Joshua 8

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1. 1The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your warriors with you and go up to Ai. I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land into your hands."
2. 2Do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, but this time you may take the plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.
3. 3So Joshua got up, along with all the warriors, to go against Ai. Joshua selected thirty thousand strong and brave men and sent them out at night.
4. 4He commanded them, saying, "Look, you shall lie in wait against the city, behind it. Do not go far from the city, but be ready."
5. 5I and all the people with me will approach the city. When they come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them.
6. 6For they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, 'They flee before us, as at the first.' Therefore, we will flee before them.
7. 7Then you will rise from the ambush and capture the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hands.
8. 8When you have captured the city, set it on fire, as the LORD has commanded. See, I have given you this command.
9. 9Joshua sent them out, and they went to set up an ambush, staying between Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai. Joshua spent that night with the people.
10. 10Joshua got up early in the morning and counted the people. He and the elders of Israel went up before the people to Ai.
11. 11All the people, including the warriors with him, went up and approached the city. They set up camp on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the city.
12. 12He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13. 13The army was positioned with the main force to the north of the city and the ambush set to the west. That night, Joshua went into the midst of the valley.
14. 14When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, he and all his men hurried and rose early to attack them at the appointed time near the plain. He did not know there was an ambush waiting behind the city.
15. 15Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated and fled toward the wilderness.
16. 16All the people in Ai were called together to chase them. They pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
17. 17Not a single man was left in Ai or Bethel; they all went out after Israel, leaving the city open as they pursued Israel.
18. 18Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give the city into your hand." So Joshua stretched out the spear in his hand toward the city.
19. 19As soon as he stretched out his hand, the ambush quickly rose from their positions, ran into the city, captured it, and hurriedly set it on fire.
20. 20When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke from the city rising up to heaven, and they were unable to escape in any direction. The people who had fled to the wilderness turned back against their pursuers.
21. 21When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and smoke was rising from it, they turned back and attacked the men of Ai.
22. 22The others came out of the city against them, so the men of Ai were surrounded by Israelites, with some on one side and some on the other. They struck them down, leaving no one alive or able to escape.
23. 23They captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24. 24When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field and the wilderness where they had chased them, and when they were all struck down by the sword until they were destroyed, all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the sword.
25. 25The total number of men and women who died that day was 12,000, which included all the people of Ai.
26. 26Joshua did not lower his hand, which held the spear, until he had completely destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27. 27Israel took only the livestock and plunder from the city for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.
28. 28Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.
29. 29He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered the body to be taken down and thrown at the entrance of the city gate. They piled a large heap of stones over it, which remains to this day.
30. 30Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel on Mount Ebal.
31. 31He built it exactly as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded the people of Israel — following what was written in the Book of the Law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones that no iron tool had ever touched. On it they offered burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings.
32. 32There, in the presence of the Israelites, he wrote a copy of the law of Moses on the stones.
33. 33All Israel, including their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark, facing the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Both foreigners and native-born Israelites were present. Half of the people stood facing Mount Gerizim and the other half facing Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded earlier, to bless the people of Israel.
34. 34Afterward, he read all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, exactly as they were written in the Book of the Law.
35. 35Joshua read every word of what Moses had commanded to the entire congregation of Israel, including the women, children, and the foreigners living among them.