Joshua 8

The Fall of Ai

1 Now 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.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.3 So 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.4 And 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.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.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.7 Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.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.9 Joshua 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.10 Then 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.11 And 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.12 So he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.13 And 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.14 Now 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.15 And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.16 So all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them. And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.17 There 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.18 Then 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.19 So 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.20 And 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.21 Now 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.22 Then 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.23 But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.24 And 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.25 So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousandall the people of Ai.26 For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.27 Only 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.28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.29 And 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.

Joshua Renews the Covenant

30 Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal,31 as 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.32 And 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.33 Then 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.34 And 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.35 There 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.

JOSHUA 8

Israel Destroys //the Town of Ai

1-2 The [Lord] told Joshua:
Don't be afraid, and don't be discouraged by what happened at the town of Ai. Take the army and attack again. But first, order part of the army to set up an ambush on the other side of the town. I will help you defeat the king of Ai and his army, and you will capture the town and the land around it. Destroy Ai and kill its king as you did at Jericho. But you may keep the livestock and everything else you want.

3-4 Joshua quickly got the army ready to attack Ai. He chose 30,000 of his best soldiers and gave them these orders:
Tonight, while it is dark, march to Ai and take up a position behind the town. Get as close to the town as you can without being seen, and be ready to attack.
5-6 The rest of the army will come with me and attack near the gate. When the people of Ai come out to fight, we'll run away and let them chase us. They will think we are running from them just like the first time. But when we've let them chase us far enough away, 7 you come out of hiding. The [Lord] our God will help you capture the town. 8 Then set it on fire, as the [Lord] has told us to do. Those are your orders,

9 now go!
The 30,000 soldiers went to a place on the west side of Ai, between Ai and Bethel, where they could hide and wait to attack.
That night, Joshua stayed in camp with the rest of the army. 10 Early the next morning he got his troops ready to move out, and he and the other leaders of Israel led them to Ai. 11 They set up camp in full view of the town, across the valley to the north. 12 Joshua had already sent 5,000 soldiers to the west side of the town to hide and wait to attack.

13 Now all his troops were in place. Part of the army was in the camp to the north of Ai, and the others were hiding to the west, ready to make a surprise attack. That night, Joshua went into the valley.t

14-15 The king of Ai saw Joshua's army, so the king and his troops hurried out early the next morning to fight them. Joshua and his army pretended to be beaten, and they let the men of Ai chase them toward the desert. The king and his army were facing the Jordan valley as Joshua had planned.
The king did not realize that some Israelite soldiers were hiding behind the town.

16-17 So he called out every man in Ai to go after Joshua's troops. They all rushed out to chase the Israelite army, and they left the town gates wide open. Not one man was left in Ai or in Bethel.t
Joshua let the men of Ai chase him and his army farther and farther away from Ai.

18 Finally, the [Lord] told Joshua, “Point your swordt at the town of Ai, because now I am going to help you defeat it!”
As soon as Joshua pointed his sword at the town,

19 the soldiers who had been hiding jumped up and ran into the town. They captured it and set it on fire.

20-21 When Joshua and his troops saw smoke rising from the town, they knew that the other part of their army had captured it. So they turned and attacked.
The men of Ai looked back and saw smoke rising from their town. But they could not escape, because the soldiers they had been chasing had suddenly turned and started fighting.

22-24 Meanwhile, the other Israelite soldiers had come from the town and attacked the men of Ai from the rear. The Israelites captured the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua. They also chased the rest of the men of Ai into the desert and killed them.t
The Israelite army went back to Ai and killed everyone there. 25-26 Joshua kept his sword pointed at the town of Ai until every last one of Ai's 12,000 people was dead.

27 But the Israelites took the animals and the other possessions of the people of Ai, because this was what the [Lord] had told Joshua to do.

28-29 Joshua made sure every building in Ai was burned to the ground. He told his men to kill the king of Ai and hang his body on a tree. Then at sunset he told the Israelites to take down the body, t throw it in the gateway of the town, and cover it with a big pile of rocks. Those rocks are still there, and the town itself has never been rebuilt.

Joshua Reads the Blessings //and Curses

(Deuteronomy 27.1-26)

30-32  t One day, Joshua led the people of Israel to Mount Ebal, where he told some of his men, “Build an altar for offering sacrifices to the [Lord]. And use stones that have never been cut with iron tools, t because that is what Moses taught in The Book of the Law.”t
Joshua offered sacrifices to please the [Lord]t and to ask his blessing.t Then with the Israelites still watching, he copied parts of The Book of the Lawt of Moses onto stones.
33-35  t Moses had said that everyone in Israel was to go to the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, where they were to be blessed. So everyone went there, including the foreigners, the leaders, officials, and judges. Half of the people stood on one side of the valley, and half on the other side, with the priests from the Levi tribe standing in the middle with the sacred chest. Then in a loud voice, Joshua read the blessings and curses from The Book of the Lawt of Moses.t