Yehoshua - Chapter 8

1. And the Lord said to Joshua, Fear not, and be not dismayed; take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.

2. And you shall do to Ai and its king, as you did to Jericho and its king; only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as spoils to yourselves. Set yourself ambush for the city behind it.

3. And Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and sent them away by night.

4. And he commanded them, saying, Behold you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city; do not go very far from the city, and all of you be ready.

5. And I, and all the people that are with me, will draw near to the city; and it shall be when they come out against us, as at first, that we will flee before them.

6. And they will come out after us until we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at first. And we will flee before them.

7. And you shall rise up from the ambush, and drive out (those remaining in) the city; and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.

8. And it shall be, when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire; according to the word of the Lord shall you do. See, I have commanded you.

9. And Joshua sent them; and they went to the place of ambush, and stayed between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai; and Joshua lodged that night among the people.

10. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and counted the people, and he and the elders of Israel went up before the people to Ai.

11. And all the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and camped on the north side of Ai; and the valley was between him and Ai.

12. And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai.

13. And the people set all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city. And Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

14. And it was when the king of Ai saw, they hastened and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

15. And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them, and fled by way of the desert.

16. And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue them; and they pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

17. And there was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, that did not go out after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued Israel.

18. And the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in your hand, toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear 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 they entered into the city, and took it, and hastened and set the city on fire.

20. And the men of Ai looked behind them, and 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 that fled to the desert, turned back upon the pursuers.

21. And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended. Then they turned back and slew the men of Ai.

22. And the others came out of the city against them, so that 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 the king of Ai they seized alive, and brought him to Joshua.

24. And it was when Israel made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the desert where they chased. them, and when they had all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword.

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

26. And Joshua did not draw back his hand that he had stretched out with the spear, until he had completely destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

27. Only the cattle and the spoils of that city, Israel took for a prey to themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua.

28. And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.

29. And the king of Ai he hanged on a gallows until evening, and as the sun set, Joshua commanded, and they took his carcass down from the gallows, and they threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised upon it a great heap of stones to this day.

30. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal.

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 whole stones, upon which no (man) has lifted up any iron. And they offered upon it burnt-offerings to the Lord 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 children 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, the bearers of the Ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native born, half of them over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded, to bless the people of Israel first.

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 Torah.

35. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that walked among them.