1
The LORD said to Yehoshua, Don't be afraid, neither be dismayed: take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to `Ai; behold, I have given into your hand the king of `Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land;
2
You shall do to `Ai and her king as you did to Yericho and her king: only the spoil of it, and the cattle of it, shall you take for a prey to yourselves: set you an ambush for the city behind it.
3
So Yehoshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to `Ai: and Yehoshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.
4
He commanded them, saying, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city; don't go very far from the city, but be all ready:
5
and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them;
6
and they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: so we will flee before them;
7
and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city: for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.
8
It shall be, when you have seized on the city, that you shall set the city on fire; according to the word of the LORD shall you do: behold, I have commanded you.
9
Yehoshua sent them forth; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Beit-El and `Ai, on the west side of `Ai: but Yehoshua lodged that night among the people.
10
Yehoshua arose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the Zakenim of Yisra'el, before the people to `Ai.
11
All the people, [even] the [men of] war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of `Ai: now there was a valley between him and `Ai.
12
He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Beit-El and `Ai, on the west side of the city.
13
So they set the people, even all the host who was on the north of the city, and their liers-in-wait who were on the west of the city; and Yehoshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14
It happened, when the king of `Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Yisra'el to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the `Aravah; but he didn't know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15
Yehoshua and all Yisra'el made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16
All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Yehoshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17
There was not a man left in `Ai or Beit-El, who didn't go out after Yisra'el: and they left the city open, and pursued after Yisra'el.
18
The LORD said to Yehoshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward `Ai; for I will give it into your hand. Yehoshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
19
The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it; and they hurried and set the city on fire.
20
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 who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.
21
When Yehoshua and all Yisra'el saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of `Ai.
22
The others came forth out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Yisra'el, some on this side, and some on that side: and they struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23
The king of `Ai they took alive, and brought him to Yehoshua.
24
It happened, when Yisra'el had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of `Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Yisra'el returned to `Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.
25
All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of `Ai.
26
For Yehoshua didn't draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of `Ai.
27
Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Yisra'el took for prey to themselves, according to the word of the LORD which he commanded Yehoshua.
28
So Yehoshua burnt `Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.
29
The king of `Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening: and at the going down of the sun Yehoshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, to this day.