Joshua 8
1 And the Lord said to Joshua, Fear not, nor be timorous: take with you all the men of war, and arise, go up to Gai; behold, I have given into your hands the king of Gai, and his land.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear and do not be troubled: take with you all the fighting-men and go up against Ai: for I have given into your hands the king of Ai and his people and his town and his land:
2 And you shall do to Gai, as you did to Jericho and its king; and you shall take to yourself the spoil of its cattle; set now for yourself an ambush for the city behind.
And you are to do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king: but their goods and their cattle you may take for yourselves: let a secret force be stationed to make a surprise attack on the town from the back.
3 And Joshua and all the men of war rose to go up to Gai; and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men, and he sent them away by night.
So Joshua and the fighting-men got ready to go up against Ai; and Joshua took thirty thousand men of war, and sent them out by night.
4 And he charged them, saying, Do you lie in ambush behind the city: do not go far from the city, and you shall all be ready.
And he gave them their orders, saying, Go and take up your position secretly at the back of the town: do not go very far away, and let all of you be ready:
5 Land I and all with me will draw near to the city: and it shall come to pass when the inhabitants of Gai shall come forth to meet us, as before, that we will flee from before them.
And I and all the people with me will come near the town, and when they come out against us as they did before, we will go in flight from them;
6 And when they shall come out after us, we will draw them away from the city; and they will say, These men flee from before us, as also before.
And they will come out after us, till we have got them away from the town; for they will say, They have gone in flight from us as before; so we will go in flight before them;
7 And you shall rise up out of the ambuscade, and go into the city.
Then you will get up from your secret position and take the town, for the Lord your God will give it up into your hands.
8 You shall do according to this word, behold! I have commanded you.
And when you have taken the town, put fire to it, as the Lord has said: see, I have given you your orders.
9 And Joshua sent them, and they went to lie in ambush; and they lay between Baethel and Gai, westward of Gai.
So Joshua sent them out: and they took up a secret position between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua kept with the people that night.
10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people; and he went up, he and the elders before the people to Gai.
And early in the morning Joshua got up, and put the people in order, and he and the chiefs of Israel went up before the people to Ai.
11 And all the men of war went up with him, and they went forward and came over against the city eastward.
And all the fighting-men who were with him went up and came near the town, and took up a position on the north side of Ai facing the town, with a valley between him and the town.
12 And the ambuscade [was] on the west side of the city.
And taking about five thousand men, he put them in position for a surprise attack on the west side of Ai, between Beth-el and Ai.
So all the people were in their places, the army on the north side of the town and the secret force on the west; and that night Joshua went down into the valley.
14 And it came to pass when the king of Gai saw [it], he hasted and went out to meet them direct to the battle, he and all the people [that were] with him: and he knew not that there was an ambuscade [formed] against him behind the city.
Now when the king of Ai saw it, he got up quickly and went out to war against Israel, he and all his people, to the slope going down to the valley; but he had no idea that a secret force was waiting at the back of the town.
15 And Joshua and Israel saw, and retreated from before them.
Then Joshua and all Israel, acting as if they were overcome before them, went in flight by way of the waste land.
16 And they pursued after the children of Israel, and they themselves went to a distance from the city.
And all the people in Ai came together to go after them; and they went after Joshua, moving away from the town.
17 There was no one left in Gai who did not pursue after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
There was not a man in Ai and Beth-el who did not go out after Israel; and the town was open and unwatched while they went after Israel.
18 And the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch forth your hand with the spear that is in your hand toward the city, for I have delivered it into your hands; and the liers in wait shall rise up quickly out of their place.
And the Lord said to Joshua, Let your spear be stretched out against Ai; for I will give it into your hands. So Joshua took up his spear, stretching it out in the direction of the town.
19 And Joshua stretched out his hand [and] his spear toward the city, and the ambuscade rose up quickly out of their place; and they came forth when he stretched out his hand; and they entered into the city, and took it; and they hasted and burnt the city with fire.
Then the secret force came quickly from their place, and running forward when they saw his hand stretched out, went into the town and took it, and put fire to it straight away.
20 And when the inhabitants of Gai looked round behind them, then they saw the smoke going up out of the city to heaven, and they were no longer able to flee this way or that way.
Then the men of Ai, looking back, saw the smoke of the town going up to heaven, and were unable to go this way or that: and the people who had gone in flight to the waste land were turned back on those who were coming after them.
21 And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambuscade had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up to heaven; and they turned and struck the men of Gai.
And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the town had been taken by the surprise attack, and that the smoke of the town had gone up, turning round they overcame the men of Ai.
22 And these came forth out of the city to meet them; and they were in the midst of the army, some [being] on this side, and some on that; and they struck them until there was not left of them one who survived and escaped.
Then the other force came out of the town against them, so that they were being attacked on this side and on that: and Israel overcame them and let not one of them get away with his life.
23 And they took the king of Gai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
But the king of Ai they made prisoner, and took him to Joshua.
24 And when the children of Israel had ceased slaying all that were in Gai, and in the fields, and in the mountain on the descent, from whence they pursued them [even] to the end, then Joshua returned to Gai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.
Then, after the destruction of all the people of Ai in the field and in the waste land where they went after them, and when all the people had been put to death without mercy, all Israel went back to Ai, and put to death all who were in it without mercy.
25 And they that fell in that day, men and women, were twelve thousand: [they killed] all the inhabitants of Gai.
On that day twelve thousand were put to death, men and women, all the people of Ai.
For Joshua did not take back his hand with the outstretched spear till the destruction of the people of Ai was complete.
27 Beside the spoils that were in the city, all things which the children of Israel took as spoil for themselves according to the command of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Joshua.
But the cattle and the goods from that town, Israel took for themselves, as the Lord had given orders to Joshua.
28 And Joshua burnt the city with fire: he made it an uninhabited heap for ever, [even] to this day.
So Joshua gave Ai to the flames, and made it a waste mass of stones for ever, as it is to this day.
29 And he hanged the king of Gai on a gallows; and he remained on the tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave charge, and they took down his body from the tree, and cast it into a pit, and they set over him a heap of stones until this day.
And he put the king of Ai to death, hanging him on a tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it in the public place of the town, covering it with a great mass of stones, which is there to this day.
30 Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in mount Gaebal,
Then Joshua put up an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal,
31 as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stones, on which iron had not been lifted up; and he offered there whole burnt offerings to the Lord, and a peace-offering.
In the way ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, as it is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, untouched by any iron instrument: and on it they made burned offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord.
32 And Joshua wrote upon the stones a copy of the law, even the law of Moses, before the children of Israel.
And he made there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, writing it before the eyes of the children of Israel.
33 And all Israel, and their elders, and their judges, and their scribes, passed on one side and on the other before the ark; and the priests and the Levites took up the ark of the covenant of the Lord; and the stranger and the native were there, who were half of them near mount Garizin, and half near mount Gaebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded at first, to bless the people.
And all Israel, those who were Israelites by birth, as well as the men from other lands living with them, and their responsible men and their overseers and judges, took their places round the ark, in front of the priests, the Levites, whose work it was to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement; half of them were stationed in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, in agreement with the orders for the blessing of the children of Israel which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given.
34 And afterwards Joshua read accordingly all the words of this law, the blessings and the curses, according to all things written in the law of Moses.
And after, he gave them all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, as it is all recorded in the book of the law;
35 There was not a word of all that Moses charged Joshua, which Joshua read not in the ears of all the assembly of the children of Israel, the men, and the women, and the children, and the strangers that joined themselves to Israel.
Reading to all the meeting of Israel, with the women and the children and the men from other lands who were living among them, every word of the orders which Moses had given.
