Joshua 8

¹ YahwehYahweh saidsaid to JoshuaJoshua, "Don't be afraidafraid, neither be dismayed. Take all the people of warwar with you, and arisearise, go upgo up to AiAi. Behold, I have givengiven into your handhand the king of AiAi, with his people, his citycity, and his landland.

² You shall do to AiAi and her king as you did to JerichoJericho and her king, except its spoilspoil and its livestock, you shall take for a plunderplunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the citycity behindbehind it."

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

⁴ He commandedcommanded them, saying, "Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the citycity, behindbehind the citycity. Don't gogo very far from the citycity, but all of you be ready.

⁵ I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the citycity. It shall happen, when they come out against usus, as at the firstthe first, that we will fleeflee beforebefore them.

⁶ They will come out afterafter usus, until we have drawn them away from the citycity; for they will saysay, 'They fleeflee beforebefore usus, like the firstthe first time.' So we will fleeflee beforebefore them,

⁷ and you shall rise uprise up from the ambush, and take possession of the citycity; for YahwehYahweh your GodGod will deliver it into your handhand.

⁸ It shall be, when you have seized on the citycity, that you shall set the citycity on firefire. You shall do this according to the wordthe word of YahwehYahweh. Behold, I have commandedcommanded you."

⁹ JoshuaJoshua sentsent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between BethelBethel and AiAi, on the west sideside of AiAi; but JoshuaJoshua stayed among the people that nightnight.

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

¹¹ All the people, even the men of warwar who were with him, went up, and drew nearnear, and camecame before the citycity, and encampedencamped on the northnorth sideside of AiAi. Now there was a valley between him and AiAi.

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

¹³ So they set the people, even all the army who was on the northnorth of the citycity, and their ambush on the west of the citycity; and JoshuaJoshua went that nightnight into the midstmidst of the valleyvalley.

¹⁴ It happened, when the king of AiAi sawsaw it, that they hurriedhurried 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 didn't knowknow that there was an ambush against him behindbehind the citycity.

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

¹⁶ All the people who were in the citycity were called together to pursuepursue afterafter them. They pursuedpursued JoshuaJoshua, and were drawn away from the citycity.

¹⁷ There was not a manman left in AiAi or Beth ElBeth El who didn't go outgo out afterafter IsraelIsrael. They left the citycity openopen, and pursuedpursued IsraelIsrael.

¹⁸ YahwehYahweh saidsaid to JoshuaJoshua, "Stretch outStretch out the javelinjavelin that is in your handhand toward AiAi, for I will givegive it into your handhand." JoshuaJoshua stretched outstretched out the javelinjavelin that was in his handhand toward the citycity.

¹⁹ 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. They hurriedhurried and set the citycity on firefire.

²⁰ 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. The people who fledfled to the wildernesswilderness turnedturned back on the pursuers.

²¹ 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 killed the men of AiAi.

²² The others came out of the citycity against them, so they were in the midstmidst of IsraelIsrael, some on this sideside, and some on that sideside. They struckstruck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³ They captured the king of AiAi alive, and brought him to JoshuaJoshua.

²⁴ It happened, when IsraelIsrael had made an end of killing all the inhabitantsthe inhabitants of AiAi in the fieldfield, in the wildernesswilderness in which they pursuedpursued them, and they had all fallenfallen by the edge of the swordedge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all IsraelIsrael returnedreturned to AiAi, and struckstruck it with the edge of the swordedge of the sword.

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

²⁶ For JoshuaJoshua didn't draw backback his handhand, with which he stretched outstretched out the javelinjavelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitantsthe inhabitants of AiAi.

²⁷ Only the livestock and the spoilspoil of that citycity IsraelIsrael took for prey to themselves, according to the wordthe word of YahwehYahweh which he commandedcommanded JoshuaJoshua.

²⁸ So JoshuaJoshua burnt AiAi, and made it a heap foreverforever, even a desolation, to this dayday.

²⁹ He hangedhanged the king of AiAi on a treetree until the eveningevening, and at the sundown JoshuaJoshua commandedcommanded, and they took his bodybody downdown from the treetree, and threw it at the entranceentrance of the gategate of the citycity, and raised a greatgreat heapheap of stonesstones on it that remains to this dayday.

³⁰ Then JoshuaJoshua builtbuilt an altaraltar to YahwehYahweh, the GodGod of IsraelIsrael, in MountMount Ebal,

³¹ as MosesMoses the servantservant of YahwehYahweh commandedcommanded the childrenchildren of IsraelIsrael, as it is writtenwritten in the bookbook of the law of MosesMoses, an altaraltar of uncut stonesstones, on which no man had lifted up any ironiron. They offered burnt offeringsofferings on it to YahwehYahweh, and sacrificed peacepeace offeringsofferings.

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

³³ 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, who carried the arkark of YahwehYahweh's covenant, the foreignerforeigner as well as the native; halfhalf of them in front of MountMount Gerizim, and halfhalf of them in front of MountMount Ebal, as MosesMoses the servantservant of YahwehYahweh had commandedcommanded at the firstthe first, that they should blessbless the people of IsraelIsrael.

³⁴ 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 didn't read before all the assemblyassembly of IsraelIsrael, with the womenwomen, the little ones, and the foreignersforeigners who were among them.