Joshua 8–9

Chapter 8

¹And Jehovah said to Joshua, Fear not, neither be dismayed. Take with thee all the people of war, 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. ²And thou shalt do to Ai and to its king as thou didst to Jericho and to its king; only, the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take as prey for yourselves. Set an ambush against the city behind it.

³And Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand valiant men, and sent them away by night. ⁴And he commanded them, saying, See, ye shall be in ambush against the city, behind the city: go not very far from the city, and be all of you ready. ⁵And I and all the people that are with me will approach to the city; and it shall come to pass when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them. ⁶And 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; and we will flee before them. ⁷And ye shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city; and Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand. ⁸And it shall be when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire; according to the word of Jehovah shall ye do. See, I have commanded you. ⁹And Joshua sent them forth; and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west of Ai. And Joshua lodged that night among the people. ¹⁰And Joshua rose early in the morning, and inspected the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. ¹¹And all the people of war that were with him went up, and drew near, and came before the city; and they encamped on the north of Ai; and the valley was between them and Ai. ¹²Now he had taken about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city. ¹³And when they had set the people, the whole camp on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. ¹⁴And it came to pass when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hasted and rose early, and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the appointed place before the plain. But he knew not that there was an ambush against him behind the city. ¹⁵And Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten before them; and they fled by the way of the wilderness. ¹⁶And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷And not a man remained in Ai and Bethel that went not out after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel. ¹⁸And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that he had in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹And the ambush arose quickly from their place, and they ran when he stretched out his hand, and came into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire. ²⁰And the men of Ai turned and saw, and behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way; and the people that fled to the wilderness turned upon the pursuers. ²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, they turned again, and slew the men of Ai. ²²And the others went 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, until they let none of them escape or flee away.

²³And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua. ²⁴And it came to pass when Israel had ended slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they had chased them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. ²⁵And so it was, that all who fell that day, men as well as women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. ²⁶And Joshua did not draw back his hand, which he had stretched out with the javelin, until they had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. ²⁷Only, the cattle and the spoil of the city Israel took as prey to themselves, according to the word of Jehovah which he had commanded Joshua. ²⁸And Joshua burned Ai, and made it an everlasting heap of desolation to this day. ²⁹And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening; and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his carcase down from the tree, and threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised upon it a great heap of stones, which remains to this day.

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah the God of Israel, in mount Ebal, ³¹as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which iron had not been lifted up. And they offered up burnt-offerings on it to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace-offerings. ³²And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written before the children of Israel. ³³And all Israel, and their elders, and their officers and judges, stood on this side and on that side of the ark before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the stranger as the home-born Israelite; half of them toward mount Gerizim, and the other half of them toward mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded, that they should bless the people of Israel, in the beginning. ³⁴And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. ³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua read not before the whole congregation of Israel, and the women, and the children, and the strangers that lived among them.

Chapter 9

¹And it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side the Jordan, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and along all the coast of the great sea as far as opposite to Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it, ²that they assembled together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.

³And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, ⁴then they also acted with craft, and they went prepared as on a journey, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine-flasks, old and rent and tied up; ⁵and old and patched sandals upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. ⁶And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said to him, and to the men of Israel, From a far country are we come; and now make a covenant with us. ⁷And the men of Israel said to the Hivite, Perhaps thou dwellest in the midst of us, and how should I make a covenant with thee? ⁸And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said to them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? ⁹And they said to him, From a very far country are thy servants come, because of the name of Jehovah thy God; for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og the king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. ¹¹And our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, Take victuals in your hand for the way, and go to meet them, and say to them, We are your servants, and now make a covenant with us. ¹²This our bread we took warm for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; and now, behold, it is dry, and is become mouldy. ¹³And these flasks of wine which we filled new, behold, they are rent; and these our garments and our sandals are become old by reason of the very long journey. ¹⁴And the men took of their victuals, but they did not inquire at the mouth of Jehovah.

¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the princes of the assembly swore unto them. ¹⁶And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt in their midst. ¹⁷And the children of Israel journeyed, and came to their cities on the third day; and their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. ¹⁸And the children of Israel did not smite them, because the princes of the assembly had sworn unto them by Jehovah the God of Israel. Then all the assembly murmured against the princes. ¹⁹And all the princes said to all the assembly, We have sworn unto them by Jehovah the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them. ²⁰This we will do to them, and let them live, lest wrath come upon us, because of the oath which we swore unto them. ²¹And the princes said to them, Let them live. And they were hewers of wood and drawers of water for all the assembly; as the princes had said to them.

²²And Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, Why have ye deceived us, saying, We are very far from you; whereas ye dwell in our midst? ²³And now ye are cursed, and ye shall never cease to be bondmen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water for the house of my God. ²⁴And they answered Joshua and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants how that Jehovah thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; and we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and did this thing. ²⁵And now behold, we are in thy hand: as it is good and right in thine eyes to do to us, do. ²⁶And he did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of…