Joshua 8
8
The Capture and Destruction of Ai
1The LORD said to Joshua, “Take all the soldiers with you and go on up to Ai. Don't be afraid or discouraged. I will give you victory over the king of Ai; his people, city, and land will be yours. 2You are to do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, but this time you may keep its goods and livestock for yourselves. Prepare to attack the city by surprise from the rear.”
3So Joshua got ready to go to Ai with all his soldiers. He picked out 30,000 of his best troops and sent them out at night 4with these orders: “Hide on the other side of the city, but not too far away from it; be ready to attack. 5My men and I will approach the city. When the men of Ai come out against us, we will turn and run, just as we did the first time. 6They will pursue us until we have led them away from the city. They will think that we are running away from them, as we did before. 7Then you will come out of hiding and capture the city. The LORD your God will give it to you. 8After you have taken the city, set it on fire, just as the LORD has commanded. These are your orders.” 9So Joshua sent them out, and they went to their hiding place and waited there, west of Ai, between Ai and Bethel. Joshua spent the night in camp.
10Early in the morning Joshua got up and called the soldiers together. Then he and the leaders of Israel led them to Ai. 11The soldiers with him went towards the main entrance to the city and set up camp on the north side, with a valley between themselves and Ai. 12He took about 5,000 men and put them in hiding west of the city, between Ai and Bethel. 13The soldiers were arranged for battle with the main camp north of the city and the rest of the men to the west. Joshua spent the night in the valley. 14When the king of Ai saw Joshua's men, he acted quickly. He and all his men went out towards the Jordan Valley to fight the Israelites at the same place as before, not knowing that he was about to be attacked from the rear. 15Joshua and his men pretended that they were retreating, and ran away towards the barren country. 16All the men in the city had been called together to go after them, and as they pursued Joshua, they kept getting farther away from the city. 17Every man in Ai#8.17 One ancient translation Ai; Hebrew Ai and Bethel. went after the Israelites, and the city was left wide open, with no one to defend it.
18Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Point your spear at Ai; I am giving it to you.” Joshua did as he was told, 19and as soon as he lifted his hand, the men who had been hiding got up quickly, ran into the city and captured it. They immediately set the city on fire. 20When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke rising to the sky. There was no way for them to escape, because the Israelites who had run towards the barren country now turned round to attack them. 21When Joshua and his men saw that the others had taken the city and that it was on fire, they turned round and began killing the men of Ai. 22The Israelites in the city now came down to join the battle. So the men of Ai found themselves completely surrounded by Israelites, and they were all killed. No one got away, and no one lived through it 23except the king of Ai. He was captured and taken to Joshua.
24The Israelites killed every one of the enemy in the barren country where they had chased them. Then they went back to Ai and killed everyone there. 25-26Joshua kept his spear pointed at Ai and did not put it down until every person there had been killed. The whole population of Ai was killed that day — 12,000 men and women. 27The Israelites kept for themselves the livestock and goods captured in the city, as the LORD had told Joshua. 28Joshua burnt Ai and left it in ruins. It is still like that today. 29He hanged the king of Ai from a tree and left his body there until evening. At sunset Joshua gave orders for the body to be removed, and it was thrown down at the entrance to the city gate. They covered it with a huge pile of stones, which is still there today.
The Law is Read at Mount Ebal
30 #
Deut 27.2–8
Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel. 31#Ex 20.25He made it according to the instructions that Moses, the LORD's servant, had given the Israelites, as it says in the Law of Moses: “an altar made of stones which have not been cut with iron tools.” On it they offered burnt sacrifices to the LORD, and they also presented their fellowship offerings. 32There, with the Israelites looking on, Joshua made on the stones#8.32 the stones; or stones. a copy of the Law which Moses had written. 33#Deut 11.29; 27.11–14The Israelites, with their leaders, officers, and judges, as well as the foreigners among them, stood on two sides of the LORD's Covenant Box, facing the levitical priests who carried it. Half the people stood with their backs to Mount Gerizim and the other half with their backs to Mount Ebal. The LORD's servant Moses had commanded them to do this when the time came for them to receive the blessing. 34Joshua then read aloud the whole Law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the book of the Law. 35Every one of the commandments of Moses was read by Joshua to the whole gathering, which included women and children, as well as the foreigners living among them.
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Joshua 8
8
1Then Adonai said to Joshua: “Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land into your hand.
2Then you will do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king—except you will take its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
3So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up to Ai. Joshua selected 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them at night.
4He commanded them saying: “Look, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Don’t go too far from the city, but all of you be ready.
5Then I and all the troops with me will approach the city. Then it will be when they come out against us, like the first time, that we will flee before them.
6So they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will think, ‘They are fleeing before us like the first time.’ While we are fleeing before them,
7you will rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Adonai your God will give it into your hand.
8Now when you have seized the city, you will set the city on fire—according to the word of Adonai you must do. See that you do as I have ordered you.”
9So Joshua sent them off, and they went to the ambush site, taking position between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
10Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the people. He and the elders of Israel marched before the people to Ai.
11All the people of war with him went up, advanced, and came in front of the city. They camped to the north of Ai, with a valley between him and Ai.
12But he had taken about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
13So they stationed the people, the main army that was to the north of the city, and its rear guard to the west of the city. Then Joshua walked that night in the midst of the valley.
14So it came to pass when the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city hurried and rose up early, and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place facing the Arabah. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15So Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16Then all the people who were in Ai were summoned to pursue them, so they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
17Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, so they left the city open as they chased after Israel.
18Then Adonai said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
19As soon as he stretched out his hand, the ambush arose quickly from their place, ran and entered the city and captured it; and immediately set the city on fire.
20Now the men of Ai looked back and saw, behold, the smoke of the city rising up to the sky! They had no place to flee this way or that, since the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
21When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city rose up, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.
22The others also came out of the city against them, so they were surrounded by Israel, some on this side and some on that side. They struck them down until not one survivor or fugitive was left.
23But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24After Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
25All who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000—all the people of Ai.
26For Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of Adonai which He had commanded Joshua.
28So Joshua burnt Ai and made it a permanent heap of desolation to this day.
29Then he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sunset Joshua commanded that they take his carcass down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and piled over it a great heap of stones, which remains to this day.
30Then Joshua built an altar to Adonai, God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
31as Moses the servant of Adonai had commanded Bnei-Yisrael, as written in the scroll of the Torah of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no man had wielded any iron tool. They offered on it burnt offerings to Adonai and sacrificed fellowship offerings.
32 There on the stones he wrote a copy of the Torah of Moses, which he had written, in the presence of Bnei-Yisrael.
33Then all Israel, with their elders and officials, and their judges, were standing on both sides of the ark facing the Levitical kohanim carrying the ark of the covenant of Adonai—the outsider as well as the native-born. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal—just as Moses the servant of Adonai had commanded before—in order to bless the people of Israel.
34Then afterward he read all the words of the Torah—the blessing and the curse—according to all that is written in the book of the Torah.
35There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, including the women and the little ones and the outsiders walking among them.
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