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Joshua 8

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1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Fear not, and be· not ·dismayed. Take with thee all the people of war and arise, go·​·up to Ai; see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.

2 And thou shalt do to Ai and to her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king; only her spoil and her beasts shall you plunder for yourselves; set for thee an ambush for the city from behind it.

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

4 And he commanded them, saying, See, you shall set·​·an·​·ambush against the city, from behind the city; be· not very ·far from the city; but be ye prepared, all of you.

5 And I, and all the people that are with me, shall come·​·near to the city. And it shall be, when they come·​·out to meet us, as at the first, that we shall flee before them.

6 And they will come·​·out after us, until we have pulled· them ·away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us as the first time; and we will flee before them.

7 And you shall rise·​·up from the ambush and take·​·possession·​·of the city; and Jehovah your God will give it into your hand.

8 And it shall be when you have occupied the city, that you shall kindle the city with fire; according·​·to the word of Jehovah you shall do; see, I have commanded you.

9 And Joshua sent them; and they went to the ambush, and sat between Bethel and Ai, on the west of Ai. But Joshua passed·​·the·​·night on that night in the midst of the people.

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

11 And all the people of war that were with him went up, and approached, and came over against the city, and encamped on the north of Ai; and there was a ravine between him and Ai.

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

13 And they set the people, all the camp which was on the north of the city, and those who would supplant on the west of the city; and Joshua went on that night into the midst of the valley.

14 And it was, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hastened and got·​·up·​·early, and the men of the city went out to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people, at the time·​·appointed, facing the desert; but he knew not that there was an ambush·​·set against him from behind the city.

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

16 And all the people who were in the city were called·​·up to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua and were pulled·​·away from the city.

17 And there was not a man left in Ai and Bethel, that went not out after Israel, and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.

18 And Jehovah said unto Joshua, Stretch·​·out with the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai; for into thy hand I will give it. And Joshua stretched·​·out with the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

19 And the ambush· that had been ·set rose·​·up in haste out of its place, and they ran as he stretched·​·out his hand, and came into the city, and captured it; and they hastened and kindled the city with fire.

20 And the men of Ai turned· their ·faces behind them, and they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city went·​·up to the heavens, and they had no power* to flee hither and thither; and the people who fled to the wilderness turned on the pursuers.

21 And Joshua and all Israel saw that those who had set·​·an·​·ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, and they turned·​·back and smote the men of Ai.

22 And these went·​·out from the city to meet them; and they were in the midst of Israel, these on this side and those on that side; and they smote them, until there was· not ·left of them any who survived or escaped.

23 And the king of Ai they caught alive, and brought· him ·near to Joshua.

24 And it was, when Israel had completed killing all those who dwelt·​·in Ai who were in the field, in the wilderness into which they had pursued them, and all of them had fallen to the mouth of the sword until they were entirely consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and smote her with the mouth of the sword.

25 And all who fell that day, from man even·​·to woman, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai.

26 And Joshua turned· not ·back his hand which he stretched·​·out with the javelin until he had doomed all who dwelt·​·in Ai.

27 Only the beast and the spoil of that city Israel plundered for themselves, according to the word of Jehovah which He commanded Joshua.

28 And Joshua burnt·​·up Ai, and set her as an eternal mound, a desolation to this day.

29 And the king of Ai he hanged on the tree until the time of the evening, and at the setting* of the sun Joshua commanded and they took·​·down his carcass from the tree and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised on it a great heap of stones, until this day.

30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal,

31 as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of whole stones upon which no one has moved* any iron; and they offered·​·up on it burnt·​·offerings unto Jehovah, and sacrificed peace·​·offerings.

32 And he wrote there on the stones a second copy* of the law of Moses, which he wrote before the sons of Israel.

33 And all Israel, and their elders and the officers and their judges, stood on this side and that side of the ark in·​·front·​·of the priests, the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as the sojourner, so the native; half of them were next·​·to Mount Gerizim, and half of them next·​·to Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded at the first to bless the people Israel.

34 And after that, he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the cursing, according·​·to all that was written in the book of the law.

35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not in·​·the·​·presence·​·of all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the infants, and the sojourner who walked in the midst of them.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Sojourn

  

It is fitting that to “sojourn” in the Bible -- to live in a foreign land -- represents instruction, learning the things represented by that area. This is used quite a bit in the early parts of the Bible, when Abraham and his immediate descendants sojourned in a variety of foreign places. It arises also later in the Old Testament, with the Israelites given rules on how to treat sojourners in their midst.

The sojourner is a person who is willing to learn and accept new spiritual truths. That's in contrast to the term "stranger", as used in the Bible. A stranger has a natural inclination to good, but is not willing to learn spiritual truths. There is a long history of using travel to round out an education, from the 19th-century “world tours” taken by Oxford and Cambridge graduates to the exchange programs and semesters abroad offered in modern school programs. The idea is pretty straightforward: by immersing ourselves in other cultures we can both learn about them and deepen our minds.