Joshua 8:2-22

2You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall 1take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. 2Set an ambush for the city behind it.”

3So Joshua rose with all the people of war to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them out at night. 4He commanded them, saying, “See, you are 3going to ambush the city from behind 4it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 5Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as at the first, 5we will flee before them. 6They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ So we will flee before them. 7And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. 8Then it will be when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it 6according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.” 9So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people.

10Now Joshua 7rose early in the morning and mustered the people, and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai. 11Then all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and arrived in front of the city, and camped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai. 12And he took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between 8Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the 9city. 13So they stationed the people, all the army that was on the north side of the city, and its rear guard on the west side of the city, and Joshua spent that night in the midst of the valley. 14It came about when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place before the desert plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them, and fled 10by the way of the wilderness. 16And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and 11were drawn away from the city. 17So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel, and they left the city 12unguarded and pursued Israel.

18Then the Lord said to Joshua, “13Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 19The men in ambush rose quickly from their place, and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they quickly set the city on fire. 20When the men of Ai turned 14back and looked, behold, the smoke of the city ascended to the sky, and they had no place to flee this way or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against the pursuers. 21When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and 15slew the men of Ai. 2216The others came out from the city to encounter them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, 17some on this side and some on that side; and they 18slew them until 19no one was left 20of those who survived or escaped.