< Josué 8 >

1 Et le Seigneur dit à Josué: N'aie point de crainte, point de faiblesse; prends avec toi tous les gens de guerre, et monte en Haï: voilà que j'ai livré à tes mains le roi d'Haï et son territoire.
And Jehovah said to Joshua, Fear not, neither be dismayed. Take with thee all the people of war, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.
2 Tu feras à Haï ce que tu as fait à Jéricho et à son roi; mais tu prendras pour toi tout le bétail; dresse d'abord une embuscade derrière la ville.
And thou shalt do to Ai and to its king as thou didst to Jericho and to its king; only, the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take as prey for yourselves. Set an ambush against the city behind it.
3 Josué se leva donc et avec lui tous les gens de guerre, afin de marcher sur Haï. Or, Josué choisit trente mille hommes dans la force de l'âge, et il les fit partir pendant la nuit.
And Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand valiant men, and sent them away by night.
4 Et il leur donna des ordres, disant: Placez-vous en embuscade derrière la ville. Ne vous en éloignez pas beaucoup, et tenez-vous prêts.
And he commanded them, saying, See, ye shall be in ambush against the city, behind the city: go not very far from the city, and be all of you ready.
5 Moi, cependant, et tous ceux qui m'accompagnent, nous nous approcherons des remparts, et il adviendra que quand les habitants d'Haï sortiront à notre rencontre, comme ils l'ont fait récemment, nous fuirons devant eux.
And I and all the people that are with me will approach to the city; and it shall come to pass when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them.
6 Et lorsqu'ils se seront lancés à notre poursuite, nous les attirerons loin de la ville, et ils diront: Ces gens-là fuient devant nous de la même manière que précédemment.
And they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first; and we will flee before them.
7 Alors, levez-vous, quittez votre embuscade, et entrez dans la ville.
And ye shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city; and Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 Faites comme je viens de dire: c'est l'ordre que je vous donne.
And it shall be when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire; according to the word of Jehovah shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.
9 Et Josué les congédia; ils gagnèrent le lieu de l'embuscade, et ils se placèrent entre Béthel et Haï, à l'occident de cette ville.
And Joshua sent them forth; and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west of Ai. And Joshua lodged that night among the people.
10 Ensuite, Josué s'étant levé de grand matin, inspecta le peuple; et lui- même, avec les anciens, monta en Haï devant tout le peuple.
And Joshua rose early in the morning, and inspected the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11 Tous les gens de guerre marchèrent à sa suite, et arrivèrent devant la ville du côté de l'orient.
And all the people of war that were with him went up, and drew near, and came before the city; and they encamped on the north of Ai; and the valley was between them and Ai.
12 Cependant, l'embuscade était à l'Occident de la ville.
Now he had taken about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city.
And when they had set the people, the whole camp on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14 Et dès que le roi d'Haï aperçut Josué et les siens, il se hâta de sortir directement à leur rencontre pour les combattre; car il ne savait pas qu'une embuscade était dressée de l'autre côté de la ville.
And it came to pass when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hasted and rose early, and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the appointed place before the plain. But he knew not that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15 Josué et Israël le virent, et ils reculèrent devant lui.
And Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten before them; and they fled by the way of the wilderness.
16 Et les hommes d'Haï poursuivirent les fils d'Israël, et ils s'éloignèrent de la ville.
And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17 Nul n'était resté dans Haï; tous poursuivaient les fils d'Israël; ils avaient laissé la ville ouverte, et ils s'attachaient aux pas d'Israël.
And not a man remained in Ai and Bethel that went not out after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18 Alors, le Seigneur dit à Josué: Etends la main et le javelot, que tu tiens, vers la ville; car je te l'ai livrée. Et les hommes de l'embuscade vont quitter promptement leur place. Et Josué étendit la main et le javelot vers la ville;
And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that he had in his hand toward the city.
19 A ce moment les hommes de l'embuscade sortirent promptement de leur place; ils partirent, ils entrèrent dans la ville, la prirent et se hâtèrent de la livrer aux flammes.
And the ambush arose quickly from their place, and they ran when he stretched out his hand, and came into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.
20 Et les hommes d'Haï, ayant regardé ce qui se passait derrière eux, virent la fumée qui s'élevait de la ville jusqu'au ciel, et ils n'eurent plus de refuge ni d'une part ni de l'autre.
And the men of Ai turned and saw, and behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way; and the people that fled to the wilderness turned upon the pursuers.
21 Dès que Josué et tout le peuple eurent reconnu que les hommes de l'embuscade avaient pris la ville, et que la fumée de l'incendie s'élevait jusqu'au ciel, ils firent volte-face et frappèrent les hommes d'Hai.
When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.
22 Et l'embuscade sortit de la ville à la rencontre de ceux-ci, qui se trouvèrent enveloppés par tous les guerriers du camp, les uns devant eux, les autres sur leurs derrières; ils furent accablés au point que nul ne put fuir; nul ne survécut.
And the others went out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side; and they smote them, until they let none of them escape or flee away.
23 Toutefois, l'on prit vivant le roi d'Haï et on le mena devant Josué.
And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.
24 Quand les fils d'Israël eurent achevé de tuer tous ceux de Haï qui étaient en plaine, ou qu'ils avaient trouvés sur les pentes de la colline, car ils les poursuivirent tant qu'il en resta, Josué retourna sur la ville et la passa au fil de l'épée.
And it came to pass when Israel had ended slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they had chased them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.
25 Ce jour-là, douze mille âmes succombèrent, hommes et femmes; tous les habitants de Haï furent tués.
And so it was, that all who fell that day, men as well as women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
And Joshua did not draw back his hand, which he had stretched out with the javelin, until they had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27 Il ne resta que le butin, réservé aux fils d'Israël, selon l'ordre du Seigneur que leur avait transmit Josué.
Only, the cattle and the spoil of the city Israel took as prey to themselves, according to the word of Jehovah which he had commanded Joshua.
28 Et Josué acheva d'incendier la ville; il en fit un tombeau inhabitable à jamais, et resté tel jusqu'à nos jours.
And Joshua burned Ai, and made it an everlasting heap of desolation to this day.
29 Et il suspendit à une croix le roi d'Haï, qu'il y laissa jusqu'au soir. Au coucher du soleil, Josué fit détacher son cadavre, que l'on jeta dans une fosse; puis, on mit sur lui un monceau de pierres qui subsiste encore de nos jours.
And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening; and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his carcase down from the tree, and threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised upon it a great heap of stones, [which remains] to this day.
Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah the God of Israel, in mount Ebal,
as Moses the servant of Jehovah 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 iron had not been lifted up. And they offered up burnt-offerings on it to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace-offerings.
And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written before the children of Israel.
And all Israel, and their elders, and their officers and judges, stood on this side and on that side of the ark before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the stranger as the home-born [Israelite]; half of them toward mount Gerizim, and the other half of them toward mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded, that they should bless the people of Israel, in the beginning.
And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua read not before the whole congregation of Israel, and the women, and the children, and the strangers that lived among them.

< Josué 8 >