8Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear or be dismayed; take all the fighting men with you, and go up now to Ai. See, I have handed over to you the king of Ai with his people, his city, and his land.H3068H559H3091H3372H2865H3947H5971H4421H6965H5927H5857H7200H5414H3027H4428H5857H5971H5892H776 2You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; only its spoil and its livestock you may take as booty for yourselves. Set an ambush against the city, behind it."H6213H5857H4428H6213H3405H4428H7998H929H962H7760H693H5892H310 3So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to go up against Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand warriors and sent them out by nightH3091H6965H5971H4421H5927H5857H3091H977H7970H505H1368H376H2428H7971H3915 4with the command, "You shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it; do not go very far from the city, but all of you stay alert.H6680H559H7200H693H5892H310H5892H7368H3966H7368H5892H3559 5I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. When they come out against us, as before, we shall flee from them.H5971H7126H5892H3318H7125H7223H5127H6440 6They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, 'They are fleeing from us, as before.' While we flee from them,H3318H310H5423H5892H559H5127H6440H7223H5127H6440 7you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city; for the LORD your God will give it into your hand.H6965H693H3423H5892H3068H430H5414H3027 8And when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, doing as the LORD has ordered; see, I have commanded you."H8610H5892H3341H5892H784H1697H3068H6213H7200H6680 9So Joshua sent them out; and they went to the place of ambush, and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; but Joshua spent that night in the camp.H3091H7971H3212H3993H3427H1008H5857H3220H5857H3091H3885H3915H8432H5971 10In the morning Joshua rose early and mustered the people, and went up, with the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.H3091H7925H1242H6485H5971H5927H2205H3478H6440H5971H5857 11All the fighting men who were with him went up, and drew near before the city, and camped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai.H5971H4421H5927H5066H935H5892H2583H6828H5857H1516H5857 12Taking about five thousand men, he set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.H3947H2568H505H376H7760H693H1008H5857H3220H5857H5892 13So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley.H7760H5971H4264H6828H5892H6119H3220H5892H3091H3212H3915H8432H6010 14When the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the inhabitants of the city, hurried out early in the morning to the meeting place facing the Arabah to meet Israel in battle; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.H4428H5857H7200H4116H7925H582H5892H3318H7125H3478H4421H5971H4150H6440H6160H3045H693H310H5892 15And Joshua and all Israel made a pretense of being beaten before them, and fled in the direction of the wilderness.H3091H3478H5060H6440H5127H1870H4057 16So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city.H5971H5857H5892H2199H7291H310H7291H310H3091H5423H5892 17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open, and pursued Israel.H376H7604H5857H1008H3318H310H3478H5800H5892H6605H7291H3478 18Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Stretch out the sword that is in your hand toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand." And Joshua stretched out the sword that was in his hand toward the city.H3068H559H3091H5186H3591H3027H5857H5414H3027H3091H5186H3591H3027H5892 19As soon as he stretched out his hand, the troops in ambush rose quickly out of their place and rushed forward. They entered the city, took it, and at once set the city on fire.H693H6965H4120H4725H7323H5186H3027H935H5892H3920H4116H3341H5892H784 20So when the men of Ai looked back, the smoke of the city was rising to the sky. They had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.H582H5857H6437H310H7200H6227H5892H5927H8064H3027H5127H2008H5971H5127H4057H2015H7291 21When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was rising, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.H3091H3478H7200H693H3920H5892H6227H5892H5927H7725H5221H582H5857 22And the others came out from the city against them; so they were surrounded by Israelites, some on one side, and some on the other; and Israel struck them down until no one was left who survived or escaped.H428H3318H5892H7125H8432H3478H5221H5704H7604H8300H6412 23But the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.H4428H5857H8610H2416H7126H3091 24When Israel had finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai, and attacked it with the edge of the sword.H3478H3615H2026H3427H5857H7704H4057H7291H5307H6310H2719H8552H3478H7725H5857H5221H6310H2719 25The total of those who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve thousand—all the people of Ai.H5307H3117H376H802H8147H6240H505H582H5857 26For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the sword, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.H3091H7725H3027H7725H5186H3591H2763H3427H5857 27Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their booty, according to the word of the LORD that he had issued to Joshua.H929H7998H5892H3478H962H1697H3068H6680H3091 28So Joshua burned Ai, and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day.H3091H8313H5857H7760H8510H5769H8077H3117 29And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; and at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.H4428H5857H8518H6086H6256H6153H8121H935H3091H6680H3381H5038H3381H6086H7993H6607H8179H5892H6965H1419H1530H68H3117 30Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel,H3091H1129H4196H3068H430H3478H2022H5858 31just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, "an altar of unhewn stones, on which no iron tool has been used"; and they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed offerings of well-being.H4872H5650H3068H6680H1121H3478H3789H5612H8451H4872H4196H8003H68H5130H1270H5927H5930H3068H2076H8002 32And there, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.H3789H68H4932H8451H4872H3789H6440H1121H3478 33All Israel, alien as well as citizen, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark in front of the levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.H3478H2205H7860H8199H5975H727H3548H3881H5375H727H1285H3068H1616H249H2677H413H4136H2022H1630H2677H4136H2022H5858H4872H5650H3068H6680H7223H1288H5971H3478 34And afterward he read all the words of the law, blessings and curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law.H310H7121H1697H8451H1293H7045H3789H5612H8451 35There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.H1697H4872H6680H3091H7121H6951H3478H802H2945H1616H1980H7130
