Joshua 8
8
The Israelites Defeat Ai
1Then 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. 2You 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.”
3So 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 4with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action. 5When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them. 6We 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, 7you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the Lord your God will give it to you. 8Set the town on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You have your orders.”
9So 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. 10Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel. 11All 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. 12That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town. 13So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.
14When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley.#8:14 Hebrew the Arabah. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town. 15Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten. 16Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town. 17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel#8:17 Some manuscripts lack or Bethel. who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open.
18Then 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. 19As 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.
20When 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. 21When 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. 22Meanwhile, 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. 23Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.
24When the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside. 25So the entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that day—12,000 in all. 26For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.#8:26 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering. 27Only 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. 28So Joshua burned the town of Ai,#8:28 Ai means “ruin.” and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.
29Joshua 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.
The Lord’s Covenant Renewed
30Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal. 31He followed the commands that Moses the Lord’s servant had written in the Book of Instruction: “Make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools.”#8:31 Exod 20:25; Deut 27:5-6. Then on the altar they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. 32And as the Israelites watched, Joshua copied onto the stones of the altar#8:32 Hebrew onto the stones. the instructions Moses had given them.
33Then 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.
34Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction. 35Every 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.
Currently Selected:
Joshua 8: NLT
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
For more information about the NLT:
Joshua 8
8
Capture of Ai. 1#Jgs 20:20–38. The Lord then said to Joshua: Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the army with you and prepare to attack Ai.#Jos 2:24; Dt 1:21. I have delivered the king of Ai into your power, with his people, city, and land. 2Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king—except that you may take its spoil and livestock as plunder.#Jos 6:21, 24; Dt 20:14. Set an ambush behind the city. 3So Joshua and all the soldiers prepared to attack Ai. Picking out thirty thousand warriors,#Thirty thousand warriors: this figure of the Hebrew text, which seems extremely high, may be due to a copyist’s error; some manuscripts of the Septuagint have “three thousand,” which is the number of the whole army in the first, unsuccessful attack (7:4); the variant reading in v. 12 mentions “five thousand.” More likely, the word for “thousand” here and in other military contexts may designate a squad or fighting unit, itself composed of significantly fewer warriors. Joshua sent them off by night 4with these orders: “See that you ambush the city from the rear. Do not be very far from the city. All of you must be ready. 5The rest of the people and I will come up to the city, and when they make a sortie against us as they did the last time, we will flee from them. 6They will keep coming out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will think, ‘They are fleeing from us as they did the last time.’ When we flee, 7then you rise from ambush and take possession of the city, which the Lord, your God, will deliver into your power. 8When you have taken the city, set it on fire in obedience to the Lord’s command. These are my orders to you.”#Jos 6:24. 9Then Joshua sent them away. They went to the place of ambush, taking up their position to the west of Ai, toward Bethel. Joshua, however, spent that night with the army.
10Early the next morning Joshua mustered the army and went up to Ai at its head, with the elders of Israel. 11When all the troops he led were drawn up in position before the city, they pitched camp north of Ai, on the other side of the ravine. 12He took about five thousand warriors and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. 13Thus the people took up their stations, with the main body north of the city and the ambush west of it, and Joshua waited overnight in the valley. 14The king of Ai saw this, and he and all his army came out very early in the morning to engage Israel in battle at the place in front of the Arabah, not knowing that there was an ambush behind the city. 15Joshua and the main body of the Israelites fled toward the wilderness, pretending defeat, 16until the last of the soldiers in the city had been called out to pursue them. Since they were drawn away from the city, with everyone pursuing Joshua, 17not a soldier remained in Ai or Bethel. They abandoned the city, leaving it open, as they pursued Israel.
18Then the Lord directed Joshua: Stretch out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will deliver it into your power. Joshua stretched out the javelin in his hand toward the city, 19and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose from their post, rushed in, captured the city, and immediately set it on fire. 20By the time the army of Ai looked back, the smoke from the city was going up to the heavens. Escape in any direction was impossible, because the Israelites retreating toward the wilderness now turned on their pursuers; 21for when Joshua and the main body of Israelites saw that the city had been taken by ambush and was going up in smoke, they struck back at the forces of Ai. 22Since those in the city came out to intercept them, Ai’s army was hemmed in by Israelites on both sides, who cut them down without any fugitives or survivors#Dt 7:2. 23except the king, whom they took alive and brought to Joshua.
24When Israel finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open, who had pursued them into the wilderness, and all of them to the last man fell by the sword, then all Israel returned and put to the sword those inside the city. 25There fell that day a total of twelve thousand men and women, the entire population of Ai. 26#Ex 17:11–13. Joshua kept the javelin in his hand stretched out until he had carried out the ban on all the inhabitants of Ai. 27However, the Israelites took for themselves as plunder the livestock and the spoil of that city, according to the command of the Lord issued to Joshua. 28Then Joshua destroyed Ai by fire, reducing it to an everlasting mound of ruins, as it remains today.#Dt 13:16. 29He had the king of Ai hanged on a tree until evening;#Jos 10:26–27; Dt 21:22–23; Jn 19:31. then at sunset Joshua ordered the body removed from the tree and cast at the entrance of the city gate, where a great heap of stones was piled up over it, which remains to the present day.
Altar on Mount Ebal. 30#These ceremonies were prescribed in Dt 11:29 and 27:2–26. #Dt 27:1–8, 12–13. Later, on Mount Ebal, Joshua built to the Lord, the God of Israel, an altar 31of unhewn stones on which no iron tool had been used,#Ex 20:24–25. just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the Israelites, as recorded in the book of the law. On this altar they sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord and made communion sacrifices. 32There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed upon the stones a copy of the law written by Moses. 33And all Israel, resident alien and native alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on either side of the ark facing the levitical priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord.#Jos 3:3; Dt 11:27; 31:9, 12. Half of them were facing Mount Gerizim and half Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had first commanded for the blessing of the people of Israel. 34#Dt 28:2–68; 30:19; 31:11; Neh 8:2–3. Then were read aloud all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, exactly as written in the book of the law. 35#Dt 31:12. Every single word that Moses had commanded, Joshua read aloud to the entire assembly, including the women and children, and the resident aliens among them.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc