Joshua 8

And the Lord said to Joshua: Do not fear nor be dismayed. Take with you all the men of war, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hands the king of Ai and his land.

And you shall do to Ai as you did to Jericho and its king; and the plunder of the livestock you shall plunder for yourself. But set for yourself an ambush for the city behind it.

And Joshua arose, and all the fighting people, to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand men mighty in strength, and sent them out by night.

And he commanded them, saying: You shall lie in ambush behind the city; do not be far from the city, and all of you be ready.

And I and all who are with me will approach the city; and it shall be that when the inhabitants of Ai come out to meet us, just as before, we will flee before them.

And when they come out after us, we will draw them away from the city; and they will say: These are fleeing before us, just as formerly.

But you shall rise up out of the ambush and go into the city.

According to this word you shall do. Behold, I have commanded you.

And Joshua sent them, and they went to the ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, on the west of Ai.

And Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people; and he and the elders went up before the people to Ai.

And all the fighting people who were with him went up, and going forward they came opposite the city, from the east.

And the ambush of the city was on the west.

And it happened that when the king of Ai saw it, he hurried and went out straight to meet them for battle, he and all the people with him; and he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

And he saw, and Joshua and Israel withdrew from before them.

And they pursued after the sons of Israel, and they themselves withdrew from the city.

Not one was left in Ai who did not pursue after Israel; and they left the city open and pursued after Israel.

And the Lord said to Joshua: Stretch out your hand with the javelin that is in your hand toward the city, for into your hands I have delivered it; and the ambush shall rise up quickly out of their place. And Joshua stretched out his hand with the javelin toward the city.

And the ambush rose up quickly out of their place and came out when he stretched out his hand; and they came to the city and captured it, and hurrying they burned the city with fire.

And the inhabitants of Ai looked around behind them and saw smoke going up from the city to heaven; and they no longer had anywhere to flee, this way or that.

And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city had gone up to heaven; and turning back they struck the men of Ai.

And these came out of the city to meet them, and they were in the midst of the camp, these on this side and these on that side; and they struck them until none of them was left surviving or escaping.

And they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

And when the sons of Israel finished killing all who were in Ai, those in the plains and on the mountain, on the descent where they pursued them from it, to the very end, then Joshua returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

And those who fell on that day, from man even to woman, were twelve thousand, all the inhabitants of Ai.

Only the livestock and the spoil that were in the city, all these the sons of Israel plundered, according to the command of the Lord, just as the Lord had directed Joshua.

And Joshua burned the city with fire, and made it a mound, uninhabited forever, until this day.

And the king of Ai he hanged on a forked tree, and he was on the tree until evening; and at the setting of the sun Joshua gave orders, and they took down his body from the tree and threw him into the pit, and they raised over him a heap of stones, until this day.