< Joshua 8 >
1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.
2 And thou shall do to Ai and its king as thou did to Jericho and its king. Only the spoil of it, and the cattle of it, ye shall take for a prey to yourselves. Set thee an ambush for the city behind it.
3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.
4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready,
5 and I, and all the people that are with me, will approach to the city. And it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them.
6 And they will come out after us, till we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first. So we will flee before them.
7 And ye shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city, for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 And it shall be, when ye have seized upon the city, that ye shall set the city on fire. According to the word of Jehovah shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.
9 And Joshua sent them forth, and they went to the ambushment, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai, but Joshua lodged that night among the people.
10 And Joshua arose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11 And all the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.
12 And 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 that was on the north of the city, and their ambushment that were on the west of the city, and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hastened 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 did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15 And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16 And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them, and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. And they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
19 And 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. And they hastened and set the city on fire.
20 And 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. And the people who fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai.
22 And the others came forth out of the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23 And they took the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.
25 And all who fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
26 For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of Jehovah which he commanded Joshua.
28 So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening. And at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it, to this day.
30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel, in mount Ebal,
31 as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stones, upon which no man had lifted up any iron. And they offered burnt offerings on it to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings.
32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote, in the presence of the sons of Israel.
33 And all Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the sojourner as the home born, half of them in front of mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.
34 And 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 did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who were among them.
