¹ But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

² And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.

³ And they returned to Joshua, and said to him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labor thither; for they are but few.

⁴ So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.

⁵ And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

⁶ And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.

⁷ And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, why hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? O that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of Jordan.

⁸ O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turn their backs before their enemies!

⁹ For the Canaanites, and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will environ us, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do to thy great name?

¹⁰ And the LORD said to Joshua, Arise; Why liest thou thus upon thy face?

¹¹ Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own goods.

¹² Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

¹³ Rise, sanctify the people, and say, sanctify yourselves against to-morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thy enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

¹⁴ In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to their families: and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by households; and the household which the LORD shall take shall come man by man.

¹⁵ And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

¹⁶ So Joshua rose early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:

¹⁷ And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken:

¹⁸ And he brought his household man by man; and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

¹⁹ And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to him; and tell me now what thou hast done, hide it not from me.

²⁰ And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done.

²¹ When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

²² So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.

²³ And they took them from the midst of the tent, and brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.

²⁴ And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them to the valley of Achor.

²⁵ And Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.

²⁶ And they raised over him a great heap of stones to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger: wherefore the name of that place was called the valley of Achor to this day.

¹ Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, to the LORD in Mizpeh.

² And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

³ (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?

⁴ And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.

⁵ And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.

⁶ And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

⁷ Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.

⁸ And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house:

⁹ But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up by lot against it;

¹⁰ And we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch provisions for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.

¹¹ So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

¹² And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?

¹³ Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and banish evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren, the children of Israel:

¹⁴ But the children of Benjamin assembled out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

¹⁵ And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

¹⁶ Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones to a hair-breadth, and not miss.

¹⁷ And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.

¹⁸ And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

¹⁹ And the children of Israel rose in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

²⁰ And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.

²¹ And the children of Benjamin came forth from Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

²² And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.

²³ (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, go up against him.)

²⁴ And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

²⁵ And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

²⁶ Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the LORD.

²⁷ And the children of Israel inquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

²⁸ And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to-morrow I will deliver them into thy hand.

²⁹ And Israel set liers in wait around Gibeah.

³⁰ And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

³¹ And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

³² And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city to the highways.

³³ And all the men of Israel rose out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.

³⁴ And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was severe: but they knew not that evil was near them.

³⁵ And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjaminites that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men: all these drew the sword.

³⁶ So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjaminites, because they trusted to the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.

³⁷ And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.

³⁸ Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke to rise from the city.

³⁹ And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.

⁴⁰ But when the flame began to rise from the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and behold, the flame of the city ascended to heaven.

⁴¹ And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil had come upon them.

⁴² Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them who came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.

⁴³ Thus they inclosed the Benjaminites on all sides, and chased them, and trod them down with ease over against Gibeah towards the sun-rising.

⁴⁴ And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor.

⁴⁵ And they turned and fled towards the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them to Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.

⁴⁶ So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valor.

⁴⁷ But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness to the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.

⁴⁸ And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.