any thing, as they immediately issued out to attack the men of Ai in the rear.

Jos 8:9 And Joshua sent them out. And they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night among the people.

Jos 8:10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning and called up the people. And they went up, he and the elders of Israel, in the sight of the people of Ai.

Numbered the people - he visited the people, inspected their ranks to see whether every thing was in perfect readiness, that in case they should be needed they might be led on to the attack.

Jos 8:11 And all the people of war with him went up and drew near. And they came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai. And a valley was between them and Ai.

Jos 8:12 And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

And he took - Or rather, but he had taken, namely, out of the said number of thirty thousand, for this is added by way of recapitulation and farther explication of what is said in general, Jos_8:9.

Jos 8:13 And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley.

Jos 8:14 And it happened, when the king of Ai saw, they hurried and rose up early. And the men of the city went out to do battle against Israel, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the plain. But he did not know that there were some lying in ambush against him behind the city.

At a time appointed - Possibly they might appoint the same hour of the day on which they had fought against Israel with good success, looking upon it as a lucky hour. More likely it means an hour concocted between the king and people of Ai and those of Beth-el, who were confederates in this enterprise.

Jos 8:15 And Joshua and all Israel acted as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

made as if they were beaten before them--the pretended flight in the direction of the wilderness; that is, southeast, into the Ghor, the desert valley of the Jordan, decoyed all the inhabitants of Ai out of the city, while the people of Beth-el hastened to participate in the expected victory.

by the way of the wilderness – means by way of the road from Ai.

Jos 8:16 And all the people in Ai were called together to run after them. And they ran after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

Jos 8:17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, who did not go after Israel. And they left the city open, and ran after Israel.

Beth-el, which Joshua did not think proper to attack at this time. From Jdg_1:24 we find that Beth-el was then a walled city, in the hands of the Canaanites, and was taken by the house of Joseph.

Jos 8:18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear in his hand toward the city.

stretch out the spear that is in thy hand towards Ai – Possibly on which was a flag which served for a signal for the ambush to come out and seize the city, as well as a signal also to the army of Israel to prepare to turn and face about, and engage with the enemy; though they did not actually do this until they saw the smoke of the city,

for I will give it into thine hand; of which the stretching out of his spear seems also to be a confirming sign to him, and which he kept stretched out until all the inhabitants of Ai were destroyed, Jos_8:26.

stretch out the spear that is in thy hand towards Ai – Note similarity to Moses in Exodus 17:8-12 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out to fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. And Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it happened when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands became heavy. And they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going of the sun.

Jos 8:19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand. And they entered into the city, and took it, and hurried and set the city on fire.

Jos 8:20 And the men of Ai looked behind them and saw. And, behold, the smoke of the city went up into the sky, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.

and there were not hands in them to flee hither and thither - they were utterly unable to flee. “Hand,” as the organs of enterprise and labor, in the sense of “strength,” not “room.” They lost their will to fight. There is an analogous passage in Psalms 76:5 The stouthearted have been stripped; they slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands. They were in utter consternation; they saw that the city was taken, they found themselves in the midst of their foes; that their wives, children, and property, had fallen a prey to their enemies, in consequence of which they were so utterly panic-struck as to be incapable of making any resistance.

Jos 8:21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned again and killed the men of Ai.

Jos 8:22 And the others came out of the city against them. So they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And they struck them so that they let none of them remain or escape.

Jos 8:23 And they took the king of Ai, and brought him alive to Joshua.

the king of Ai they took alive - to be reserved for a more ignominious death, as a greater criminal in God's sight than his subjects. In the mingled attack from before and behind, all the men were massacred.

Jos 8:24 And it happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all those who lived in Ai, in the field and in the wilderness where they chased them, and when they had all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were gone, all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

Returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword - This must refer to the women, children, and old persons, left behind.

When all the men of Ai, who had come out to pursue the Israelites, had been slain upon the field (namely) in the desert, all Israel returned to Ai and smote it (the town, i.e., the inhabitants), so that on that day there fell of men and women, 12,000, all the people of Ai: for Joshua did not draw back his hand, which had been stretched out with the javelin, till all the inhabitants of Ai were smitten with the ban, i.e., put to death; according to the common custom of war, that the general did not lower the war-signal till the conflict was to cease.

Jos 8:25 And all who fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai.

