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          DASV: Joshua 8    

1 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid or get discouraged.
Take all the fighting men with you and go up against Ai.
See, I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people,
his town and his land.
2 You will do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its
king except you may take its plunder and its cattle for yourselves.
Set an ambush behind the city."

3 So Joshua and all the fighting men went up against Ai.
Joshua chose thirty thousand valiant warriors, and sent them
out at night.
4 He told them, "Look, you will set an ambush against the town,
behind it. Do not go very far from the town, but all of you be ready.
5 I, and all the troops that are with me, will approach the town.
When they come out against us, as before, we will flee before them.
6 Then they will come out after us until we have lured them away
from the town, for they will say, 'They flee before us, as before.'
So we will indeed flee from them.
7 Then you will rise up from the ambush and capture the town.
For the LORD your God will give it into your control.
8 After you have seized the town, set the town on fire, doing what
the LORD has commanded. See, I have given you orders."

9 So Joshua sent them out and they went and hid in ambush between
Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua spent that
night with the troops.
10 Joshua got up early the next morning, mustered the troops,
and went up, he and the leaders of Israel, at the front of
the troops to Ai.
11 Then all the troops that were with him, went up and drew near
before the town, and camped on the north side of Ai with a
valley between them and Ai.
12 He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush
between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the town.
13 So they set the troops in position, the main force was north
of the town, and the ambush west of the town. Joshua spent
that night in the valley.

14 When the king of Ai saw it, he and his army quickly got up
early the next day and went out against Israel in battle
at a place overlooking the Arabah valley. But he was
unaware that there was an ambush against him behind the town.
15 Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated before
them and fled in the direction of the wilderness.
16 So all the people that were in the town were ordered to chase
after them. So they pursued after Joshua and were lured out
of the town.
17 There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase
after Israel. They left the town open, and pursued Israel.
18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Point the spear that is in
your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand."
So Joshua pointed the spear that was in his hand toward the town.
19 As soon as he stretched out his hand, the troops hiding in
ambush quickly rose out of their hiding place and attacked.
They entered the town, captured it and quickly set the town on fire.

20 When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw the smoke
from the town rising into the sky. They were unable to flee
one way or the other for the troops who had fled to the
wilderness now turned back on those chasing them.
21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken
the town, and that smoke was rising from it, they turned
around and struck down the men of Ai.
22 The others who captured the town came out of it against them,
so they were surrounded by Israelites, on both sides.
They struck them down so that none survived or escaped.
23 But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him
to Joshua.

24 When Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants
of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they had chased them,
and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel
returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.
25 Twelve thousand fell that day, both men and women,
the total population of Ai.
26 For Joshua kept holding out his hand with the spear until
he had completely destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27 But Israel took the cattle and the plunder of that town for
themselves, according to the word of the LORD that he had
commanded Joshua.
28 So Joshua burned Ai, and made it a permanent ruin,
as it is to this day.
29 The king of Ai was hung on a tree until the evening and
at sunset Joshua gave the order and they took his body down
from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the town gate,
and raised a great pile of stones over it, which remains
there to this day.

30 Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel,
on mount Ebal,
31 just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites.
It is written in the scroll of the law of Moses, "an altar
of uncut stones, upon which no one had ever used an iron tool."
They offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings
on it to the LORD.
32 Then in the presence of the Israelites he wrote on the stones
a copy of the law of Moses which he had written.
33 All Israel, their elders, officers and judges, along with
the foreigner and native born stood on both sides of the ark
in front of the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the
covenant of the LORD. Half of them stood in front of Mount
Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses
the servant of the LORD had previously commanded, that they
should bless the people of Israel.
34 Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings
and the curses, according to all that is written in the scroll
of the law.
35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua
did not read before all the assembly of Israel, including the women,
children and the foreigners who lived among them.

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