Aija

Aija (also spelled Aijah) is a variant form of the name Ai, the ancient Canaanite city destroyed by Joshua. It appears specifically in Nehemiah 11:31 in the catalog of Benjaminite towns repopulated by the returning exiles: "And the children of Benjamin from Geba dwelt at Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel, and in their villages." The mention preserves the memory that some level of settlement returned to the ancient ruins of Ai during the post-exile period, even though the great Bronze Age city had never been rebuilt to its former scale. The site is generally identified with et-Tell or with Khirbet el-Maqatir nearby.