King James VersionJoshua8

Joshua

1 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, nei­ther be thou dis­mayed: take all the peo­ple of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have giv­en into thy hand the king of Ai, and his peo­ple, and his city, and his land: 2 And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jeri­cho and her king: only the spoil there­of, and the cat­tle there­of, shall ye take for a prey unto your­selves: lay thee an am­bush for the city be­hind it. 3 So Joshua arose, and all the peo­ple of war, to go up against Ai: and Joshua chose out thir­ty thou­sand mighty men of val­our, and sent them away by night. 4 And he com­mand­ed them, say­ing, Be­hold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even be­hind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready: 5 And I, and all the peo­ple that are with me, will ap­proach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee be­fore them, 6 (For they will come out af­ter us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee be­fore us, as at the first: there­fore we will flee be­fore them. 7 Then ye shall rise up from the am­bush, and seize upon the city: for the LORD your God will de­liv­er it into your hand. 8 And it shall be, when ye have tak­en the city, that ye shall set the city on fire: ac­cord­ing to the com­mand­ment of the LORD shall ye do. See, I have com­mand­ed you. 9 Joshua there­fore sent them forth: and they went to lie in am­bush, and abode be­tween Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the peo­ple. 10 And Joshua rose up ear­ly in the morn­ing, and num­bered the peo­ple, and went up, he and the el­ders of Is­rael, be­fore the peo­ple to Ai. 11 And all the peo­ple, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came be­fore the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a val­ley be­tween them and Ai. 12 And he took about five thou­sand men, and set them to lie in am­bush be­tween Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 13 And when they had set the peo­ple, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the val­ley. 14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hast­ed and rose up ear­ly, and the men of the city went out against Is­rael to bat­tle, he and all his peo­ple, at a time ap­point­ed, be­fore the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in am­bush against him be­hind the city. 15 And Joshua and all Is­rael made as if they were beat­en be­fore them, and fled by the way of the wilder­ness. 16 And all the peo­ple that were in Ai were called to­geth­er to pur­sue af­ter them: and they pur­sued af­ter Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out af­ter Is­rael: and they left the city open, and pur­sued af­ter Is­rael. 18 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand to­ward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand to­ward the city. 19 And 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 hast­ed and 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 fled to the wilder­ness turned back upon the pur­suers. 21 And when Joshua and all Is­rael saw that the am­bush had tak­en the city, and that the smoke of the city as­cend­ed, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai. 22 And the oth­er 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 the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua. 24 And it came to pass, when Is­rael had made an end of slay­ing all the in­hab­i­tants of Ai in the field, in the wilder­ness where­in they chased them, and when they were all fall­en on the edge of the sword, un­til they were con­sumed, that 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 drew not his hand back, where­with he stretched out the spear, un­til he had ut­ter­ly de­stroyed all the in­hab­i­tants of Ai. 27 Only the cat­tle and the spoil of that city Is­rael took for a prey unto them­selves, ac­cord­ing unto the word of the LORD which he com­mand­ed Joshua. 28 And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ev­er, even a des­o­la­tion unto this day. 29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree un­til even­tide: 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 there­on a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day. 30 Then Joshua built an al­tar unto the LORD God of Is­rael in mount Ebal, 31 As Moses the ser­vant of the LORD com­mand­ed the chil­dren of Is­rael, as it is writ­ten in the book of the law of Moses, an al­tar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they of­fered there­on burnt of­fer­ings unto the LORD, and sac­ri­ficed peace of­fer­ings. 32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the pres­ence of the chil­dren of Is­rael. 33 And all Is­rael, and their el­ders, and of­fi­cers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side be­fore the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Ger­iz­im, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the ser­vant of the LORD had com­mand­ed be­fore, that they should bless the peo­ple of Is­rael. 34 And af­ter­ward 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 that Moses com­mand­ed, which Joshua read not be­fore all the con­gre­ga­tion of Is­rael, with the wom­en, and the lit­tle ones, and the strangers that were con­ver­sant among them.