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JOSHUA 9
from them, 7 you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the
Lord your God will give it to you. 8 Set the town
on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You have
your orders.”
9 So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai.
But Joshua remained among the people in
the camp that night. 10 Early the next morning
Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai,
accompanied by the elders of Israel. 11 All the
fighting men who were with Joshua marched in
front of the town and camped on the north side
of Ai, with a valley between them and the town.
12 That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie
in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west
side of the town. 13 So they stationed the main
army north of the town and the ambush west
of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in
the valley.
14 When the king of Ai saw the Israelites
across the valley, he and all his army hurried
out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley.*
But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town. 15 Joshua and the Israelite army
fled toward the wilderness as though they were
badly beaten. 16 Then all the men in the town
were called out to chase after them. In this way,
they were lured away from the town. 17 There
was not a man left in Ai or Bethel* who did not
chase after the Israelites, and the town was left
wide open.
18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Point the
spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the
town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded. 19 As soon as Joshua gave this signal,
all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly
captured it and set it on fire.
20 When the men of Ai looked behind them,
smoke from the town was filling the sky, and
they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who
had fled in the direction of the wilderness now
turned on their pursuers. 21 When Joshua and
all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had
succeeded and that smoke was rising from the
town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai.
22 Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the
town came out and attacked the enemy from
the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the
middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides.
Israel attacked them, and not a single person
survived or escaped. 23 Only the king of Ai was
taken alive and brought to Joshua.
24 When the Israelite army finished chasing
and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields,
they went back and finished off everyone inside.
25 So the entire population of Ai, including men
and women, was wiped out that day—12,000 in
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all. 26 For Joshua kept holding out his spear until
everyone who had lived in Ai was completely
destroyed.* 27 Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these as plunder for themselves, as
the Lord had commanded Joshua. 28 So Joshua
burned the town of Ai,* and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.
29 Joshua impaled the king of Ai on a sharpened pole and left him there until evening. At
sunset the Israelites took down the body, as
Joshua commanded, and threw it in front of
the town gate. They piled a great heap of stones
over him that can still be seen today.
The LORD’s Covenant Renewed
30 Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God
of Israel, on Mount Ebal. 31 He followed the commands that Moses the Lord’s servant had written in the Book of Instruction: “Make me an altar
from stones that are uncut and have not been
shaped with iron tools.”* Then on the altar they
presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to
the Lord. 32 And as the Israelites watched, Joshua
copied onto the stones of the altar* the instructions Moses had given them.
33 Then all the Israelites—foreigners and
native-born alike—along with the elders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups.
One group stood in front of Mount Gerizim, the
other in front of Mount Ebal. Each group faced
the other, and between them stood the Levitical
priests carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant.
This was all done according to the commands
that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had previously given for blessing the people of Israel.
34 Joshua then read to them all the blessings
and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction. 35 Every word of every command that
Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them.
The Gibeonites Deceive Israel
Now all the kings west of the Jordan River
heard about what had happened. These
were the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,
who lived in the hill country, in the western
foothills,* and along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea* as far north as the Lebanon mountains. 2 These kings combined their armies to
fight as one against Joshua and the Israelites.
3 But when the people of Gibeon heard what
Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, 4 they resorted to deception to save themselves. They
9
8:14 Hebrew the Arabah. 8:17 Some manuscripts lack
or Bethel. 8:26 The Hebrew term used here refers to the
complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either
by destroying them or by giving them as an offering. 8:28 Ai
means “ruin.” 8:31 Exod 20:25; Deut 27:5-6. 8:32 Hebrew
onto the stones. 9:1a Hebrew the Shephelah. 9:1b Hebrew
the Great Sea.