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The Book of Joshua 8

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

3 And Joshua and all the people of war rose to go up to the Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 men, mighty ones of the army, and sent them at night. 4 And he commanded them, saying, “See, you lie in ambush against the city from behind the city. You shall not be very far from the city. And all of you shall be ready. 5 As for me and all the people who are with me, we will come near to the city. And it will happen when they come out to meet us just as at the first, that we will flee before their face. 6 And they will come out after us until we have drawn them from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing before our face just as at the first.’ And we will flee before their face. 7 And you will rise from ambush and take possession of the city. And Yahweh your God will give it into your hand. 8 And it will happen that when you capture the city, you will kindle the city with fire. You will 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 the Ai from west of the Ai. And Joshua stayed overnight 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 before the face of the people to the Ai. 11 And all the people of war who were with him went up and approached and came before the city. And they camped from north of the Ai and the valley was between them and the Ai. 12 And he took about 5,000 men. And he set them in ambush between Bethel and the Ai, from west of the city. 13 And the people set all the camp that was from north of the city and its rear guard from west of the city. And Joshua went in that night into the midst of the valley. 14 And it happened that as soon as the king of the Ai saw, then the men of the city hurried and got up early and went out to meet Israel for the battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before 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 Israel let themselves be struck before the face of them. And they fled the way of the wilderness. 16 And all the people who were in the city were summoned to pursue after them. And they pursued after Joshua and were drawn away from the city. 17 And there was not a man left in the Ai or Bethel who had not pursued after Israel. And they left the city open and they pursued after Israel.

18 And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out with the javelin that is in your hand toward the Ai, because I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out with the javelin 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 kindled the city with fire. 20 And the men of the 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. And the people who had fled to the wilderness turned around toward the pursuers. 21 And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up. And they turned back and struck down the men of the Ai. 22 And these came out from the city to meet them and they were in the midst of Israel, these from here and these from there. And they struck them down until he left no survivor or refugee of them. 23 And they seized the king of the Ai alive. And they brought him near to Joshua.

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

30 Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh the God of Israel on Mount Ebal. 31 It was 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 no one has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered up on it burnt up offerings to Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there on the stones he wrote a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote before the face of the sons of Israel. 33 And all Israel and its elders and officers and its judges were standing from here and from there at the Box in front of the priests and the Levites who carried the Box of the Covenant of Yahweh, like the foreigner so the native, half of them toward the front of Mount Gerizim and half of them toward the front of Mount Ebal. It was just as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded to bless the people of Israel at the first. 34 And afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, according to all that is 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 the assembly of Israel and the women and the children and the sojourners who are going in the midst of them.

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