17
And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel that did not go out after Israel; and because they pursued after Israel, they left the city open.
18
Then the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that
is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that
he had in his hand toward the city.
19
And those of the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand; and they entered into the city and took it and made haste to set the city on fire.
20
And 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 that were fleeing into the wilderness turned back upon their pursuers.
21
Then Joshua and all Israel, seeing that those of the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned and slew the men of Ai.
22
And the others issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side; and they smote them so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23
And they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24
And when Israel had finished slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were consumed, all the Israelites returned unto Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword.
25
And so it was
that all that fell that day, both of men and women,
were twelve thousand,
even all the men of Ai.
26
For Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27
But the Israelites took the beasts and the spoil of the city for themselves, according unto the word of the LORD which he had commanded Joshua.
28
And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a perpetual heap, desolate unto this day.
29
And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city and raise a great heap of stones upon it,
that remains unto this day.
30
Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal,
31
as Moses, the slave, of the LORD had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no one lifted up
any iron
tool; and they offered burnt offerings upon it unto the LORD and sacrificed peace
offerings.
32
He also wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the sons of Israel.
33
And all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on one side and on the other near the ark, before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the strangers, as well as the natural
born among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses, the slave of the LORD, had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.
34
After this he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
35
There was not a word of all the things that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers that walked among them.