JoshuaChapter 8

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¹Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid. Do not lose heart. Take the whole army with you. Go up and attack Ai. Look, I have given you the king of Ai. I have given you his people, his city, and his land. ²Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep their goods and animals for yourselves. Set a trap by hiding men behind the city." ³So Joshua and the whole army went out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 brave fighting men. He sent them out at night. ⁴He gave them these orders: "Listen closely. Hide and wait behind the city. Don't go very far from it. All of you be ready. ⁵I and all the troops with me will march toward the city. The men of Ai will come out to fight us, like they did the first time. Then we will run away from them. ⁶They will chase us until we have led them away from the city. They will say, 'The Israelites are running away from us like before.' So while we run from them, ⁷you will jump up from your hiding place and take the city, because the LORD your God will give it to you. ⁸When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the LORD has commanded! You have my orders." ⁹Then Joshua sent them out. They went to their hiding place and waited between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night with the people. ¹⁰Joshua got up early the next morning and gathered his men. He and the elders of Israel marched ahead of them up to Ai. ¹¹All the troops with him marched up and came near the city. They arrived in front of Ai. They camped north of it, with the valley between them and the city. ¹²Joshua had taken about five thousand men. He had hidden them to wait between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. ¹³So the soldiers took their places. The main camp was north of the city. The men hiding in wait were west of the city. That night Joshua went into the valley. ¹⁴The king of Ai saw the Israelites. So he and the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to fight them. They went to a place they had chosen that looked out over the Arabah. But the king did not know that men were hiding behind the city to attack him. ¹⁵Joshua and all Israel let the men of Ai push them back. They ran away toward the wilderness. ¹⁶Then all the men of Ai were called out to chase them. They followed Joshua, and they were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷Not one man was left in Ai or Bethel. They all went out after Israel. They left the city wide open while they chased Israel. ¹⁸Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Hold out your spear toward Ai. I will give the city to you." So Joshua held out his spear toward Ai. ¹⁹As soon as he did, the men who were hiding jumped up from their places. They rushed forward and went into the city. They took it and quickly set it on fire. ²⁰The men of Ai turned and looked back. They saw smoke from the city rising into the sky. They had no way to escape in any direction. Then the Israelites who had run toward the wilderness turned around against the men chasing them. ²¹Joshua and all Israel saw that the hidden men had taken the city. They saw smoke rising from it. So they turned around and struck down the men of Ai. ²²Meanwhile, the men who had been hiding came out of the city against them. So the men of Ai were trapped. Israelites were on both sides of them. Israel struck them down until no one was left alive. No one got away. ²³But they took the king of Ai alive. They brought him to Joshua. ²⁴Israel finished killing all the men of Ai who had chased them into the fields and the wilderness. Every last one of them was killed by the sword. Then all the Israelites went back to Ai. They killed the people there with the sword too. ²⁵Twelve thousand men and women died that day. That was all the people of Ai. ²⁶Joshua kept holding out his spear. He did not pull back his hand until he had destroyed everyone who lived in Ai. They were all given over to the LORD to be destroyed. ²⁷Israel kept only the cattle and the goods from that city for themselves. This was what the LORD had commanded Joshua. ²⁸So Joshua burned Ai. He made it a heap of ruins forever. It is still an empty ruin today. ²⁹He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body down from the tree. They threw it down at the city gate. They piled a large heap of rocks over it. It is still there today. ³⁰Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the LORD, the God of Israel. ³¹He did just what Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it the way the Book of the Law of Moses says: "an altar of whole stones that no iron tool has touched." On it they offered burnt offerings to the LORD. They also offered peace offerings. ³²There, with the Israelites watching, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses. Moses had written this law. ³³All Israel stood on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Foreigners stood there as well as people born in Israel. Their elders, officers, and judges were there too. They faced the priests, who were Levites, carrying the ark. Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim. Half stood in front of Mount Ebal. Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded this earlier. It was for blessing the people of Israel. ³⁴After that, Joshua read out loud all the words of the law. He read the blessings and the curses. He read everything written in the Book of the Law. ³⁵Joshua read every word Moses had commanded. He did not leave out one. He read it to the whole gathering of Israel. The women, the little children, and the foreigners living among them heard it too.