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Joshua 8:1-29 — The Defeat of Ai

Josh.8.1-29

¹Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take with you all the fighting men, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.” ²You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only this time you may take its spoil and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it." ³So Joshua arose, and all the fighting men, to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty warriors and sent them out by night. ⁴He commanded them, saying, “Look, you are to lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, and all of you must be ready.” ⁵“Then I and all the people with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us, as before, we will flee before them.” ⁶“They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as before.' So we will flee before them.” ⁷“Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for Yahweh your God will give it into your hand.” ⁸“And when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it according to the word of Yahweh. See, I have commanded you.” ⁹So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and stayed between Bethel and Ai, west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people. ¹⁰Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people. Then he and the elders of Israel went up before the people toward Ai. ¹¹And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near and came before the city, and they camped north of Ai, with the valley between them and Ai. ¹²And he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. ¹³So they stationed the people, all the camp north of the city, and its rear west of the city. And that night Joshua went into the middle of the valley. ¹⁴And when the king of Ai saw it, they hurried and rose early, and the men of the city went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people, to the appointed place before the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. ¹⁵Joshua and all Israel allowed themselves to be driven back before them, and they fled by the way of the wilderness. ¹⁶Then all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued Israel. ¹⁸Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹And the ambush rose quickly from its place, and as soon as he stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. Then they hurried and set the city on fire. ²⁰When the men of Ai turned behind them, they saw that the smoke of the city was rising to the heavens. And they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who had fled to the wilderness turned against the pursuers. ²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city was rising, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. ²²And these came out from the city to meet them, so that the men of Ai were in the middle of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And they struck them down until no survivor or fugitive was left. ²³But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. ²⁴And when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open country, in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the sword until they were gone, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the sword. ²⁵And all who fell that day, from man to woman, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. ²⁶Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he had stretched out the javelin until he had devoted to destruction all the inhabitants of Ai. ²⁷Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as plunder for themselves, according to the word of Yahweh that he had commanded Joshua. ²⁸So Joshua burned Ai and made it an everlasting heap, a desolation to this day. ²⁹And he hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his corpse down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised over it a great heap of stones, which remains to this day.

Translation Notes

4/11/2026

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