Jos 8:26 For Joshua did not draw his hand back, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the people of Ai.

spear - The Hebrew word kidon, which we render spear

Destroyed - the Hebrew term herem, meaning devoted to the LORD by destruction.

Jos 8:27 Only, Israel took the cattle and the spoil of that city for a prize for themselves, according to the Word of Jehovah which He commanded Joshua.

Only the cattle and the spoil - In the case of Jericho these were all consigned to destruction, and therefore it was criminal to take any thing pertaining to the city, as we have already seen; but in the case before us the cattle and spoils were expressly given to the conquerors by the order of God.

Jos 8:28 And Joshua burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, a ruin to this day.

and made it an heap for ever - that is, for a long time, for it appears to have been rebuilt, and to have been inhabited by the Jews, after their return from their Babylonian captivity, Nehemiah 11:31 And the sons of Benjamin from Geba lived at Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel, and their villages. One commentator says it was not rebuilt during that time.

Jos 8:29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his body down from the tree and throw it down at the entrance to the gate of the city, and raise on it a great heap of stones, to this day.

As soon as the sun was down - It was not lawful to let the bodies remain all night upon the tree according to the law that the land might not be defiled Deuteronomy 21:22-23 And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and if he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree. But you shall surely bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God), so that your land may not be defiled, which Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance.

Raise thereon a great heap of stones - This was a common custom through all antiquity in every country, as we have already seen in the case of Achan, Jos_7:20.

Jos 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal,

Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal - As was commanded, Deuteronomy 27:4-5 Therefore it shall be when you have gone over Jordan, you shall set up these stones which I command you today, in Mount Ebal. And you shall plaster them with plaster. And you shall build an altar there to Jehovah your God, an altar of stones. You shall not lift up any iron tool on them. Ebal was near Shechem in Samaria, at a great distance from Ai, according to some commentators.

Mount Ebal - God's altar was to be but in one place, Deu_12:13-14, and this place was appointed to he mount Ebal, Deu_27:4-5, which also seems most proper, that in that place whence the curses of the law were denounced against sinners, there might also be the tokens and means of grace, and peace, and reconciliation with God, for the removing of the curses, and the procuring of God's blessing to sinners.

Then Joshua built an altar - This spot was little short of twenty miles from Ai (or 60, depending on the commentator). The march through a hostile country and the unmolested performance of the religious ceremonial observed at this mountain, would be greatly facilitated, through the blessing of God, by the disastrous fall of Ai. The solemn duty was to be attended to at the first convenient opportunity after the entrance into Canaan (Deu_27:2); and with this in view Joshua seems to have conducted the people through the mountainous region that intervened though no details of the journey have been recorded. Ebal was on the north, opposite to Gerizim, which was on the south side of the town Sichem.

Then Joshua built an altar - The fulfillment of these instructions, according to the meaning of this solemn act, as a symbolical setting up of the law of the Lord to be the invariable rule of life to the people of Israel in the land of Canaan, was not only a practical expression of thanksgiving on the part of the covenant nation for its entrance into this land through the almighty assistance of its God, but also a practical acknowledgement, that in the overthrow of the Canaanites thus far it had received a strong pledge of the conquest of the foes that still remained and the capture of the whole of the promised land, provided only it persevered in covenant faithfulness towards the Lord its God.

The account of this religious solemnity is given very briefly. It presupposes an acquaintance with the Mosaic instructions in Deut 27, and merely gives the leading points, to show that those instructions were carefully carried out by Joshua. Of the three distinct acts of which the ceremony consisted, in the book of Deuteronomy the setting up of the stones with the law written upon them is mentioned first (Deu_27:2-4), and then (Jos_8:5-7) the building of the altar and the offering of sacrifice. Here, on the contrary, the building of the altar and offering of sacrifice are mentioned first (Jos_8:30, Jos_8:31), and then (Jos_8:32) the writing of the law upon the stones; which was probably the order actually observed. - In Jos_8:30 Jehovah is called “the God of Israel,” to show that henceforth no other god was to be worshipped in Canaan than the God of Israel. On Mount Ebal, Deuteronomy 11:29 And it will be, when Jehovah your God has brought you into the land where you go to possess it, you shall set the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal.

Jos 8:31 as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted any iron. And they offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings.

