Joshua
Chapter 8
1 God told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid or discouraged. Take all your soldiers and go to Ai. I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.”
2 Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king. But you can keep the goods and animals for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.
3 Joshua got up, and all the soldiers with him, to attack Ai. Joshua picked thirty thousand strong, brave men and sent them out at night.
4 He told them, “Look, wait secretly behind the city. Don’t go too far from it, but be ready.”
5 I and all the people with me will go near the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will run away from them.
6 They will follow us until we lead them away from the city. They will think we are running away like before, so we will run away from them.
7 Then you’ll get up from the ambush and take the city because God will give it to you.
8 When you capture the city, you must set it on fire. Do this as God has commanded. Look, I have commanded you.
9 Joshua sent them out, and they went to set up an ambush. They stayed between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. Joshua spent that night with the people.
10 Joshua got up early in the morning, counted the people, and he and the leaders of Israel went ahead of them to Ai.
11 All the people, including the soldiers with him, went up, approached, and arrived in front of the city, camping on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and Ai.
12 He took around five thousand men and hid them for an ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the city’s west side.
13 When they positioned the people, all the army to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of the city, Joshua went into the middle of the valley that night.
14 When the king of Ai noticed, they hurried and got up early, and the city’s men came out to fight Israel, he and all his people, at the set time, in front of the open area; yet he did not know there were ambushers waiting for him behind the city.
15 Joshua and all of Israel acted like they were defeated in front of them and ran away through the wilderness.
16 Everyone in Ai gathered to chase after them, and they followed Joshua, leading them away from the city.
17 No man remained in Ai or Bethel; all went after Israel, leaving the city unprotected to chase Israel.
18 God told Joshua, “Reach out with the spear in your hand toward Ai; I will make sure you conquer it.” Joshua reached out with the spear he held toward the city.
19 The attackers quickly came from their spot, and as soon as he signaled, they ran into the city, captured it, and quickly set it on fire.
20 When the men of Ai turned around, they saw the city’s smoke going up to the sky. They could not run away in any direction, and the people who ran to the wilderness now attacked those chasing them.
21 When Joshua and all of Israel realized that their hidden soldiers had captured the city and smoke was rising from it, they turned back and killed the men of Ai.
22 The other army came out of the city to fight them, and Israel was on both sides. They defeated them, allowing none to survive or get away.
23 They captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 When Israel finished killing all of Ai’s people in the fields and the wilderness where they had chased them, and after all had died by the sword, all the Israelites went back to Ai and destroyed it with the sword.
25 On that day, twelve thousand men and women died, all from the city of Ai.
26 Joshua did not lower his hand, which he had raised with the spear, until he had completely destroyed all the people of Ai.
27 Israel took only the animals and the goods of that city for themselves, as God had commanded Joshua.
28 Joshua burned Ai, turning it into a permanent pile of ruins, still desolate to this day.
29 The king of Ai was hung on a tree until evening; when the sun set, Joshua ordered that they take his body off the tree, throw it at the city gate entrance, and pile up many stones over it, which are still there today.
30 Then Joshua made an altar for God of Israel on Mount Ebal.
31 Just as Moses, God’s servant, instructed the Israelites, as recorded in Moses’ law book, they built an altar of uncut stones that no one had used metal tools on. On it, they made burnt offerings and presented peace offerings to God.
32 He wrote a copy of Moses’ law on the stones in front of the people of Israel.
33 All of Israel, including their leaders, officials, and judges, stood around the ark in front of the Levite priests, who carried God’s covenant ark. This included foreigners and natives alike. Half were facing Mount Gerizim and half facing Mount Ebal, just as Moses, God’s servant, had instructed to bless the people of Israel.
34 Later, he read all the words of the law—both the blessings and the curses—as they are written in the book of the law.
35 Joshua read every command that Moses had given to all the people of Israel, including the women, children, and foreigners living with them.