1
Now the LORDsaid to Joshua, "Do not fear or be dismayed. Takeall the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.
2
"You shall do to Ai and its kingjust as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall takeonly its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the citybehind* it."
6
"They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeingbefore us as at the first.' So we will fleebefore them.
8
"Then it will be when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it according to the word of the LORD. See, I have commanded you."
9
So Joshuasent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remainedbetweenBethel and Ai, on the westside of Ai; but Joshuaspent that nightamong the people.
11
Then all the people of warwho were with him went up and drewnear and arrived in front of the city, and camped on the northside of Ai. Now there was a valleybetween him and Ai.
13
So they stationed the people, all the army that was on the northside of the city, and its rearguard on the westside of the city, and Joshuaspent that night in the midst of the valley.
14
It came about when the king of Aisaw it, that the men of the cityhurried and rose up early and went out to meetIsrael in battle, he and all his people at the appointedplacebefore the desertplain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind* the city.
18
Then the LORDsaid to Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin that is in your handtowardAi, for I will give it into your hand." So Joshuastretched out the javelin that was in his handtoward the city.
19
The men in ambushrosequickly from their place, and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they quicklyset the city on fire.
20
When the men of Aiturnedback and looked, behold, the smoke of the cityascended to the sky, and they hadnoplace to fleethisway or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wildernessturnedagainst the pursuers.
21
When Joshua and allIsraelsaw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the cityascended, they turnedback and slew the men of Ai.
22
The otherscame out from the city to encounter them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, some on thisside and some on that side; and they slew them untilno one was left of those whosurvived or escaped.
24
Now when Israel had finishedkillingall the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wildernesswhere they pursued them, and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sworduntil they were destroyed, then allIsraelreturned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
29
He hanged the king of Ai on a treeuntilevening; and at sunset*Joshuagavecommand and they took his bodydown from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the citygate, and raisedover it a greatheap of stones that stands to thisday.