Verse 6. - For they will come. Literally, "and they will come." We have drawn. Literally, caused to pluck away (see note on Joshua 4:18). Luther translates well by reissen, and the LXX. by ἀποσπάσωμεν.
8:3-22 Observe Joshua's conduct and prudence. Those that would maintain their spiritual conflicts must not love their ease. Probably he went into the valley alone, to pray to God for a blessing, and he did not seek in vain. He never drew back till the work was done. Those that have stretched out their hands against their spiritual enemies, must never draw them back.
For they will come out after us,.... Of which there could be no doubt, when they should see them run from them:
till we have drawn them from the city; some distance from it, that they could not return soon enough to save it from the ambush, or prevent their entrance into it, and burning it:
for they will say, they will flee before us, as at the first; they run away as they did before, and let us pursue them and smite them as we did then:
therefore we will flee before them; to draw them out of the city, and make your way easy to get into it,
till we have drawn them from the city; some distance from it, that they could not return soon enough to save it from the ambush, or prevent their entrance into it, and burning it:
for they will say, they will flee before us, as at the first; they run away as they did before, and let us pursue them and smite them as we did then:
therefore we will flee before them; to draw them out of the city, and make your way easy to get into it,