Joshua 8:15-25

15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.
16 All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city.
17 Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.
18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand.
19 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.
20 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers.
21 For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai.
22 Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives.
23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it.
25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.

Cross References 13

  • 1. Judges 20:36
  • 2. Joshua 15:61; Joshua 16:1; Joshua 18:12
  • 3. Judges 20:31
  • 4. Job 41:26; Psalms 35:3
  • 5. S Exodus 4:2; Exodus 14:16; Exodus 17:9-12
  • 6. ver 26
  • 7. Judges 20:33
  • 8. S ver 8
  • 9. Judges 20:40
  • 10. Judges 20:41
  • 11. Deuteronomy 7:2; Joshua 10:1
  • 12. 1 Samuel 15:8
  • 13. Deuteronomy 20:16-18
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