Joshua 8

The Law Read Aloud to All, Including the Stranger

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The Lord Gives Ai into Joshua’s Hand

8:1The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear or lose heart. Take all the fighting men with you, arise, and go up to Ai. See, I have given the king of Ai and his land into your hands.

8:2Do to Ai as you did to Jericho and its king, and take the livestock as spoil for yourself. Set an ambush behind the city.”

The Ambush Set Behind the City

8:3Joshua and all the fighting people arose to go up to Ai. Joshua selected thirty thousand mighty men and sent them away by night.

8:4He commanded them, “Lie in ambush behind the city. Do not be far from the city, and all of you be ready.

8:5I and everyone with me will approach the city. When Ai’s inhabitants come out to meet us as before, we shall flee before them.

8:6When they come out after us, we shall draw them away from the city. They will say, ‘These men are fleeing before us as before.’

8:7Then rise from the ambush and go into the city.

8:8Act according to this word. See, I have commanded you.”

8:9Joshua sent them away, and they went to the ambush and took their position between Bethel and Ai, west of Ai.

Israel Draws the Men of Ai Out

8:10Joshua rose early in the morning and inspected the people. He and the elders went up before the people toward Ai.

8:11All the fighting people with him went up and came opposite the city from the east,

8:12while the ambush lay west of the city.

8:14When the king of Ai saw, he hurried straight out to meet them in battle, he and all the people with him. He did not know there was an ambush behind the city.

8:15Joshua saw and withdrew, and Israel withdrew before them.

8:16They pursued the sons of Israel and moved away from the city.

8:17No one remained in Ai who did not pursue Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.

The Javelin Stretched Out and the City Taken

8:18The Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out your hand with the javelin you hold toward the city, for I have handed it into your hands. The ambush will rise quickly from its place.” Joshua stretched out his hand, the javelin, toward the city,

8:19and the ambush rose quickly from its place. They came out when he stretched out his hand, went to the city, captured it, and hurried to burn it with fire.

8:20Ai’s inhabitants looked behind them and saw smoke rising from the city toward heaven. They no longer had anywhere to flee, this way or that.

8:21Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that its smoke rose toward heaven. They turned and struck Ai’s men.

8:22The others came out of the city to meet them, and they were caught between the forces, some on this side and some on that. They struck them until no survivor or fugitive remained.

8:23They captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

Ai Destroyed and Its King Hanged

8:24When the sons of Israel finished killing all Ai’s people in the plains and on the mountain, on the descent where they pursued them from it to the end, Joshua returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

8:25Those who fell that day, men and women, were twelve thousand, all Ai’s inhabitants,

8:27except the livestock and the spoil in the city, all of which the sons of Israel took as plunder according to the Lord’s command, as the Lord had directed Joshua.

8:28Joshua burned the city with fire and made it an uninhabited mound forever, as it remains to this day.

8:29He hanged the king of Ai on a forked tree, and he remained on the tree until evening. At sunset Joshua gave the command, and they took his body down from the tree. They threw him into the pit and set a heap of stones over him, which remains to this day.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.