ULT JOS Chapter 8

◄ JOS 8 ► ║ ═ ©

8 And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take with you all of the people of war and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai and his people and his city and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king, except you may plunder its spoil and its livestock for yourselves. Set for yourselves an ambush against the city from behind it.”

3 And Joshua and all of the people of war arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30, 000 men, warriors of valor, and sent them at night. 4 And he commanded them, saying, “See, you will be lying in ambush against the city from behind the city. You shall not be very far from the city. And all of you shall be prepared. 5 As I and all of the people who are with me, we will go near to the city. And it will happen, when they come out to meet us just as at the first, that we will flee to their faces. 6 And they will come out after us until we have drawn them from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing to our faces, just as at the first.’ And we will flee to their faces. 7 And you shall rise from the ambush and possess the city. And Yahweh your God will give it into your hand. 8 And it will happen that when you capture the city, you shall burn the city with fire. You shall do according to the word of Yahweh. See, I have commanded you.” 9 And Joshua sent them, and they went to the ambush place, and they stayed between Bethel and between Ai, from the west of Ai. And Joshua lodged during that night in the midst of the people. 10 And Joshua got up early in the morning and mustered the people. And he and the elders of Israel went up to the face of the people to Ai. 11 And all of the people of war who were with him went up and approached and came before the city. And they camped from north of Ai, and the valley was between them and between Ai. 12 And he had taken about 5, 000 men, and he had set them in ambush between Bethel and between Ai, from the west of the city. 13 So the people set all of the camp that was from the north of the city and its heel from the west of the city. And Joshua went during that night into the midst of the valley.

14 And it happened, as soon as the king of Ai saw, that the men of the city hurried and got up early and went out to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place to the face of the Arabah. Now he did not know that an ambush was against him from behind the city. 15 And Joshua and all of Israel were struck to the face of them, and they fled by the way of the wilderness. 16 And all of the people who were in the city were summoned to pursue after them, and they pursued after Joshua, and they were drawn away from the city. 17 And a man was not left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel. And they left the city opened, and they pursued after Israel.

18 And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out with the curved sword that is in your hand toward Ai, because I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out with the curved sword that was in his hand toward the city. 19 And the ambush rose quickly from its place, and they ran when he stretched out his hand. And they entered the city and captured it and hurried and burned the city with fire. 20 And the men of Ai turned behind them and looked, and behold, the smoke of the city went up to the heavens! And it was not in their hands to flee here or there, for the people having fled to the wilderness turned themselves toward the pursuers. 21 For Joshua and all of Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city went up, and they turned and struck the men of Ai. 22 And these came out from the city to meet them, so they were in the midst of Israel, these from here and these from there. And they struck them until he left to him no survivor or fugitive. 23 And they seized the king of Ai alive, and they brought him to Joshua.

24 And it happened, when Israel had made an end of slaying all of the dwellers of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and all of them had fallen to the mouth of the sword unto their ceasing, that all of Israel returned to Ai and struck it to the mouth of the sword. 25 And it happened that all of the ones falling on that day, from man and unto woman, were 12, 000, all of the men of Ai. 26 And Joshua did not turn back his hand that he had stretched out with the curved sword, until when he had devoted all of the dwellers of Ai. 27 However, Israel plundered for themselves the livestock and the spoil of that city, according to the word of Yahweh, which he had commanded Joshua. 28 And Joshua burned Ai, and he made it a mound forever, a desolation unto this day. 29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the time of the evening. And as the sun was going, Joshua commanded, and they brought down his corpse from the tree, and they threw it at the opening of the gate of the city, and they raised over it a great pile of stones, unto this day.

30 Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses, the servant of Yahweh, had commanded the sons of Israel, as written in the book of the law of Moses, “An altar of whole stones, over which one has not wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to Yahweh, and they sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there on the stones he wrote a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote to the face of the sons of Israel. 33 And all of Israel and its elders and officers and its judges were standing from here and from there at the Box, in front of the priests, the Levites, the lifters of the Box of the Covenant of Yahweh, as the sojourner, so the native, half of him toward the front of Mount Gerizim and half of him toward the front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of Yahweh, had commanded to bless the people of Israel at the first. 34 And afterward, he read all of the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, according to everything written in the book of the law. 35 There was not a word from all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read in front of all of the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the children, and the sojourners going in the midst of them.

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