699 B
699 B
when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants ... when all of them ... had fallen by the edge of the sword
The writer uses both of these sentences, which mean almost the same thing, to strongly say that the Israelites had obeyed God's command to kill everyone in Ai. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism)
had fallen by the edge of the sword
Here "fallen" is a euphemism for dying. Also, "the edge of the sword" represents whole swords, and swords represent either battle or the army of Israel. AT: "had died in battle" or "had died when the army of Israel attacked them" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-euphemism and rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)