Joshua 8

¹ And the LORDthe LORD 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: lay thee an ambush for the citycity behindbehind it.

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

⁴ And he commandedcommanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the citycity, even 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 (For they will come out afterafter usus) till we have drawn them from the citycity; for they will saysay, They fleeflee beforebefore usus, as at the firstthe first: therefore we will fleeflee beforebefore them.

⁷ Then ye shall rise uprise up from the ambush, and seize upon the citycity: for the LORDthe LORD your GodGod will deliver it into your handhand.

⁸ And it shall be, when ye have taken the citycity, that ye shall set the citycity on firefire: according to the commandmentcommandment of the LORDthe LORD shall ye do. SeeSee, I have commandedcommanded you.

⁹ JoshuaJoshua therefore sentsent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between BethelBethel and AiAi, on the west sideside of AiAi: but JoshuaJoshua lodged that nightnight among the people.

¹⁰ And JoshuaJoshua rose uprose up earlyearly in the morningmorning, and numbered 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 people of warwar that were with him, went up, and drew nighnigh, and camecame before the citycity, and pitchedpitched on the northnorth sideside of AiAi: now there was a valley between them and AiAi.

¹² And he took about five thousand menfive thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between BethelBethel and AiAi, on the west sideside of the citycity.

¹³ And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the northnorth of the citycity, and their liers in wait on the west of the citycity, 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 a time appointed, beforebefore the plainplain; but he wist not that there were liers in 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 AiAi 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 BethelBethel, that went not out afterafter IsraelIsrael: and they left the citycity openopen, and pursuedpursued afterafter IsraelIsrael.

¹⁸ And the LORDthe LORD saidsaid unto JoshuaJoshua, Stretch outStretch out the spearspear that is in thy handhand toward AiAi; for I will givegive it into thine handhand. And JoshuaJoshua stretched outstretched out the spearspear that he had 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 they enteredentered into the citycity, and took it, and 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 other issued 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 chased them, and when they were all fallenfallen on the edge of the swordedge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the IsraelitesIsraelites returnedreturned unto AiAi, and smotesmote it with the edge of the swordedge of the sword.

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

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

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

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

²⁹ And the king of AiAi he hangedhanged on a treetree until eventide: and as soon as the sunsun was downdown, JoshuaJoshua commandedcommanded that they should take his carcasecarcase downdown from the treetree, and cast it at the entering of the gategate of the citycity, and raise thereon a greatgreat heapheap of stonesstones, that remaineth unto this dayday.

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

³¹ As MosesMoses the servantservant of the LORDthe LORD commandedcommanded the childrenchildren of IsraelIsrael, as it is writtenwritten in the bookbook of the law of MosesMoses, an altaraltar of whole stonesstones, over which no man hath lift up any ironiron: and they offered thereon burnt offeringsofferings unto the LORDthe LORD, 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 the arkark and on that sideside before the priestspriests the Levites, which bare the arkark of the covenant of the LORDthe LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; halfhalf of them over against mountmount Gerizim, and halfhalf of them over against mountmount Ebal; as MosesMoses the servantservant of the LORDthe LORD had commandedcommanded before, that they should blessbless the people of IsraelIsrael.

³⁴ And afterward he read all the wordswords of the law, the blessings and cursingscursings, 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 congregationcongregation of IsraelIsrael, with the womenwomen, and the little ones, and the strangersstrangers that were conversant among them.