1 ARST Then Yahweh said to Joshua,“Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take with you all the soldiers you have and go there again. Go up to Ai. See! I am giving you victory over the king of Ai, and you will capture his people, and his city, and his land. BSB BSB: Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. See, I have delivered into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.
2 ARST Your army will do to the people of Ai and their king like what you did to the people of Jericho and their king. But this time I will permit you to take all their possessions and keep them for yourselves. But first, tell some of your soldiers to hide behind the city and prepare to attack it.” BSB BSB: And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.”
3 ARST So Joshua led all his army toward Ai. He chose thirty thousand men— his strongest men, men known for their bravery in battle— and he sent them out during the night. BSB BSB: So Joshua and the whole army set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out at night
4 ARST He said to them,“Pay attention! Some of you must prepare a surprise attack on the city— an attack formed behind the city. Do not go far from the city. All of you get ready to attack. BSB BSB: with these orders: “Pay attention. You are to lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it. All of you must be ready.
5 ARST I and the men who are with me will march toward the city in the morning. The men in the city will come out to fight us, as they did before. Then we will turn around and start to run away from them. BSB BSB: Then I and all the troops with me will advance on the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them.
6 ARST They will think that we are running away from them like we did before. So they will chase us away from the city. While we are running away from them, BSB BSB: They will pursue us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ So as we flee from them,
7 ARST those of you who are hiding must come out and rush into the city and capture it. Yahweh, your God, will give the city to you. BSB BSB: you are to rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 ARST After you capture the city, burn it. Do what Yahweh has commanded us to do. Those are the orders I am giving to you.” BSB BSB: And when you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do as the LORD has commanded! See, I have given you orders.”
9 ARST Then Joshua prepared to send some of them to hide and wait between Ai and Bethel, which was west of Ai. But Joshua slept that night among the main force of soldiers. BSB BSB: So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
10 ARST Early the next morning, Joshua gathered his soldiers together. He led the soldiers and the other Israelite leaders; they all went to attack the people of Ai. BSB BSB: Joshua got up early the next morning and mobilized his men, and he and the elders of Israel marched before them up to Ai.
11 ARST They all set up their tents close to Ai, just to the north of the city, where all the people of the city could see them. There was a valley between them and the city of Ai. BSB BSB: Then all the troops who were with him marched up and approached the city. They arrived in front of Ai and camped to the north of it, with the valley between them and the city.
12 ARST Joshua had taken about five thousand men and told them to go and stay hidden so they could make a surprise attack, just west of the city, between Ai and Bethel. BSB BSB: Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set up an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
13 ARST So those men did that. The main group of soldiers was north of the city, and the others were hiding west of the city. That night Joshua went down into the valley. BSB BSB: So the forces were stationed with the main camp to the north of the city and the rear guard to the west of the city. And that night Joshua went into the valley.
14 ARST When the king of Ai saw the Israelite army, he and his soldiers got up early the next morning and quickly went out of the city to fight them. They went to a place east of the city, and from there they could look over the plain of the Jordan River, but they did not know that some Israelite soldiers were hiding ready to attack them from behind the city. BSB BSB: When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, he hurried out early in the morning with the men of the city to engage them in battle at an appointed place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set up against him behind the city.
15 ARST Joshua and the Israelite soldiers who were with him allowed the army of Ai to push them back. And the army of Israel ran toward the wilderness. BSB BSB: Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.
16 ARST The men in Ai were ordered to chase after Joshua and his men. So they left the city and pursued Joshua and his army. BSB BSB: Then all the men of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they followed Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
17 ARST All the men of Ai and the men of Bethel pursued the Israelite army. They did not leave even one man in Ai to defend it. And they left the city gates wide open as they went to pursue after the soldiers of Israel. BSB BSB: Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, leaving the city wide open while they pursued Israel.
18 ARST Then Yahweh said to Joshua,“Lift up your spear and point it toward Ai, because I am going to enable your soldiers to capture it!” So Joshua pointed his spear toward Ai. BSB BSB: Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out your battle lance toward Ai, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out his battle lance toward Ai,
19 ARST When the Israelite men who were hiding saw that, they rushed out from the places where they were hiding and ran into the city. They captured it and quickly set it on fire. BSB BSB: and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.
20 ARST When the men of Ai looked back, they saw smoke rising from their city. But they could not escape, because the Israelite troops stopped running away and had turned around and now were facing the army that had been coming after them. BSB BSB: When the men of Ai turned and looked back, the smoke of the city was rising into the sky. They could not escape in any direction, and the troops who had fled to the wilderness now turned against their pursuers.
21 ARST Joshua and his men saw that the men who had been hiding had captured the city and were burning it, and they saw the smoke rising. So they turned back and began killing the men of Ai. BSB BSB: When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.
22 ARST Meanwhile, the soldiers who had captured the city came out and attacked them from the rear. So the men of Ai were surrounded by the two groups of Israelite soldiers. None of the men of Ai escaped. The Israelites fought until they killed all of them. BSB BSB: Meanwhile, those in the ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the Israelite forces on both sides. So Israel struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained.
23 ARST But they captured the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua. BSB BSB: But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 ARST While they were fighting, the Israelite army pursued the men of Ai into the fields and into the wilderness, and killed all of them. Then they went to Ai and killed everyone and anything still alive there. BSB BSB: When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and put it to the sword as well.
25 ARST They killed twelve thousand men and women on that day. They killed all the people of Ai. BSB BSB: A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.
26 ARST Joshua continued to point his spear toward Ai until all the people in Ai had been killed. BSB BSB: Joshua did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction all who lived in Ai.
27 ARST The Israelite soldiers took for themselves the animals and the other things that had belonged to the people of Ai, just as Yahweh had told Joshua that they should do. BSB BSB: Israel took for themselves only the cattle and plunder of that city, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.
28 ARST Joshua and his soldiers burned Ai and caused it to become a pile of ruins forever. It is an abandoned place even today. BSB BSB: So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.
29 ARST Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree and left his corpse hanging there until the evening. At sunset Joshua told his men to take the king’ s body down from the tree and to throw it where the city gate had been. After they did that, they made a great mound of rocks on top of his body. That pile of rocks is still there to this day. BSB BSB: He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And over it they raised a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.
32 ARST As the Israelites watched, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the laws that Yahweh had given to Moses. BSB BSB: And there in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.
33 ARST The Israelite leaders, the officials, the judges, and other Israelites were there, standing on either side of the sacred chest. All the people stood, facing the priests and Levites who carried the sacred chest. Many people who were not Israelites were also there. Half of the people stood on one side of the valley below Mount Ebal, and the other half of the people stood on the other side of the valley below Mount Gerizim. The sacred chest was in the valley between the two groups. And they blessed the people of Israel just as Moses the servant of Yahweh had told them to do, at the very first. BSB BSB: All Israel, foreigners and citizens alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded earlier, to bless the people of Israel.
34 ARST Then Joshua read to the people all that Moses had written previously. That included what Yahweh had taught them and the ways that he promised to bless them if they obeyed his commands, or to curse them if they disobeyed them. BSB BSB: Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.
35 ARST Joshua carefully read all the commands that Moses had given; he read every word in front of the entire assembly of Israel. All the women and the little children were there as well, and also the foreigners who were living among the people of Israel. BSB BSB: There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who lived among them.
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