[1] Then the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear and do not be troubled: take
with you all the fighting-men and go up against Ai: for I have given into
your hands the king of Ai and his people and his town and his land: [2] And
you are to do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king: but
their goods and their cattle you may take for yourselves: let a secret
force be stationed to make a surprise attack on the town from the back. [3]
So Joshua and the fighting-men got ready to go up against Ai; and Joshua
took thirty thousand men of war, and sent them out by night. [4] And he
gave them their orders, saying, Go and take up your position secretly at
the back of the town: do not go very far away, and let all of you be ready:
[5] And I and all the people with me will come near the town, and when they
come out against us as they did before, we will go in flight from them; [6]
And they will come out after us, till we have got them away from the town;
for they will say, They have gone in flight from us as before; so we will
go in flight before them; [7] Then you will get up from your secret
position and take the town, for the Lord your God will give it up into your
hands. [8] And when you have taken the town, put fire to it, as the Lord
has said: see, I have given you your orders. [9] So Joshua sent them out:
and they took up a secret position between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side
of Ai: but Joshua kept with the people that night. [10] And early in the
morning Joshua got up, and put the people in order, and he and the chiefs
of Israel went up before the people to Ai. [11] And all the fighting-men
who were with him went up and came near the town, and took up a position on
the north side of Ai facing the town, with a valley between him and the
town. [12] And taking about five thousand men, he put them in position for
a surprise attack on the west side of Ai, between Beth-el and Ai. [13] So
all the people were in their places, the army on the north side of the town
and the secret force on the west; and that night Joshua went down into the
valley. [14] Now when the king of Ai saw it, he got up quickly and went out
to war against Israel, he and all his people, to the slope going down to
the valley; but he had no idea that a secret force was waiting at the back
of the town. [15] Then Joshua and all Israel, acting as if they were
overcome before them, went in flight by way of the waste land. [16] And all
the people in Ai came together to go after them; and they went after
Joshua, moving away from the town. [17] There was not a man in Ai and
Beth-el who did not go out after Israel; and the town was open and
unwatched while they went after Israel. [18] And the Lord said to Joshua,
Let your spear be stretched out against Ai; for I will give it into your
hands. So Joshua took up his spear, stretching it out in the direction of
the town. [19] Then the secret force came quickly from their place, and
running forward when they saw his hand stretched out, went into the town
and took it, and put fire to it straight away. [20] Then the men of Ai,
looking back, saw the smoke of the town going up to heaven, and were unable
to go this way or that: and the people who had gone in flight to the waste
land were turned back on those who were coming after them. [21] And when
Joshua and all Israel saw that the town had been taken by the surprise
attack, and that the smoke of the town had gone up, turning round they
overcame the men of Ai. [22] Then the other force came out of the town
against them, so that they were being attacked on this side and on that:
and Israel overcame them and let not one of them get away with his life.
[23] But the king of Ai they made prisoner, and took him to Joshua. [24]
Then, after the destruction of all the people of Ai in the field and in the
waste land where they went after them, and when all the people had been put
to death without mercy, all Israel went back to Ai, and put to death all
who were in it without mercy. [25] On that day twelve thousand were put to
death, men and women, all the people of Ai. [26] For Joshua did not take
back his hand with the outstretched spear till the destruction of the
people of Ai was complete. [27] But the cattle and the goods from that
town, Israel took for themselves, as the Lord had given orders to Joshua.
[28] So Joshua gave Ai to the flames, and made it a waste mass of stones
for ever, as it is to this day. [29] And he put the king of Ai to death,
hanging him on a tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave
them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it in the public
place of the town, covering it with a great mass of stones, which is there
to this day. [30] Then Joshua put up an altar to the Lord, the God of
Israel, in Mount Ebal, [31] In the way ordered by Moses, the servant of the
Lord, as it is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut
stones, untouched by any iron instrument: and on it they made burned
offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord. [32] And he made there on the
stones a copy of the law of Moses, writing it before the eyes of the
children of Israel. [33] And all Israel, those who were Israelites by
birth, as well as the men from other lands living with them, and their
responsible men and their overseers and judges, took their places round the
ark, in front of the priests, the Levites, whose work it was to take up the
ark of the Lord's agreement; half of them were stationed in front of Mount
Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, in agreement with the orders for
the blessing of the children of Israel which Moses, the servant of the
Lord, had given. [34] And after, he gave them all the words of the law, the
blessing and the curse, as it is all recorded in the book of the law; [35]
Reading to all the meeting of Israel, with the women and the children and
the men from other lands who were living among them, every word of the
orders which Moses had given.
