Joshua Chapter 8

Joshua Chapter 8
1 After, the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear
not, neither be thou faint hearted: take all
the men of war with thee and arise, go
up to Ai: behold I have given into thine
hand the king of Ai, and his people, and
his city, and his land. 2 And thou shalt
do to Ai and to the king thereof, as thou
didst unto Jericho and to the king
thereof: nevertheless the spoil thereof
and the cattle thereof shall ye take unto
you for a prey: thou shalt lie in wait
against the city on the backside thereof.
3 Then Joshua arose, and all the men of
war to go up against Ai: and Joshua
chose out thirty thousand strong men,
and valiant, and sent them away by
night.
4 And he commanded them, saying,
Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the
city on the backside of the city: go not
very far from the city, but be ye all in a
readiness.
5 And I and all the people that are with
me, will approach unto the city: and
when they shall come out against us, as
they did at the first time, then will we
flee before them.
6 For they will come out after us, till we
have brought them out of the city: for
they will say, They flee before us as at
the first time: so we will flee before
them.
7 Then you shall rise up from lying in
wait and destroy the city: for the Lord
your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 And when ye have taken the city, ye
shall set it on fire: according to the
commandment of the Lord shall ye do:
behold, I have charged you. 9 Joshua
then sent them forth, and they went to lie
in wait, and abode between Beth-el 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
he and the elders of Israel went up
before the people against Ai. 11 Also
all the men of war that were with him
went up and drew near, and came
against the city, and pitched on the north
side of Ai: and there was a valley
between them and Ai.
12 And he took about five thousand men,
and set them to lie in wait between Bethel
and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13 And the people set all the host that
was on the north side against the city,
and the liars in wait on the west, against
the city: and Joshua went the same night
into the midst of the valley.
14 And when the king of Ai saw it, then
the men of the city hasted and rose up
early, and went out against Israel to
battle, he and all his people at the time
appointed, before the plain: for he knew
not that any lay in wait against him on
the backside of the city.
15 Then Joshua and all Israel as beaten
before them, fled by the way of the
wilderness.
16 And all the people of the city were
called together, to pursue after them: and
they pursued after Joshua, and were
drawn away out of the city, 17 So that
there was not a man left in Ai, nor in
Beth-el, that went not out after Israel:
and they left the city open, and pursued
after Israel.
18 Then the Lord said unto Joshua,
Stretch out the spear that is in thine 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 they that lay in wait, arose
quickly out of their place, and 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 the men of Ai looked behind
them, and saw it: for lo, the smoke of the
city ascended up to heaven, and they had
no power to flee this way or that way:
for the people that fled to the
wilderness, turned back upon the
pursuers. 21 When Joshua and all Israel
saw that they that lay in wait, had taken
the city, and that the smoke of the city
mounted up, then they turned again and
slew the men of Ai.
22 Also the other issued out of the city
against them: so were they in the midst
of Israel, these being on the one side,
and the rest on the other side: and they
slew them, so that they let none of them
remain nor escape.
23 And the king of Ai they took alive,
and brought him to Joshua. 24 And when
Israel had made an end of slaying all the
inhabitants of Ai in the field, that is, in
the wilderness, where they chased them,
and when they were all fallen on the
edge of the sword, until they were
consumed, all the Israelites returned unto
Ai, and smote it with the edge of the
sword.
25 And 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
again which he had stretched out with
the spear, until he had utterly destroyed
all the inhabitants of Ai. 27 Only the
cattle and the spoil of this city, Israel
took for a prey unto themselves,
according unto the word of the Lord,
which he commanded Joshua.
28 And Joshua burned Ai, and made it
an heap forever, and a wilderness unto
this day.
29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a
tree, unto the evening. And as soon as
the sun was down, Joshua commanded
that they should take his carcass down
from the tree, and cast it at the entering
of the gate of the city, and lay 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 had commanded the children of
Israel, as it is written in the book of the
law of Moses, an altar of whole stone,
over which no man had lift an iron: and
they offered thereon burnt offerings unto
the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.
32 Also he wrote there upon the stones,
a rehearsal 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 of the ark, and on that side, before
the priests of the Levites, which bear the
ark of the covenant of the Lord) as well
the stranger, as he that is born in the
country: half of them were 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 Then 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 had commanded,
which Joshua read not before all the
congregation of Israel, as well before
the women and the children, as the
stranger that was conversant among
them.