Joshua 8
1 The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Look, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land.
The Lord said to Joshua, “Don't be afraid or downhearted! Take all the fighting men with you and attack Ai, for I'm handing over to you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land.
2 You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except its spoil and its livestock, you shall take for a plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it."
You will do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king. However, this time you may keep for yourselves the plunder and the livestock. Set up an ambush behind the town.”
3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.
So Joshua and all the people got ready to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night.
4 He commanded them, saying, "Look, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.
He ordered them, “You lie in ambush behind the town, not far away. All of you need to be ready.
5 I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them.
When I and the rest of the men with me approach the town, the defenders will run out to attack us just like before, and we'll run away from 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,
They'll chase after us as we draw them away from the town, because they'll say to each other, ‘They're running away from us just like before.’
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.
While we're running away from them, you will get up from your ambush positions and take the town for the Lord God will hand it over to you.
8 It shall be, when you have seized on the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to the word of the LORD. Look, I have commanded you."
Once you've captured the town, set it on fire, as the Lord has instructed. Now follow your orders.”
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.
Joshua sent them out, and they went to lie in ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But that night Joshua stayed with the people in the camp.
10 Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders, before the people to Ai.
Early the next morning Joshua got up early and gathered the people and went up to attack Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel.
11 All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and camped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.
All the fighting men who were with him approached the front of the town, and camped there on the north side, with a valley between them 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.
He took about five thousand men and had them lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the town.
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 midst of the valley.
So the army took up their positions—the main army to the north of the town, and the ambush to the west. Joshua went that night to the valley.
14 And it happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that he hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out to engage them directly in battle, he and all his people, to the meeting place in front of the Arabah; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
As soon as the king of Ai saw the situation, he and all his men rushed out early in the morning to attack the Israelites where they had before, at a place overlooking the Jordan valley. He didn't know about the ambush waiting on the other side of the town.
15 Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
Joshua and the Israelites allowed themselves to be driven back, and ran away in the direction 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.
All the men of the town were called out to chase after them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn father from the town.
17 There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.
There wasn't a man left in Ai and Bethel who didn't go out to chase the Israelites. They left the town wide open as they pursued the Israelites.
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.
Then the Lord told Joshua, “Hold up the spear in your hand and point it at Ai, because I'm giving it to you.” So Joshua held up the spear in his hand and pointed it at the town.
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.
As soon as they saw this signal the men lying in ambush got up and rushed into the town. They captured it, and quickly set it on fire.
20 When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and look, 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.
When the men of Ai looked back they saw the smoke rising up into the sky from the town. They had nowhere to run to, because the Israelites who had been running away towards the wilderness now turned on their 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 again, and killed the men of Ai.
For when Joshua and the Israelites saw that the ambush group had captured the town, and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai.
22 The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.
The men from the ambush also came from the town and attacked them, so they were caught on the middle, with the Israelites on both sides. The Israelites cut them down—not a single man survived or got away.
23 They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
Only the king of Ai was captured alive, and he was brought before Joshua.
24 And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the plains, and on the mountain on the slope, where they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
When the Israelites had finished killing the men of Ai who had chased them towards the wilderness—once they had all been cut down by the sword—the whole Israelite army returned to the town and killed everyone living there.
25 All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
Those who were killed that day numbered twelve thousand, men and women—all the inhabitants 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.
For Joshua had continued to hold up his spear until all the people of Ai had been destroyed.
27 Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua.
Only the livestock and plunder were taken from the town by the Israelites, as the Lord had instructed Joshua.
28 So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
So Joshua burned the town of Ai, making it permanently into a heap of ruins where no one lives to this very day.
29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at the 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.
He killed the king of Ai and hung his body on a tree until evening. When the sun went down Joshua ordered the body taken down. They threw it down in front of the entrance to the town gate and piled a heap of rocks over it which is still there today.
30 Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal for the Lord, the God of Israel.
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 man has touched with an iron tool." They offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.
He did what Moses, the servant of the Lord, had told the Israelites to do, as recorded in the book of the Law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones which no one has worked with iron tools. On the altar they made burnt offerings and friendship offerings to the Lord.
32 He wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.
There in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses.
33 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 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 children of Israel.
All the Israelites, the elders, the officers, and the judges stood in two groups facing each other with the priests, the Levites, and the Ark of the Lord's Agreement between them. (Included were the foreigners as well as the native born.) Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim, and half in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses had ordered, for the blessing of the people this first time.
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.
Then Joshua read out the whole Law—all the blessings and curses recorded 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, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.
Joshua read out every word of Moses' instruction to the whole Israelite assembly, including the women, the children, and the foreigners who lived among them.
