Joshua 8

1And YHWH says to Joshua, “Do not fear, nor be frightened, 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,

2and you have done to Ai and to her king as you have done to Jericho and to her king; only spoil its spoil and its livestock for yourselves; for you set an ambush for the city at its rear.”

3And Joshua rises, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai, and Joshua chooses thirty thousand men, mighty men of valor, and sends them away by night,

4and commands them, saying, “See, you are ones lying in wait against the city, at the rear of the city, you do not go very far off from the city, and all of you have been prepared,

5and I and all the people who [are] with me draw near to 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,

6and they have come out after us until 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,

7and you rise from the ambush, and have occupied the city, and your God YHWH has given it into your hand;

8and it has been, when you capture the city, you burn the city with fire, you do according to the word of YHWH, see, I have commanded you.”

9And Joshua sends them away, and they go to 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.

10And Joshua rises early in the morning, and inspects the people, and goes up, he and [the] elderly of Israel, before the people to Ai;

11and all the people of war who [are] with him have gone up, and draw near and come in before the city, and encamp on the north of Ai; and the valley [is] between him and Ai.

12And he takes about five thousand men, and sets them [for] an ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city;

13and 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 that night Joshua goes on into the midst of the valley.

14And it comes to pass, when the king of Ai sees [it], that he hurries, and rises early, and the men of the city go out to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people, at the appointed time, at the front of the plain, and he has not known that an ambush [is] against him, on the rear of the city.

15And Joshua and all Israel [seem] struck before them, and flee the way of the wilderness,

16and 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,

17and there has not been a man left in Ai and Bethel who has not gone out after Israel, and they leave the city open, and pursue after Israel.

18And YHWH says to Joshua, “Stretch out with the javelin which [is] in your hand toward Ai, for I give it into your hand”; and Joshua stretches out with the javelin which [is] in his hand toward the city,

19and 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 hurry, and burn the city with fire.

20And the men of Ai look behind them, and see, and behold, the smoke of the city has gone up to the heavens, and there has not been power in them to flee here and there—and the people who are fleeing to the wilderness have turned against the pursuer—

21and 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 strike the men of Ai;

22and 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 [side], and they strike them until he has not left a remnant and escaped one to them;

23and they have caught the king of Ai alive, and bring him near to Joshua.

24And 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 all of them fall by the mouth of the sword until their consumption), that all of Israel turns back to Ai, and strikes it by the mouth of the sword;

25and all who fall during the day, of men and of women, are twelve thousand—all men of Ai.

26And Joshua has not brought back his hand which he stretched out with the javelin until he has devoted all the inhabitants of Ai;

27only the livestock and the spoil of that city has Israel spoiled for themselves, according to the word of YHWH which He commanded Joshua.

28And Joshua burns Ai, and makes it a continuous heap—a desolation to this day;

29and he has hanged the king of Ai on the tree until evening, and at the going in of the sun Joshua has commanded, and they take down his carcass from the tree, and cast it to the opening of the gate of the city, and raise a great heap of stones over it until this day.

30Then Joshua builds an altar to YHWH, God of Israel, in Mount Ebal,

31as Moses, servant of YHWH, commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the Scroll of the Law of Moses—an altar of whole stones, over which he has not waved iron—and they cause burnt-offerings to go up on it to YHWH, and sacrifice peace-offerings;

32and he writes there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he has written in the presence of the sons of Israel.

33And all Israel, and its elderly, and authorities, and his judges, are standing on this [side] and on that [side] of the Ark, before the priests, the Levites, carrying the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH, the sojourner as well as the native, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and the half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses servant of YHWH had commanded to bless the people of Israel at the first.

34And afterward he has proclaimed all the words of the Law, the blessing and the reviling, according to all that is written in the Scroll of the Law;

35there 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.