Joshua 8:29

Hanged on a tree. Possibly slain with the sword first as in the case of the five kings of the Amorites (Joshua 10:26). The Hebrew reads “hanged on the tree.” This may have reference to some specific tree, or it may be that the kings of both Jericho and Ai were hanged on the same tree, and exhibited, each in turn, as under the curse of God. It appears that the king of Jericho was also hanged, for as Joshua “had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king” (Joshua 10:1; cf. Joshua 8:2). Anyone committing a sin worthy of death and hanged on a tree was “accursed of God” (see Deuteronomy 21:22, 23). Jesus, though He had done no sin, was made a curse for us, being hanged on a tree (Galatians 3:13).

The entering of the gate. The gate of a city was the usual place of judgment as well as of most other important public business. The king of Ai himself may have frequently sat in this very gate in judgment. Now he himself was judged. Since the gate of the city was its most public place, the judgment upon the king was thus publicly displayed before all.