2.
The victory over Ai
8:1-29
Josh. 8
:1
8:1
Then Jehovah said to Joshua,
aDo not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and rise
and go up to Ai. See, I have given the king of Ai and his people and his city and his land into your
bhand.
Josh. 8
:2
8:2
And you shall do to Ai and to its king as you
adid to Jericho and to its king; except its
bspoil and its cattle you shall take for your plunder. Set an ambush for the city behind it.
Josh. 8
:3
8:3
So Joshua rose up with all the people of war to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.
Josh. 8
:4
8:4
And he commanded them, saying, See, you shall lie in ambush for the city behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, and all of you be ready.
Josh. 8
:5
8:5
And I and all the people who are with me will draw near to the city. Then when they come forth to meet us, as
it was the first time, we will flee before them.
Josh. 8
:6
8:6
And they will come out after us until we have drawn them out from the city, for they will say, They are fleeing before us as
they did the
afirst time. Thus we will flee before them.
Josh. 8
:7
8:7
Then you shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Jehovah your God will give it into your hand.
Josh. 8
:8
8:8
And when you capture the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of Jehovah. See, I have commanded you.
Josh. 8
:9
8:9
Then Joshua sent them forth; and they went to the place of ambush, and they stayed between
aBethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. And Joshua spent that night among the people.
Josh. 8
:10
8:10
And Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people; and he and the elders of Israel went up before the people to Ai.
Josh. 8
:11
8:11
And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and came before the city. And they camped to the north of Ai, so that the valley was between them and Ai.
Josh. 8
:12
8:12
Now he had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
Josh. 8
:13
8:13
So they set the people, the whole camp, which was north of the city, and the rearguard to the west of the city. And Joshua went into the valley that night.
Josh. 8
:14
8:14
Now when the king of Ai saw
this, the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people, at the assigned place, facing the Arabah; for he did not know that there was an
aambush set for him behind the city.
Josh. 8
:15
8:15
And Joshua and all Israel
pretended to be beaten before them, and they fled by the way of the wilderness.
Josh. 8
:16
8:16
Then all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua and thus were
adrawn out of the city.
Josh. 8
:17
8:17
And not a man was left in Ai or in Bethel who did not go forth after Israel, but they abandoned the city,
leaving it open, and pursued after Israel.
Josh. 8
:18
8:18
Then Jehovah said to Joshua,
aStretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
Josh. 8
:19
8:19
And the ambush rose up quickly from their place and ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and captured it; and they hurried and set the city on fire.
Josh. 8
:20
8:20
And when the men of Ai turned to see behind them, they looked, and there it was — the
asmoke of the city going up to heaven; and they had no way to flee this way or that way when the people who had fled into the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.
Josh. 8
:21
8:21
When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was rising, they turned and slew the men of Ai.
Josh. 8
:22
8:22
And the others came out from the city to meet them, so that they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And they struck them, so that no one was left to survive or escape.
Josh. 8
:23
8:23
But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
Josh. 8
:24
8:24
And when Israel had finished slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and all of them had 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.
Josh. 8
:25
8:25
And all those who fell that day, both of men and of women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
Josh. 8
:26
8:26
And Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
Josh. 8
:27
8:27
Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for themselves as plunder, according to the word of Jehovah, which He commanded Joshua.
Josh. 8
:28
8:28
So Joshua burned Ai and made it a
aheap forever;
it is a desolation to this day.
Josh. 8
:29
8:29
And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening time. And when the sun set, Joshua commanded, and they took his
acorpse down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and they erected over him a great heap of stones,
which is there to this day.
3.
Joshua's recording and reading of the law to the people of Israel
8:30-35
Josh. 8
:30
8:30
Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah the God of Israel on Mount
aEbal,
Josh. 8
:31
8:31
As Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses,
aan altar of unhewn stones upon which no one had lifted up an iron tool. And they offered upon it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and they sacrificed peace offerings.
Josh. 8
:32
8:32
And there he
awrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the children of Israel.
Josh. 8
:33
8:33
And all Israel and their elders and their officers and their judges stood on either side of the Ark in front of the Levitical priests who
acarried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, both sojourner and native alike: half of them in front of Mount
bGerizim and half of them in front of Mount
cEbal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had first commanded, to bless the people of Israel.
Josh. 8
:34
8:34
And afterward he read all the
awords of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that was written in the book of the law.
Josh. 8
:35
8:35
There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel and the women and the little ones and the sojourners who went among them.
