Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.
Some have criticized Joshua for sending out spies, apparently without Divine instructions to do so, and for going forward with the attack without specific instructions such as he had received prior to the victory at Jericho, and even for the humiliation of himself in this episode of falling on his face before the ark and casting dust on his head.  We do not find that the Lord rebuked Joshua for any of these, and, therefore, we shall dissent from the views of critical commentators.  The only thing that appears to us as detrimental to the attack on Ai was the seeming over-confidence that did not send enough men to take it in the first place. Nor can we buy that report of the spies.  Later on, when Israel took Ai, they put to death 12,000 men  (Joshua 8:25); and from that we know that the spies simply failed in their mission.  "John Calvin made some severe remarks on Joshua's folly and want of faith here, but it may be paralleled by most Christians in adversity."[8]