The Capture and Destruction of Ai

¹The Lord said to Joshua, “Take all the soldiers with you and go on up to Ai. Don't be afraid or discouraged. I will give you victory over the king of Ai; his people, city, and land will be yours.

²You are to do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, but this time you may keep its goods and livestock for yourselves. Prepare to attack the city by surprise from the rear.”

³So Joshua got ready to go to Ai with all his soldiers. He picked out thirty thousand of his best troops and sent them out at night

⁴with these orders: “Hide on the other side of the city, but not too far away from it; be ready to attack.

⁵My men and I will approach the city. When the men of Ai come out against us, we will turn and run, just as we did the first time.

⁶They will pursue us until we have led them away from the city. They will think that we are running from them, as we did before.

⁷Then you will come out of hiding and capture the city. The Lord your God will give it to you.

⁸After you have taken the city, set it on fire, just as the Lord has commanded. These are your orders.”

⁹So Joshua sent them out, and they went to their hiding place and waited there, west of Ai, between Ai and Bethel. Joshua spent the night in camp.

¹⁰Early in the morning Joshua got up and called the soldiers together. Then he and the leaders of Israel led them to Ai.

¹¹The soldiers with him went toward the main entrance to the city and set up camp on the north side, with a valley between themselves and Ai.

¹²He took about five thousand men and put them in hiding west of the city, between Ai and Bethel.

¹³The soldiers were arranged for battle with the main camp north of the city and the rest of the men to the west. Joshua spent the night in the valley.

¹⁴When the king of Ai saw Joshua's men, he acted quickly. He and all his men went out toward the Jordan Valley to fight the Israelites at the same place as before, not knowing that he was about to be attacked from the rear.

¹⁵Joshua and his men pretended that they were retreating, and ran away toward the barren country.

¹⁶All the men in the city had been called together to go after them, and as they pursued Joshua, they kept getting farther away from the city.

¹⁷Every man in Ai went after the Israelites, and the city was left wide open, with no one to defend it.

¹⁸Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Point your spear at Ai; I am giving it to you.” Joshua did as he was told,

¹⁹and as soon as he lifted his hand, the men who had been hiding got up quickly, ran into the city and captured it. They immediately set the city on fire.

²⁰When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke rising to the sky. There was no way for them to escape, because the Israelites who had run toward the barren country now turned around to attack them.

²¹When Joshua and his men saw that the others had taken the city and that it was on fire, they turned around and began killing the men of Ai.

²²The Israelites in the city now came down to join the battle. So the men of Ai found themselves completely surrounded by Israelites, and they were all killed. No one got away, and no one lived through it

²³except the king of Ai. He was captured and taken to Joshua.

²⁴The Israelites killed every one of the enemy in the barren country where they had chased them. Then they went back to Ai and killed everyone there.

^25-26Joshua kept his spear pointed at Ai and did not put it down until every person there had been killed. The whole population of Ai was killed that day—twelve thousand men and women.

²⁷The Israelites kept for themselves the livestock and goods captured in the city, as the Lord had told Joshua.

²⁸Joshua burned Ai and left it in ruins. It is still like that today.

²⁹He hanged the king of Ai from a tree and left his body there until evening. At sundown Joshua gave orders for the body to be removed, and it was thrown down at the entrance to the city gate. They covered it with a huge pile of stones, which is still there today.

The Law Is Read at Mount Ebal

³⁰Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel.

³¹He made it according to the instructions that Moses, the Lord's servant, had given the Israelites, as it says in the Law of Moses: “an altar made of stones which have not been cut with iron tools.” On it they offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord, and they also presented their fellowship offerings.

³²There, with the Israelites looking on, Joshua made on the stones a copy of the Law which Moses had written.

