Joshua 8
1 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Do not fear; do not be discouraged. Take with you all the people of war. Go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear and do not be troubled: take with you all the fighting-men and go up against Ai: for I have given into your hands the king of Ai and his people and his town and his land:
2 You will do to Ai and her king as you have done to Jericho and her king, except that you will take the plunder and the cattle for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”
And you are to do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king: but their goods and their cattle you may take for yourselves: let a secret force be stationed to make a surprise attack on the town from the back.
3 So Joshua got up and took all the men of war up to Ai. Then Joshua chose thirty thousand men—strong, courageous men—and he sent them out at night.
So Joshua and the fighting-men got ready to go up against Ai; and Joshua took thirty thousand men of war, and sent them out by night.
4 He commanded them, “Look, you will lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.
And he gave them their orders, saying, Go and take up your position secretly at the back of the town: do not go very far away, and let all of you be ready:
5 I and all the men with me will approach the city, and when they come out to attack us, we will run away from them just as before.
And I and all the people with me will come near the town, and when they come out against us as they did before, we will go in flight from them;
6 They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. They will say, 'They are running away from us as they did the last time.' So we will run away from them.
And they will come out after us, till we have got them away from the town; for they will say, They have gone in flight from us as before; so we will go in flight before them;
7 Then you come up out of your place of hiding, and you will capture the city. Yahweh your God will give it into your hand.
Then you will get up from your secret position and take the town, for the Lord your God will give it up into your hands.
8 When you capture the city, you will set it on fire. You will do this when you obey the command given in the word of Yahweh. See, I have commanded you.”
And when you have taken the town, put fire to it, as the Lord has said: see, I have given you your orders.
9 Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush, and they hid between Bethel and Ai to the west of Ai. But Joshua slept that night among the people.
So Joshua sent them out: and they took up a secret position between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua kept with the people that night.
10 Joshua got up early in the morning and got his soldiers ready, Joshua and the elders of Israel, and they attacked the people of Ai.
And early in the morning Joshua got up, and put the people in order, and he and the chiefs of Israel went up before the people to Ai.
11 All the fighting men who were with him went up and approached the city. They came near the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between them and Ai.
And all the fighting-men who were with him went up and came near the town, and took up a position on the north side of Ai facing the town, with a valley between him and the town.
12 He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush on the west side of the city between Bethel and Ai.
And taking about five thousand men, he put them in position for a surprise attack on the west side of Ai, between Beth-el and Ai.
13 They positioned all the soldiers, the main army on the north side of the city, and the rear guard on the west side of the city. Joshua spent that night in the valley.
So all the people were in their places, the army on the north side of the town and the secret force on the west; and that night Joshua went down into the valley.
14 It came about when the king of Ai saw it, he and his army got up early and rushed out to attack Israel at a certain place that was overlooking the Jordan River valley. He did not know that an ambush was waiting to attack from behind the city.
Now when the king of Ai saw it, he got up quickly and went out to war against Israel, he and all his people, to the slope going down to the valley; but he had no idea that a secret force was waiting at the back of the town.
15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be defeated before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.
Then Joshua and all Israel, acting as if they were overcome before them, went in flight by way of the waste land.
16 All the people who were in the city were called together to go after them, and they went after Joshua and they were drawn away from the city.
And all the people in Ai came together to go after them; and they went after Joshua, moving away from the town.
17 There was not a man left in Ai and Bethel who had not gone out to pursue Israel. They abandoned the city and left it open as they pursued Israel.
There was not a man in Ai and Beth-el who did not go out after Israel; and the town was open and unwatched while they went after Israel.
18 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Point that spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give Ai into your hand.” Joshua held out the spear that was in his hand toward the city.
And the Lord said to Joshua, Let your spear be stretched out against Ai; for I will give it into your hands. So Joshua took up his spear, stretching it out in the direction of the town.
19 The soldiers hiding in ambush quickly rushed out of their place as he reached out with his hand. They ran and entered the city and captured it. They quickly set the city on fire.
Then the secret force came quickly from their place, and running forward when they saw his hand stretched out, went into the town and took it, and put fire to it straight away.
20 The men of Ai turned and looked back. They saw the smoke from the city rising into the sky, and they could not escape this way or that. For the Israelite soldiers who had fled into the wilderness now turned back to face those who were pursuing them.
Then the men of Ai, looking back, saw the smoke of the town going up to heaven, and were unable to go this way or that: and the people who had gone in flight to the waste land were turned back on those who were coming after them.
21 When Joshua and all Israel saw the ambush had captured the city with the smoke rising, they turned around and killed the men of Ai.
And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the town had been taken by the surprise attack, and that the smoke of the town had gone up, turning round they overcame the men of Ai.
22 The other soldiers of Israel, those who had gone in the city, came out to attack them. So the men of Ai were caught between the armies of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. Israel attacked the men of Ai; none of them survived or escaped.
Then the other force came out of the town against them, so that they were being attacked on this side and on that: and Israel overcame them and let not one of them get away with his life.
23 They kept the king of Ai, whom they captured alive, and they brought him to Joshua.
But the king of Ai they made prisoner, and took him to Joshua.
24 It came about when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field near the wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them, to the very last one, had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai. They attacked it with the edge of the sword.
Then, after the destruction of all the people of Ai in the field and in the waste land where they went after them, and when all the people had been put to death without mercy, all Israel went back to Ai, and put to death all who were in it without mercy.
25 All those who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
On that day twelve thousand were put to death, men and women, all the people of Ai.
26 Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he had reached out while holding his spear, until he had completely destroyed all the people of Ai.
For Joshua did not take back his hand with the outstretched spear till the destruction of the people of Ai was complete.
27 Israel took only the livestock and the plunder from the city for themselves, just as Yahweh had commanded Joshua.
But the cattle and the goods from that town, Israel took for themselves, as the Lord had given orders to Joshua.
28 Joshua burned Ai and turned it into a heap of ruins forever. It is an abandoned place to this day.
So Joshua gave Ai to the flames, and made it a waste mass of stones for ever, as it is to this day.
29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. When the sun was going down, Joshua gave the command and they took the king's body down from the tree and threw it in front of the city gates. There they set up a great heap of stones on top of it. That heap remains there to this day.
And he put the king of Ai to death, hanging him on a tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it in the public place of the town, covering it with a great mass of stones, which is there to this day.
30 Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
Then Joshua put up an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal,
31 just as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded the people of Israel, as it was written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “An altar from uncut stones, on which no one has wielded an iron tool.” He offered on the altar burnt offerings to Yahweh, and they sacrificed peace offerings.
In the way ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, as it is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, untouched by any iron instrument: and on it they made burned offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord.
32 There, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses.
And he made there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, writing it before the eyes of the children of Israel.
33 All Israel, their elders, officers, and their judges stood on both sides of the ark before the priests and Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh—the foreigner as well as the native born—half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half stood in front of Mount Ebal. They blessed the people of Israel, just as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded them at first.
And all Israel, those who were Israelites by birth, as well as the men from other lands living with them, and their responsible men and their overseers and judges, took their places round the ark, in front of the priests, the Levites, whose work it was to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement; half of them were stationed in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, in agreement with the orders for the blessing of the children of Israel which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given.
34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, just as they had been written in the book of the law.
And after, he gave them all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, as it is all recorded in the book of the law;
35 There was not one word from all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read in front of the assembly of Israel, including the women, the little children, and the foreigners who lived among them.
Reading to all the meeting of Israel, with the women and the children and the men from other lands who were living among them, every word of the orders which Moses had given.
