The town of Ai is destroyed

8 Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of what happened at Ai. Lead all of your soldiers and go there again. I will help you to defeat the king of Ai, his people, and his city, and enable you to take his land. 2 Your army will do to the people of Ai and their king like what you did to the people of Jericho and their king. But this time I will permit you to take all their possessions and keep them for yourselves. But first, tell some of your soldiers to hide behind the city and prepare to suddenly attack it.”

3 So Joshua led all his army toward Ai. He chose 30,000 of his best fighters/warriors and prepared to send them out during the night. 4 He said to them, “Listen carefully. Some of you must hide on the other side of the city. Do not go far from the city. Just be ready to attack. 5 I and the men who are with me will march toward the city in the morning. The men in the city will come out to fight us, like they did before. Then we will turn around and start to run away from them. 6 They will think that we are running away from them like we did before. So they will chase us away from the city. While we are running away, 7 those of you who are hiding come out and rush into the city and capture it. Yahweh your God will enable you to conquer it. 8 After you capture the city, burn it. Do what Yahweh has commanded us to do. Those are the orders I am giving to you.”

9 Then Joshua prepared to send some of them to hide and wait between Ai and Bethel, which was west of Ai. But Joshua stayed with his other soldiers that night.

10 Early the next morning, Joshua gathered his soldiers together. Then he and the other Israeli leaders led them up to Ai. 11 They all set up their tents close to Ai, just to the north of the city, where all the people of the city could see them. There was a valley between them and the city. 12 Then Joshua chose about 5,000 men and told them to go and hide just west of the city, between Ai and Bethel. 13 So those men did that. The main group of soldiers was north of the city, and the others were hiding west of the city. That night Joshua went down into the valley.

14 When the king of Ai saw the Israeli army, he and his soldiers got up early the next morning and quickly went out of the city to fight them. They went to a place east of the city, but they did not know that some Israeli soldiers were hiding behind the city. 15 Joshua and the Israeli soldiers who were with him allowed the army of Ai to push them back. They ran toward the desert. 16 The men in Ai were ordered to chase after Joshua and his men. So they left the city and started to pursue the Israelis. 17 All the men of Ai and the men of Bethel pursued the Israeli army. They did not leave even one man in Ai to defend it. The gates of the city were left wide open.

18 Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Lift up your spear and point it toward Ai, because I am going to enable your soldiers to capture it!” So Joshua pointed his spear toward Ai. 19 When the Israeli men who were hiding saw that, they rushed out from the places where they were hiding and ran into the city. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.

20 When the men of Ai looked back, they saw smoke rising from their city. But they could not escape, because the Israeli troops stopped running away. 21 Joshua and his men saw that the men who had been hiding had captured the city and were burning it, and they saw the smoke rising. So they turned around and started to attack the men of Ai. 22 Meanwhile, the soldiers who had captured the city came out and attacked them from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught between the two groups of Israeli soldiers. None of the men of Ai escaped. The Israelis fought until they killed all of them. Only the king of Ai was still alive. 23 Then they seized the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua.