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¹ And the LORD said to Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, 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 her king, as thou didst to Jericho and her king: only its spoil, and its cattle, shall ye take for a prey to yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.

³ So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and sent them away by night.⁴ And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, [even] behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready:⁵ And I, and all the people that [are] with me, will approach to the city: and it shall come to pass when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them,⁶ (For they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before them.⁷ Then ye shall rise from the ambush and seize upon the city: for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand,⁸ And it shall be when ye have taken the city, [that] ye shall set the city on fire: according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.⁹ Joshua therefore sent them forth; and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.

¹⁸ And the LORD said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear that [is] in thy hand towards Ai; for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that [he had] in his hand towards the city.¹⁹ And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted, and set the city on fire.²⁰ And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.²¹ And 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 slew the men of Ai.²² And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³ And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.²⁴ And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they chased them, and when they had all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.²⁵ And [so] it was, [that] all that fell that day, both of men and women, [were] twelve thousand, [even] all the men of Ai.²⁶ For Joshua drew not his hand back with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.²⁷ Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey to themselves, according to the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua.²⁸ And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap for ever, [even] a desolation to this day.²⁹ And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise upon it a great heap of stones, [that remaineth] to this day.

³⁰ Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal,³¹ As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lifted up [any] iron: and they offered upon it burnt-offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace-offerings.³² And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.³³ And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark, and on that side, before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.³⁴ And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.