As Moses commanded - namely, Deuteronomy 27:4-5. Therefore it shall be when you have gone over Jordan, you shall set up these stones which I command you today, in Mount Ebal. And you shall plaster them with plaster. And you shall build an altar there to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall not lift up any iron tool on them. Exodus 20: 22-25 And the LORD said to Moses, So you shall say to the sons of Israel, You have seen that I have talked with you from the heavens. You shall not make with Me gods of silver, neither shall you make to you gods of gold. You shall make an altar of earth to Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In all places where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone. For if you lift up your tool upon it, you have defiled it. On the presentation of burnt-offerings and slain-offerings, see Deuteronomy 27:6-7 You shall build the altar of the LORD your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God. And you shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God.

over which no man hath lifted up any iron - that is, iron tool. The reason for this was that every altar of the true God ought properly to have been built of earth Exodus 20:24 You shall make an altar of earth to Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In all places where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you and if it was constructed of stone, then rough, unhewn stones were to be employed that it might retain both the appearance and nature of earth, since every bloody sacrifice was connected with sin and death, by which man, the creature of earth, is brought to earth again.

Jos 8:32 And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the sons of Israel.

A copy of the law of Moses - mishneh torath, the repetition of the law; that is, a copy of the blessings and curses, as commanded by Moses; not a copy of the Decalogue, as some imagine, nor of the book of Deuteronomy, as others think; much less of the whole Pentateuch; but merely of that part which contained the blessings and curses, and which was to be read on this solemn occasion. Deuteronomy 27:2-3 And it will be, on the day when you shall pass over Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall set up great stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on them all the words of the law when you have passed over, so that you may go in to the land which the LORD your God gives you, a land that flows with milk and honey, as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you.

And he wrote there upon the stones - Not upon the stones of which the altar was made, but upon other stones erected in the form of a pillar, and plastered over.

Jos 8:33 And all Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark, and on that side, before the priests the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, the stranger as well as the homeborn among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded before that they should bless all the people of Israel.

As Moses commanded to bless the people before - as he had previously commanded in Deuteronomy 27 and other verses. Moses did not give the command to proclaim the blessings and cursings to the people for the first time in connection with these instructions (Deut 27), but had done so before, at the very outset, namely, as early as Deuteronomy 11:29 And it will be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land where you go to possess it, you shall set the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal.

half of them over against Mount Gerizim - that is, half of the tribes, and these were Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. Deuteronomy 27:12 These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you have come over Jordan: Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin.

and half of them over against Mount Ebal - which were the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. Deuteronomy 27:13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

Jos 8:34 And afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the Law.

He read - That is, he commanded the priests or Levites to read, Deuteronomy 27:14 And the Levites shall speak and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,

the blessing and the curse - they serve to define all the words of the law, and are not to be understood as relating to the blessings in Deu_28:1-14, and the curses in Deu_27:15-26 and 28:15-68. The whole law is called “the blessing and the curse” with special reference to its contents, inasmuch as the fulfillment of it brings a blessing, and the transgression of it a curse. In the same manner, in Deuteronomy 11:26 Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse, Moses describes the exposition of the whole law in the steppes of Moab as setting before them blessing and cursing. In Jos_8:35 it is most distinctly stated that Joshua had the whole law read to the people; whilst the expression “all Israel,” in v. 33, is more fully explained as signifying not merely the congregation in its representatives, or even the men of the nation, but “all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were in the midst of it.”

