8Now the LORD said to Joshua: "Do not be afraid, nor be 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, his people, his city, and his land.H3068H559H3091H3372H2865H3947H5971H4421H6965H5927H5857H7200H5414H3027H4428H5857H5971H5892H776 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 booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it."H6213H5857H4428H6213H3405H4428H7998H929H962H7760H693H5892H310 3So 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.H3091H6965H5971H4421H5927H5857H3091H977H7970H505H1368H376H2428H7971H3915 4And he commanded them, saying: "Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.H6680H559H7200H693H5892H310H5892H7368H3966H7368H5892H3559 5"Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first, that we shall flee before them.H5971H7126H5892H3318H7125H7223H5127H6440 6"For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as at the first.' Therefore we will flee before them.H3318H310H5423H5892H559H5127H6440H7223H5127H6440 7"Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.H6965H693H3423H5892H3068H430H5414H3027 8"And it will be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the LORD you shall do. See, I have commanded you."H8610H5892H3341H5892H784H1697H3068H6213H7200H6680 9Joshua therefore sent them out; and they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua lodged that night among the people.H3091H7971H3212H3993H3427H1008H5857H3220H5857H3091H3885H3915H8432H5971 10Then 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.H3091H7925H1242H6485H5971H5927H2205H3478H6440H5971H5857 11And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near; and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now a valley lay between them and Ai.H5971H4421H5927H5066H935H5892H2583H6828H5857H1516H5857 12So he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.H3947H2568H505H376H7760H693H1008H5857H3220H5857H5892 13And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.H7760H5971H4264H6828H5892H6119H3220H5892H3091H3212H3915H8432H6010 14Now it happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before the plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.H4428H5857H7200H4116H7925H582H5892H3318H7125H3478H4421H5971H4150H6440H6160H3045H693H310H5892 15And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.H3091H3478H5060H6440H5127H1870H4057 16So all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them. And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.H5971H5857H5892H2199H7291H310H7291H310H3091H5423H5892 17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. So they left the city open and pursued Israel.H376H7604H5857H1008H3318H310H3478H5800H5892H6605H7291H3478 18Then 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.H3068H559H3091H5186H3591H3027H5857H5414H3027H3091H5186H3591H3027H5892 19So those in ambush arose quickly out of their place; they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and took it, and hurried to set the city on fire.H693H6965H4120H4725H7323H5186H3027H935H5892H3920H4116H3341H5892H784 20And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way, and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.H582H5857H6437H310H7200H6227H5892H5927H8064H3027H5127H2008H5971H5127H4057H2015H7291 21Now when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.H3091H3478H7200H693H3920H5892H6227H5892H5927H7725H5221H582H5857 22Then the others came out of the city against them; so they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And they struck them down, so that they let none of them remain or escape.H428H3318H5892H7125H8432H3478H5221H5704H7604H8300H6412 23But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.H4428H5857H8610H2416H7126H3091 24And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when they all had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.H3478H3615H2026H3427H5857H7704H4057H7291H5307H6310H2719H8552H3478H7725H5857H5221H6310H2719 25So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand—all the people of Ai.H5307H3117H376H802H8147H6240H505H582H5857 26For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.H3091H7725H3027H7725H5186H3591H2763H3427H5857 27Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of the LORD which He had commanded Joshua.H929H7998H5892H3478H962H1697H3068H6680H3091 28So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.H3091H8313H5857H7760H8510H5769H8077H3117 29And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raise over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.H4428H5857H8518H6086H6256H6153H8121H935H3091H6680H3381H5038H3381H6086H7993H6607H8179H5892H6965H1419H1530H68H3117 30Now Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal,H3091H1129H4196H3068H430H3478H2022H5858 31as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: "an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool." And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.H4872H5650H3068H6680H1121H3478H3789H5612H8451H4872H4196H8003H68H5130H1270H5927H5930H3068H2076H8002 32And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.H3789H68H4932H8451H4872H3789H6440H1121H3478 33Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.H3478H2205H7860H8199H5975H727H3548H3881H5375H727H1285H3068H1616H249H2677H413H4136H2022H1630H2677H4136H2022H5858H4872H5650H3068H6680H7223H1288H5971H3478 34And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.H310H7121H1697H8451H1293H7045H3789H5612H8451 35There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.H1697H4872H6680H3091H7121H6951H3478H802H2945H1616H1980H7130
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