Joshua
8
1 2
3 4 5
6 7 8
9 10 11
12 13 14
15 16 17
18 19
20 21 22
23 24
1 And the LORD said
unto 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 unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and
the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto 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 valour, 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 unto 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 up 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 Bethel and Ai, on the
west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.
10 And Joshua rose up early in the
morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of
Israel, before the people to Ai.
11 And all the people, even the
people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and
came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there
was a valley between them and Ai.
12 And he took about five thousand
men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side
of the city.
13 And when they had set the people,
even all the host that was on the north of the city, and
their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into
the midst of the valley.
14 And it came to pass, when the
king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men
of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a
time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there were
liers in ambush against him behind the city.
15 And Joshua and all Israel made as
if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16 And all the people that were
in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after
Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17 And there was not a man left in
Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open,
and pursued after Israel.
18 And the LORD said unto Joshua,
Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will
give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had
in his hand toward 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 up 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 wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the
edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites
returned unto 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, wherewith 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 unto themselves, according unto the word
of the LORD which he commanded Joshua.
28 And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it
an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day.
29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a
tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded
that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the
entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of
stones, that remaineth unto this day.
30 Then Joshua built an
altar unto 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 lift up any
iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto 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 the ark and on that
side before the priests the Levites, which bare 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.
Return to Bible Index Page
|