³³The Israelites, with their leaders, officers, and judges, as well as the foreigners among them, stood on two sides of the Lord's Covenant Box, facing the levitical priests who carried it. Half of the people stood with their backs to Mount Gerizim and the other half with their backs to Mount Ebal. The Lord's servant Moses had commanded them to do this when the time came for them to receive the blessing.

³⁴Joshua then read aloud the whole Law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the book of the Law.

³⁵Every one of the commandments of Moses was read by Joshua to the whole gathering, which included women and children, as well as the foreigners living among them.

The Gibeonites Deceive Joshua

¹The victories of Israel became known to all the kings west of the Jordan—in the hills, in the foothills, and all along the coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea as far north as Lebanon; these were the kings of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

²They all came together and joined forces to fight against Joshua and the Israelites.

³But the people of Gibeon, who were Hivites, heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

⁴and they decided to deceive him. They went and got some food and loaded their donkeys with worn-out sacks and patched-up wineskins.

⁵They put on ragged clothes and worn-out sandals that had been mended. The bread they took with them was dry and moldy.

⁶Then they went to the camp at Gilgal and said to Joshua and the Israelites, “We have come from a distant land. We want you to make a treaty with us.”

⁷But the Israelites said, “Why should we make a treaty with you? Maybe you live nearby.”

⁸They said to Joshua, “We are at your service.” Joshua asked them, “Who are you? Where do you come from?”

⁹Then they told him this story: “We have come from a very distant land, sir, because we have heard of the Lord your God. We have heard about everything that he did in Egypt

¹⁰and what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan: King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

¹¹Our leaders and all the people that live in our land told us to get some food ready for a trip and to go and meet you. We were told to put ourselves at your service and ask you to make a treaty with us.

¹²Look at our bread. When we left home with it and started out to meet you, it was still warm. But look! Now it is dry and moldy.

¹³When we filled these wineskins, they were new, but look! They are torn. Our clothes and sandals are worn out from the long trip.”

¹⁴The Israelites accepted some food from them, but did not consult the Lord about it.

¹⁵Joshua made a treaty of friendship with the people of Gibeon and allowed them to live. The leaders of the community of Israel gave their solemn promise to keep the treaty.

¹⁶Three days after the treaty had been made, the Israelites learned that these people did indeed live nearby.

¹⁷So the people of Israel started out and three days later arrived at the cities where these people lived: Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim.

¹⁸But the Israelites could not kill them, because their leaders had made a solemn promise to them in the name of the Lord, Israel's God. All the people complained to the leaders about this,

¹⁹but they answered, “We have made our solemn promise to them in the name of the Lord God of Israel. Now we cannot harm them.

²⁰We must let them live because of our promise; if we don't, God will punish us.

²¹Let them live, but they will have to cut wood and carry water for us.” This was what the leaders suggested.

²²Joshua ordered the people of Gibeon to be brought to him, and he asked them, “Why did you deceive us and tell us that you were from far away, when you live right here?

²³Because you did this, God has condemned you. Your people will always be slaves, cutting wood and carrying water for the sanctuary of my God.”

²⁴They answered, “We did it, sir, because we learned that it was really true that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to kill the people living in it as you advanced. We did it because we were terrified of you; we were in fear of our lives.

²⁵Now we are in your power; do with us what you think is right.”

²⁶So this is what Joshua did: he protected them and did not allow the people of Israel to kill them.

²⁷But at the same time he made them slaves, to cut wood and carry water for the people of Israel and for the Lord's altar. To this day they have continued to do this work in the place where the Lord has chosen to be worshiped.

A Prayer for Deliverance

¹When the Lord brought us back to Jerusalem, it was like a dream!

²How we laughed, how we sang for joy! Then the other nations said about us, “The Lord did great things for them.”

³Indeed he did great things for us; how happy we were!

⁴Lord, make us prosperous again, just as the rain brings water back to dry riverbeds.

⁵Let those who wept as they planted their crops, gather the harvest with joy!

⁶Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed will come back singing for joy, as they bring in the harvest.