8
1 The
LORD said to
Joshua, “Don’t be
afraid, and don’t
be dismayed. Take
all the warriors
with you, and
arise, go up
to Ai. Behold,
I have given
into your hand
the king of
Ai, with his
people, his city,
and his land.
2 You
shall do to
Ai and her
king as you
did to Jericho
and her king,
except you shall
take its goods and
its livestock for yourselves.
Set an ambush for
the city behind
it.”
3 So
Joshua arose, with
all the warriors,
to go up
to Ai. Joshua
chose thirty thousand
men, the mighty
men of valor,
and sent them
out by night.
4 He
commanded them, saying, “Behold, you shall lie
in ambush against
the city, behind
the city. Don’t go
very far from
the city, but
all of you
be ready.
5 I
and all the
people who are
with me will
approach the city.
It shall happen,
when they come
out against us,
as at the
first, that we
will flee before
them.
6 They
will come out
after us until
we have drawn
them away from
the city; for
they will say, ‘They
flee before us,
like the first
time.’ So we
will flee before
them,
7 and
you shall rise
up from the ambush,
and take
possession of the
city; for the
LORD your God
will deliver it
into your hand.
8 It
shall be, when
you have seized
the city, that
you shall set
the city on
fire. You shall
do this according
to the LORD’s
word. Behold, I
have commanded
you.”
9 Joshua
sent them out;
and they went
to set up
the ambush, and
stayed between
Bethel and Ai
on the west
side of Ai;
but Joshua stayed
among the people
that night.
10 Joshua
rose up early
in the morning,
mustered the
people, and went
up, he and
the elders of
Israel, before the
people to Ai.
11 All
the people, even
the men of
war who were
with him, went
up and came
near, and came
before the city
and encamped on
the north side
of Ai. Now there
was a valley
between him and
Ai.
12 He
took about
five thousand men,
and set them
in ambush between Bethel
and Ai, on
the west side
of the city.
13 So
they set the
people, even all
the army who
was on the
north of the
city, and
their ambush on
the west of
the city; and
Joshua went that
night into the
middle of the
valley.
14 When
the king of
Ai saw it,
they hurried and
rose up early,
and the men
of the city
went out against
Israel to battle,
he and all
his people, at
the time appointed,
before the Arabah;
but he didn’t know
that there was
an ambush against
him behind the
city.
15 Joshua
and all Israel
made as if they
were beaten before
them, and fled
by the way
of the wilderness.
16 All
the people who
were in the
city were called
together to pursue
after them. They
pursued Joshua,
and were drawn
away from the
city.
17 There
was not a man
left in Ai
or Bethel
who didn’t go out
after Israel. They
left the city
open, and pursued
Israel.
18 The
LORD said to
Joshua, “Stretch
out the javelin
that is in
your hand toward
Ai, for I
will give it
into your hand.”
Joshua stretched
out the javelin
that was in
his hand toward
the city.
19 The ambush
arose quickly out
of their place,
and they ran
as soon as
he had stretched
out his hand
and entered into
the city and
took it. They
hurried and set
the city on
fire.
20 When
the men of
Ai looked behind
them, they saw,
and behold, the
smoke of the
city ascended up
to heaven, and
they had no
power to flee
this way or
that way. The
people who fled
to the wilderness
turned back on
the pursuers.
21 When
Joshua and all
Israel saw that
the ambush had
taken the city,
and that the
smoke of the
city ascended,
then they turned
back and killed
the men of
Ai.
22 The others
came out of
the city against
them, so they
were in the
middle of Israel,
some on this
side, and some
on that side.
They struck them,
so that they
let none of
them remain or
escape.
23 They
captured the king
of Ai alive,
and brought him
to Joshua.
24 When
Israel had
finished killing
all the
inhabitants of Ai
in the field,
in the wilderness
in which they
pursued them, and
they had all
fallen by the
edge of the
sword until they
were consumed, all
Israel returned to
Ai and struck
it with the
edge of the
sword.
25 All
that fell that
day, both of
men and women,
were twelve thousand,
even all the
people of Ai.
26 For
Joshua didn’t draw
back his hand,
with which he
stretched out the
javelin, until he
had utterly
destroyed all the
inhabitants of Ai.
27 Israel
took for
themselves only
the livestock and
the goods of that
city, according to
the LORD’s word
which he commanded
Joshua.
28 So
Joshua burned Ai
and made it
a heap forever,
even a desolation,
to this day.
29 He
hanged the king
of Ai on
a tree until
the evening. At
sundown, Joshua
commanded, and
they took his
body down from
the tree and
threw it at
the entrance of
the gate of
the city, and
raised a great
heap of stones on
it that remains to
this day.
30 Then
Joshua built an
altar to the
LORD, the God
of Israel, on
Mount Ebal,
31 as
Moses the servant
of the LORD
commanded the
children of Israel,
as it is
written in the
book of the
law of Moses:
an altar of
uncut stones, on
which no one
had lifted up
any iron. They
offered burnt
offerings on it
to the LORD
and sacrificed
peace offerings.
32 He
wrote there on
the stones a copy
of Moses’ law,
which he wrote
in the presence
of the children
of Israel.
33 All
Israel, with their
elders, officers,
and judges, stood
on both sides
of the ark before
the Levitical
priests, who
carried the ark of
the LORD’s
covenant, the
foreigner as well
as the native;
half of them
in front of
Mount Gerizim, and
half of them
in front of
Mount Ebal, as
Moses the servant
of the LORD
had commanded at
the first, that
they should bless
the people of
Israel.
34 Afterward
he read all
the words of
the law, the
blessing and the
curse, according to
all that is
written in the
book of the
law.
35 There
was not a
word of all
that Moses
commanded which
Joshua didn’t read
before all the
assembly of Israel,
with the women,
the little ones,
and the foreigners
who were among
them.