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Joshua
Chapter 8
1 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou
dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai:
see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his
city, and his land:
2 And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho
and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye
take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind
it.
3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai:
and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent
them away by night.
4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait
against the city, even behind the city: go not very far from the city,
but be ye all ready:
5 And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto
the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as
at the first, that we will flee before them,
6 (For they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from
the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first:
therefore we will flee before them.
7 Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city:
for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set
the city on fire: according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do.
See, I have commanded you.
9 Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush,
and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua
lodged that night among the people.
10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the
people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to
Ai.
11 And all the people, even the people of war that were with him,
went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the
north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.
12 And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in
ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13 And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on
the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city,
Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they
hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against
Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before
the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him
behind the city.
15 And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before
them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16 And all the people that were in Ai were called together 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 Ai or Bethel, that went not out
after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in
thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua
stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.
19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as
soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city,
and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.
20 And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and,
behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no
power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the
wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the
city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again,
and slew the men of Ai.
22 And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were
in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and
they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23 And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.
24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all
the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they
chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword,
until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and
smote it with the edge of the sword.
25 And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and
women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
26 For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out
the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a
prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the LORD which he
commanded Joshua.
28 And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a
desolation unto this day.
29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as
soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his
carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of
the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto
this day.
30 Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount
Ebal,
31 As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of
Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of
whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered
thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.
32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses,
which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.
33 And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their
judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests
the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well
the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against
mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the
servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the
people of Israel.
34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings
and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua
read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the
little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.