Joshua 8

¹ And Yahweh said unto Joshua, "Fear not, nor be affrighted, take with you all the people of war, and rise, 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 have done to Ai and to her king as you have done to Jericho and to her king; only, its spoil and its cattle you spoil for yourselves; set for you an ambush for the city at its rear." ³ And Joshua rises, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai, and Joshua chooses thirty thousand men, mighty ones of valor, and sends them away by night, ⁴ and commands them, saying, "See, you are liers in wait against the city, at the rear of the city, you go not very far off from the city, and all of you have been prepared, ⁵ and I and all the people who [are] with me draw near unto the city, and it has come to pass when they come out to meet us as at the first, and we have fled before them, ⁶ and they have come out after us till we have drawn them out of the city, for they say, They are fleeing before us as at the first, and we have fled before them, ⁷ and you rise from the ambush, and have occupied the city, and Yahweh your Elohim has given it into your hand; ⁸ and it has been, when you capture the city, you burn the city with fire, according to the word of Yahweh you do, see, I have commanded you." ⁹ And Joshua sends them away, and they go unto the ambush, and abide between Bethel and Ai, on the west of Ai; and Joshua lodges on that night in the midst of the people. ¹⁰ And Joshua rises early in the morning, and inspects the people, and goes up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai; ¹¹ and all the people of war who [are] with him have gone up, and draw nigh and come in over-against the city, and encamp on the north of Ai; and the valley [is] between him and Ai. ¹² And he takes about five thousand men, and sets them an ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city; ¹³ and they set the people, all the camp which [is] on the north of the city, and its rear on the west of the city, and Joshua goes on that night into the midst of the valley. ¹⁴ And it comes to pass, when the king of Ai sees [it], that hasten, and rise early, and go out do the men of the city to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people, at the appointed season, at the front of the plain, and he has not known that an ambush [is] against him, on the rear of the city. ¹⁵ And Joshua and all Israel [seem] stricken before them, and flee the way of the wilderness, ¹⁶ and all the people who [are] in the city are called to pursue after them, and they pursue after Joshua, and are drawn away out of the city, ¹⁷ and there has not been left a man in Ai and Bethel who has not gone out after Israel, and they leave the city open, and pursue after Israel. ¹⁸ And Yahweh said unto Joshua, "Stretch out with the javelin which [is] in your hand towards Ai, for into your hand I give it"; and Joshua stretches out with the javelin which [is] in his hand toward the city, ¹⁹ and the ambush has risen [with] haste, out of its place, and they run at the stretching out of his hand, and go into the city, and capture it, and hasten, and burn the city with fire. ²⁰ And the men of Ai look behind them, and see, and lo, the smoke of the city has gone up unto the heavens, and there has not been in them power to flee hither and thither - and the people who are fleeing to the wilderness have turned against the pursuer, ²¹ and Joshua and all Israel have seen that the ambush has captured the city, and that the smoke of the city has gone up, and they turn back and smite the men of Ai; ²² and these have come out from the city to meet them, and they are in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that, and they smite them till he has not left to them a remnant and escaped one; ²³ and the king of Ai they caught alive, and bring him near unto Joshua. ²⁴ And it comes to pass, at Israel's finishing to slay all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them (and they fall all of them by the mouth of the sword till their consumption), that all Israel turn back to Ai, and smite it by the mouth of the sword; ²⁵ and all who fall during the day, of men and of women, are twelve thousand - all men of Ai. ²⁶ And Joshua has not brought back his hand which he stretched out with the javelin till that he has devoted all the inhabitants of Ai; ²⁷ only, the cattle and the spoil of that city have Israel spoiled for themselves, according to the word of Yahweh which He commanded Joshua. ²⁸ And Joshua burns Ai, and makes it a heap eonian - a desolation unto this day; ²⁹ and the king of Ai he has hanged on the tree till even-time, and at the going in of the sun has Joshua commanded, and they take down his carcase from the tree, and cast it unto the opening of the gate of the city, and raise over it a great heap of stones till this day. ³⁰ Then does Joshua build an altar to Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, in mount Ebal, ³¹ as Moses, servant of Yahweh, commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses - an altar of whole stones, over which he has not waved iron - and they cause to go up upon it burnt-offerings to Yahweh, and sacrifice peace-offerings; ³² and he writes there on the stones the copy of the law of Moses, which he has written in the presence of the sons of Israel. ³³ And all Israel, and its elders, and authorities, and its judges, are standing on this side and on that of the ark, over-against the priests, the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, as well the sojourner as the native, half of them over-against mount Gerizim, and the half of them over-against mount Ebal, as Moses servant of Yahweh commanded to bless the people of Israel at the first. ³⁴ And afterwards he has proclaimed all the words of the law, the blessing and the reviling, according to all that is written in the book of the law; ³⁵ there has not been a thing of all that Moses commanded which Joshua has not proclaimed before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the infants, and the sojourner who is going in their midst.