Joshua 8

¹ And JehovahJehovah saidsaid unto JoshuaJoshua, Fear notFear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of warwar with thee, and arisearise, go upgo up to AiAi; seesee, I have givengiven into thy handhand the king of AiAi, and his people, and his citycity, and his landland;

² And thou shalt do to AiAi and her king as thou didst unto JerichoJericho and her king: only the spoilspoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: set thee an ambush for the citycity behindbehind it.

³ So JoshuaJoshua arose, and all the peoplepeople of warwar, to go upgo up to AiAi: and JoshuaJoshua chose out thirtythirty thousandthousand menmen, the mighty menmighty men of valorvalor, and sentsent them forth by nightnight.

⁴ And he commandedcommanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in ambush against the citycity, behindbehind the citycity; gogo not very far from the citycity, but be ye all ready:

⁵ and I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the citycity. And it shall come to pass, when they come out against usus, as at the firstthe first, that we will fleeflee beforebefore them;

⁶ and they will come out afterafter usus, till we have drawn them away from the citycity; for they will saysay, They fleeflee beforebefore usus, as at the firstthe first: so we will fleeflee beforebefore them;

⁷ and ye shall rise uprise up from the ambush, and take possession of the citycity: for JehovahJehovah your GodGod will deliver it into your handhand.

⁸ And it shall be, when ye have seized upon the citycity, that ye shall set the citycity on firefire; according to the wordthe word of JehovahJehovah shall ye do: seesee, I have commandedcommanded you.

⁹ And JoshuaJoshua sentsent them forth; and they went to the ambushment, and abode between Beth-elBeth-el and AiAi, on the west sideside of AiAi: but JoshuaJoshua lodged that nightnight among the people.

¹⁰ And JoshuaJoshua arose up earlyearly in the morningmorning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israelelders of Israel, beforebefore the people to AiAi.

¹¹ And all the people, [even] the [men of] warwar that were with him, went up, and drew nighnigh, and camecame before the citycity, and encampedencamped on the northnorth sideside of AiAi: now there was a valley between him and AiAi.

¹² And he took about five thousand menfive thousand men, and set them in ambush between Beth-elBeth-el and AiAi, on the west sideside of the citycity.

¹³ So they set the people, even all the host that was on the northnorth of the citycity, and their liers-in-wait that were on the west of the citycity; and JoshuaJoshua went that nightnight into the midstmidst of the valleyvalley.

¹⁴ And it came to pass, when the king of AiAi sawsaw it, that they hastedhasted and rose uprose up earlyearly, and the men of the citycity went out against IsraelIsrael to battlebattle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, beforebefore the Arabah; but he knewknew not that there was an ambush against him behindbehind the citycity.

¹⁵ And JoshuaJoshua and all IsraelIsrael made as if they were beaten beforebefore them, and fledfled by the wayway of the wildernesswilderness.

¹⁶ And all the people that were in the citycity were called together to pursuepursue afterafter them: and they pursuedpursued afterafter JoshuaJoshua, and were drawn away from the citycity.

¹⁷ And there was not a manman left in AiAi or Beth-elBeth-el, that went not out afterafter IsraelIsrael: and they left the citycity openopen, and pursuedpursued afterafter IsraelIsrael.

¹⁸ And JehovahJehovah saidsaid unto JoshuaJoshua, Stretch outStretch out the javelinjavelin that is in thy handhand toward AiAi; for I will givegive it into thy handhand. And JoshuaJoshua stretched outstretched out the javelinjavelin that was in his handhand toward the citycity.

¹⁹ And the ambush arose quicklyquickly out of their placeplace, and they ran as soon as he had stretched outstretched out his handhand, and enteredentered into the citycity, and took it; and they hastedhasted and set the citycity on firefire.

²⁰ And when the men of AiAi looked behindbehind them, they sawsaw, and, behold, the smokesmoke of the citycity ascended up to heavenheaven, and they had no power to fleeflee this wayway or that wayway: and the people that fledfled to the wildernesswilderness turnedturned back upon the pursuers.

²¹ And when JoshuaJoshua and all IsraelIsrael sawsaw that the ambush had taken the citycity, and that the smokesmoke of the citycity ascended, then they turnedturned again, and slew the men of AiAi.

²² And the others came forth out of the citycity against them; so they were in the midstmidst of IsraelIsrael, some on this sideside, and some on that sideside: and they smotesmote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³ And the king of AiAi they took alive, and brought him to JoshuaJoshua.

²⁴ And it came to pass, when IsraelIsrael had made an end of slaying all the inhabitantsthe inhabitants of AiAi in the fieldfield, in the wildernesswilderness wherein they pursuedpursued them, and they were all fallenfallen by the edge of the swordedge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all IsraelIsrael returnedreturned unto AiAi, and smotesmote it with the edge of the swordedge of the sword.

²⁵ And all that fellfell that dayday, bothboth of menmen and womenwomen, were twelve thousandthousand, even all the menmen of AiAi.

²⁶ For JoshuaJoshua drew not backback his handhand, wherewith he stretched outstretched out the javelinjavelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitantsthe inhabitants of AiAi.

²⁷ Only the cattle and the spoilspoil of that citycity IsraelIsrael took for prey unto themselves, according unto the wordthe word of JehovahJehovah which he commandedcommanded JoshuaJoshua.

²⁸ So JoshuaJoshua burnt AiAi, and made it a heap for everever, even a desolation, unto this dayday.

²⁹ And the king of AiAi he hangedhanged on a treetree until the eventide: and at the going downdown of the sunsun JoshuaJoshua commandedcommanded, and they took his bodybody downdown from the treetree, and cast it at the entranceentrance of the gategate of the citycity, and raised thereon a greatgreat heapheap of stonesstones, unto this dayday.

³⁰ Then JoshuaJoshua builtbuilt an altaraltar unto JehovahJehovah, the GodGod of IsraelIsrael, in mountmount Ebal,

³¹ as MosesMoses the servantservant of JehovahJehovah commandedcommanded the childrenchildren of IsraelIsrael, as it is writtenwritten in the bookbook of the law of MosesMoses, an altaraltar of unhewn stonesstones, upon which no man had lifted up any ironiron: and they offered thereon burnt-offeringsofferings unto JehovahJehovah, and sacrificed peacepeace-offeringsofferings.

³² And he wrotewrote there upon the stonesstones a copy of the law of MosesMoses, which he wrotewrote, in the presence of the childrenchildren of IsraelIsrael.

³³ And all IsraelIsrael, and their elderselders and officers, and their judgesjudges, stoodstood on this sideside of the arkark and on that sideside before the priestspriests the Levites, that bare the arkark of the covenant of JehovahJehovah, as well the sojournersojourner as the homeborn; halfhalf of them in front of mountmount Gerizim, and halfhalf of them in front of mountmount Ebal; as MosesMoses the servantservant of JehovahJehovah had commandedcommanded at the firstthe first, that they should blessbless the people of IsraelIsrael.

³⁴ And afterward he read all the wordswords of the law, the blessing and the cursecurse, according to all that is writtenwritten in the bookbook of the law.

³⁵ There was not a wordword of all that MosesMoses commandedcommanded, which JoshuaJoshua read not before all the assemblyassembly of IsraelIsrael, and the womenwomen, and the little ones, and the sojournerssojourners that were among them.