Joshua 8

8 ¹Then our Father told Joshua, "Don't be afraid or lose courage. Take all the fighting men with you and go up to Ai. I have handed you the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. ²Do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king—keep the plunder and livestock. Set an ambush behind the city."

³Joshua and all the fighting men set out for Ai. He chose 30,000 mighty warriors and sent them out by night. ⁴He commanded them, "Wait in ambush behind the city—not too far off. All of you, stay alert. ⁵I and all my people will approach the city. When they come out against us as before, we will flee before them. ⁶They will come out after us until we draw them away from the city, for they'll say, 'They're fleeing before us as before.' Then we'll flee from them. ⁷Rise from ambush, seize the city, for your Father will hand it to you. ⁸When you take the city, set it on fire. Do as our Father commanded. Look—I have commanded you."

⁹Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and waited between Bethel and Ai, west of Ai, but he stayed that night among the people. ¹⁰Joshua rose early, mustered the people, and with Israel's elders led them up to Ai. ¹¹All his fighting men set out, advanced until they were directly opposite the city, and camped north of Ai, with a valley between them and Ai. ¹²He took about 5,000 men and set an ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. ¹³So they stationed the people—the whole camp north of the city, its rear guard west of it—and that night Joshua went into the valley's middle. ¹⁴When the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city rose early and rushed out to meet Israel in battle, at the appointed spot facing the Arabah—he and all his people. He did not know an ambush waited behind the city. ^a a v14 The Arabah is the deep Jordan Valley depression running south from the Sea of Galilee toward the Dead Sea. ¹⁵Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back and fled toward the wilderness. ¹⁶All the people in the city were called out to pursue them; they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷No man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued Israel.

¹⁸Then our Father said to Joshua, "Stretch the javelin in your hand toward Ai—I will hand it to you." So Joshua stretched the javelin in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹The instant he raised his hand, the ambush rose from position, ran into the city, seized it, and quickly set it on fire. ²⁰The men of Ai turned and saw the city's smoke rising to the sky, with no way to flee, since those fleeing to the wilderness had turned back on their pursuers. ²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that its smoke rose, they turned back and struck down Ai's men. ²²The rest came out of the city to meet them, trapping Ai's men between Israel on both sides. Israel struck them until none survived or escaped. ²³But the king of Ai they took alive and brought to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel finished killing all Ai's residents in the open field and the wilderness where they had chased them, and all had fallen by the sword until none remained, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the sword. ²⁵All who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000—all the people of Ai. ²⁶Joshua kept his javelin raised until he had devoted to destruction all the inhabitants of Ai. ²⁷Israel kept only the livestock and plunder of that city, as our Father commanded Joshua. ²⁸So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day. ²⁹He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sunset Joshua ordered his body taken down and thrown at the city gate's entrance, and a great heap of stones raised over it—still there today.

Israel Renews the Father's Covenant

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to our Father, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, ³¹just as Moses, our Father's servant, had commanded Israel's people—as written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, untouched by iron. On it they offered burnt offerings to our Father and sacrificed peace offerings. ³²There, before the Israelites, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which Moses had written. ³³All Israel—foreigner and native-born alike—with elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark, facing the Levitical priests carrying the ark of our Father's covenant. Half faced Mount Gerizim, half faced Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of our Father had earlier commanded, to bless the people of Israel. ³⁴Then he read all the words of the law—blessing and curse—exactly as written in the Book of the Law. ³⁵Joshua read every word Moses had commanded—leaving nothing out—before the whole assembly of Israel: women, children, and the foreigners living among them.