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The Israelites Defeat Ai
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land.
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land.
The Conquest of Ai
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.
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.
You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.”
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.
So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night
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.
with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action.
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.
When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them.
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.
We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running from them,
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.
you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the LORD your God will give it to you.
And ye shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city; and Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand.
Set the town on fire, as the LORD has commanded. You have your orders.”
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.
So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night.
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.
Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel.
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.
All the fighting men who were with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the town.
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.
That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town.
Now he had taken about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city.
So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.
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.
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.
Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten.
And Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten before them; and they fled by the way of the wilderness.
Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town.
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.
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.
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Point the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded.
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.
As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.
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.
When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers.
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.
When Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai.
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.
Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides. Israel attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped.
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.
Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.
And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.
When the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside.
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.
So the entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that day — 12,000 in all.
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.
Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these as plunder for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.
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.
And Joshua burned Ai, and made it an everlasting heap of desolation to this day.
Joshua impaled the king of Ai on a sharpened pole and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body, as Joshua commanded, and threw it in front of the town gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today.
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.
The LORD’s Covenant Renewed
Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal.
Joshua Renews the Covenant
Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah the God of Israel, in mount Ebal,
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.
Then all the Israelites — foreigners and native-born alike — along with the elders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood in front of Mount Gerizim, the other in front of Mount Ebal. Each group faced the other, and between them stood the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. This was all done according to the commands that Moses, the servant of the LORD, had previously given for blessing the people 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.
Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction.
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.
Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them.
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.