Blessings and cursings – Deuteronomy 27:15- Deuteronomy 28:68
Deuteronomy 27
15 Cursed is the man that makes any graven or molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
16 Cursed is he who thinks lightly of his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
17 Cursed is he who removes his neighbor's landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.
18 Cursed is he who makes the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.
19 Cursed is he who perverts the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.
20 Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife, because he uncovers his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.
21 Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal. And all the people shall say, Amen.
22 Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
23 Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
24 Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen.
25 Cursed is he who takes reward to kill an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.
26 Cursed is he who does not confirm all the words of this law, to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Deuteronomy 28
1 And it will be, if you shall listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth.
2 And all these blessings shall come on you and overtake you, if you will listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
3 You shall be blessed in the city, and be blessed in the field.
4 The fruit of your body shall be blessed, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your cows, and the flocks of your sheep.
5 Your basket and your store shall be blessed.
6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and blessed when you go out.
7 The LORD shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be stricken before your face. They shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.
8 The LORD shall command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and all that you set your hand to. And He shall bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
9 The LORD shall establish you a holy people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.
10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.
11 And the LORD shall prosper you in goods, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The LORD shall open to you His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall loan to many nations, and you shall not borrow.
13 And the LORD shall make you the head, and not the tail. And you shall be always above, and you shall not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, to observe and to do them.
14 And you shall not go aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 And it shall be, if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe and to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses shall come on you and overtake you.
16 You shall be cursed in the city, and cursed in the field.
17 Your basket and your store shall be cursed.
18 The fruit of your body shall be cursed, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your cows, and the flocks of your sheep.
19 You shall be cursed when you come in, and cursed when you go out.
20 The LORD shall send on you cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings by which you have forsaken Me.
21 The LORD shall make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land where you go to possess it.
22 The LORD shall strike you with lung disease and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew. And they shall pursue you until you perish.
23 And your heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you iron.
24 The LORD shall make the rain of your land powder and dust. It shall come down from the heavens on you until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD shall cause you to be stricken before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a trembling to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And your body shall be food to all birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth. And no man shall frighten them away.
27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
28 The LORD shall strike you with madness and blindness, and astonishment of heart.
29 And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall always be pressed down and spoiled forever, and no man shall save you.
30 You shall become engaged to a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, and you shall not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, and you shall not gather the grapes of it.
31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your ass shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you, your sheep given to your enemies, and you shall have none to rescue them.
32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail for them all the day long. And there shall be no power in your hand.
33 The fruit of your land, and all your labors, shall be eaten up by a nation which you do not know. And you shall always be oppressed and crushed,
34 and you shall be mad because of that which you shall see with the sight of your eyes.
35 The LORD shall strike you in the knees and in the legs with an evil ulcer that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 The LORD shall bring you, and your king which you shall set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations where the LORD shall lead you.
38 You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in, for the locust shall eat it.
39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them , but shall neither drink the wine nor gather, for the worm shall eat them.
40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your coasts, but you shall not anoint with the oil, for your olive shall drop off its fruit.
41 You shall father sons and daughters, but you shall not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity.
42 All your trees and the fruit of your land the locust shall possess.
43 The stranger within you shall get up above you very high, and you shall come down very low.
44 He shall loan to you, and you shall not loan to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 And all these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.
46 And they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.
47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things ;
48 therefore you shall serve your enemies which the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in the lack of all things . And he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The LORD shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand,
50 a nation fierce of face who shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young.
51 And he shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. He shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you.
52 And he shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down, throughout all the land. And he shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.
53 And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the anguish with which your enemies shall distress you.
54 The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his sons which he has left;
55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his sons whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left to him in the siege and in the anguish with which your enemies shall distress you in all your gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not have ventured to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
57 and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her sons whom she shall bear. For she shall eat them secretly for lack of all things , in the siege and anguish with which your enemies shall distress you in your gates.
58 If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, JEHOVAH YOUR GOD,
59 then Jehovah will make your plagues remarkable, and the plagues of your seed great and persistent plagues; with evil and long-lasting sicknesses.
60 Also, He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid. And they shall cling to you.
61 Also, every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you until you are destroyed.
62 And you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the heavens for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
63 And it shall be, as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to nothing. And you shall be plucked from off the land where you go to possess it.
64 And the LORD shall scatter you among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other , and you shall serve other gods there, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone.
65 And among these nations you shall find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest. But the LORD shall give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind.
66 And your life shall hang in doubt before you, and you shall fear day and night, and shall have no assurance of your life.
67 In the morning you shall say, Oh that it were evening! And at evening you shall say, Oh that it were morning, for the fear of your heart with which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.
68 And the LORD shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again. And there you shall be sold to your enemies for men-slaves and women-slaves, and no man shall buy you.

Jos 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that walked among them.

With the women and the little ones - It was necessary that all should know that they were under the same obligations to obey; even the women are brought forward, not only because of their personal responsibility, but because to them was principally intrusted the education of the children. The children also witness this solemn transaction, that a salutary fear of offending God might be early, diligently, and deeply impressed upon their hearts. Thus every precaution is taken to ensure obedience to the Divine precepts, and consequently to promote the happiness of the people; for this every ordinance of God is remarkable, as he ever causes the interest and duty of his followers to go hand in hand.