Alex O'Connor in his debate on Jubilee makes the following claim about the conquest of Ai as explained in Joshua, "[O]n the point of hyperbole, when we get into the Book of Joshua and the destruction of the nation of Ai, it's explicitly said that 12,000 people died that day; all the people of Ai.... Were then told that 12,000 people fell that day, all the people of Ai, and it says 12,000 men and women. So we know that women who were non-combatants were also killed. Even if there’s hyperbolic language being used here, we know that we’re being told that specifically, 12,000 people died."

This is a baffling point. If hyperbole is in play, then why assume Joshua 8:25, "The total of those who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve thousand—all the people of Ai" (NRSV), is offering a literal body count or precise military battle report?

In Joshua 7:3 we get the reconnaissance report about Ai, "Since they are so few, do not make the whole people toil up there." Apparently Ai had relatively few inhabitants. Archeology confirms this.

A good case has been made by Stripling and Hassler for the Ai of Joshua's day to be located at the excavation site Khirbet el-Maqatir. This site shows patterns of conquest, and it matches other key criteria found in the Bible concerning the location of Ai. This site is described as a "little fortress" covering only about 2.5 acres. That's tiny as far as cities go, even at the time of the conquests, as the Jericho dig site is about 9 acres and the Bible tells us Ai was smaller than Gibeon (Joshua 10:2).

Based on the site size of 2.5 acres a plausible population for Ai at the time of the conquest might have been somewhere in the range of 250 to 500 people. Given Israel sent in small military numbers to conquer Ai and Ai was a "little fortress" military city, the report of 12,000 people dying is hyperbole emphasizing total victory. It isn't a modern day military report or exact body count. As a result, Alex's emphasis on 12,000 as an exact figure, presumably to insinuate the genocide or mass slaughter point, is off base. Textual evidence plus archeology tells a different story.