Joshua

8 Then said Yahweh unto Joshua—Do not fear nor be dismayed, take with thee all the army, 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 so shalt thou do unto Ai and to her king as thou didst unto Jericho unto her king, save only the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take as your own prey,—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 valour, and sent them forth by night.

4 And he commanded them, saying—See! ye shall be lying in ambush against the city behind the city, do not go very far from the city,—so shall ye all be ready.

5 But I and all the people who are with me will draw near unto the city,—and it shall be when they come out to meet us as at the first, then will we flee before them;

6 so will they come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, Fleeing before us, as at the first! therefore will we flee before them.

7 Then ye shall rise up out of the ambush, and take possession of the city,—and Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand.

8 And it shall be when ye have seized the city, then shall ye burn the city with fire, according to the word of Yahweh shall ye do,—see! I have commanded you.

9 So Joshua sent them forth and they went into ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai on the west of Ai,—but Joshua lodged that night in the midst of the people.

10 And Joshua rose 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 of war who were with him went up and drew near, and came in right before the city,—and pitched on the north of Ai, with a valley between them and Ai.

12 And he took about five thousand men,—and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west of the city.

13 And when the people had set all the host that was on the north of the city, with the rear thereof on the west of the city, then went Joshua during the night into the midst of the valley.

14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early and the men of the city came out to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people at an appointed time before the waste plain,—he not knowing that there was an ambush lying in wait for him behind the city.

15 So then Joshua and all Israel suffered themselves to be smitten before them,—and fled by the way of the wilderness;

16 and all the people who were in the city were called out to pursue them,—and they pursued Joshua, and so were drawn out away from the city.

17 And there remained not a man in Ai or Bethel, who had not gone out after Israel,—and they left the city open, and pursued Israel.

18 Then said Yahweh unto Joshua—Stretch out with the javelin which is in thy hand towards Ai, for into thy hand will I deliver it. So Joshua stretched out with the javelin which was in his hand towards the city.

19 And the ambush rose up quickly out of their place, and ran when he stretched out his hand, and entered the city and captured it,—and hasted, and set the city on fire.

20 And the men of Ai turned behind them, and looked, and lo! the smoke of the city had risen up towards the heavens, and there was in them no strength to flee this way or that way,—moreover, the people that were fleeing to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

21 Yea, when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city had risen up, then returned they and smote the men of Ai.

22 And the others came forth out of the city to meet them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side,—and they smote them, until there was left them none to remain or to escape.

23 And the king of Ai they caught alive,—and brought him near unto Joshua.

24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness whither they had pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, then all Israel returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

25 And so it was that all who fell that day both of men and of women were twelve thousand,—all people of Ai.

26 Now Joshua drew not back his hand which he had stretched out with the javelin,—until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

27 Nevertheless, the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took as their own prey,—according to the word of Yahweh, which he commanded Joshua.

28 So then Joshua burned Ai,—and made of it an age-abiding heap—a desolation, [as it remaineth] until this day.

29 And the king of Ai hanged he on a tree until eventide,—but at the going in of the sun Joshua gave command and they took down his dead body from the tree and cast it in at the opening of the gate of the city, and raised up over it a great heap of stones—[which remaineth] until this day.

30 Then built Joshua an altar, unto Yahweh God of Israel,—in Mount Ebal:

31 as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded the sons of Israel as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, whereon had not been wielded any tool of iron,—and they caused to go up thereon ascending-sacrifices unto Yahweh, and sacrificed peace-offerings.

32 Then wrote he 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 were standing on this side and on that side of the ark, before the priests the Levites who were bearing the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, as well the sojourner as the home-born, half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal,—as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded to bless the sons of Israel first of all.

34 And after that read he all the words of the law, the blessing and the cursing,—according to all that was written in the scroll of the law.

35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded,—which Joshua read not before all the convocation of Israel, with the women and the little ones and the sojourner who was going on in their midst.