¹ Höret, was der HERR mit euch redet, ihr Kinder Israel, nämlich mit allen Geschlechtern, die ich aus Ägyptenland geführet habe, und sprach:

² Aus allen Geschlechtern auf Erden hab ich allein euch erkannt; darum will ich auch euch heimsuchen in all eurer Missetat.

³ Mögen auch zween miteinander wandeln, sie seien denn eins untereinander?

⁴ Brüllet auch ein Löwe im Walde, wenn er keinen Raub hat? Schreiet auch ein junger Löwe aus seiner Höhle, er habe denn etwas gefangen?

⁵ Fällt auch ein Vogel in den Strick auf der Erde, da kein Vogler ist? Hebt man auch den Strick auf von der Erde, der noch nichts gefangen hat?

⁶ Bläset man auch die Posaune in einer Stadt, da sich das Volk davor nicht entsetze? Ist auch ein Unglück in der Stadt, das der HERR nicht tue?

⁷ Denn der HERR HERR tut nichts, er offenbare denn sein Geheimnis den Propheten, seinen Knechten.

⁸ Der Löwe brüllet; wer sollte sich nicht fürchten? Der HERR HERR redet; wer sollte nicht weissagen?

⁹ Verkündiget in den Palästen zu Asdod und in den Palästen im Lande Ägypten und sprechet: Sammelt euch auf die Berge Samaria und sehet, welch ein groß Zetergeschrei und Unrecht drinnen ist!

¹⁰ Sie achten keines Rechten, spricht der HERR, sammeln Schätze von Frevel und Raube in ihren Palästen.

¹¹ Darum spricht der HERR HERR also: Man wird dies Land ringsumher belagern und dich von deiner Macht herunterreißen und deine Häuser plündern.

¹² So spricht der HERR: Gleichwie ein Hirt dem Löwen zwei Kniee oder ein Ohrläpplein aus dem Maul reißet, also sollen die Kinder Israel herausgerissen werden, die zu Samaria wohnen und haben in der Ecke ein Bett und zu Damaskus eine Sponde.

¹³ Höret und zeuget im Hause Jakobs, spricht der HERR HERR, der Gott Zebaoth.

¹⁴ Denn zur Zeit, wenn ich die Sünde Israels heimsuchen werde, will ich die Altäre zu Bethel heimsuchen und die Hörner des Altars abbrechen, daß sie zu Boden fallen sollen.

¹⁵ Und will beide, Winterhaus und Sommerhaus, schlagen; und sollen die elfenbeinernen Häuser untergehen und viel Häuser verderbet werden, spricht der HERR.

¹ Yahweh said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid, neither be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land.

² You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except its spoil and its livestock, you shall take for a plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it."

³ So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.

⁴ He commanded them, saying, "Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don't go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.

⁵ I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them.

⁶ They will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, 'They flee before us, like the first time.' So we will flee before them,

⁷ and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand.

⁸ It shall be, when you have seized on the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to the word of Yahweh. Behold, I have commanded you."

⁹ Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night.

¹⁰ Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.

¹¹ All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.

¹² He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

¹³ So they set the people, even all the army who was on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

¹⁴ It happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn't know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

¹⁶ All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

¹⁷ There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who didn't go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.

¹⁸ Yahweh said to Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹ The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it. They hurried and set the city on fire.

²⁰ When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

²¹ When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai.

²² The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³ They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴ It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

²⁵ All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

²⁶ For Joshua didn't draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

²⁷ Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of Yahweh which he commanded Joshua.

²⁸ So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.