Joshua 8–9

Ai Is Destroyed

8Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the fighting men^a with you and go up immediately to Ai.^b Look, I am giving into your hand the king of Ai, his city, and his land. ²You will do to Ai and its king that which you did to Jericho and its king; you may take only its spoils^c and livestock as booty for yourself. Set for yourself an ambush against the city from behind it.”

³So Joshua and all the fighting men^d went up immediately to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand of the best fighting men and sent them by night. ⁴And he commanded them, saying, “Look, you are to lay an ambush against the city from behind. Do not go very far from the city and be ready. ⁵Then I and all of the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they go out to meet us as before,^e we will flee from them.^{f 6}They will come out after us until we draw them away from the city, because they will think, ‘They are fleeing from us^g as before.’^h So we will flee from them.^{i 7}Then you will rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Yahweh your God will give it into your hand. ⁸And when you capture the city you will set it on fire as Yahweh commanded. Look, I have commanded you.” ⁹So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of the ambush, and they sat between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; but Joshua spent the night with the people.^j

¹⁰Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people, and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people of Ai.^{k 11}All the fighting men^l who were with him went up and drew near before the city^m and camped north of Ai; there was a valley between him and Ai. ¹²And he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³So they stationed the forces; all the army was north of the city while the rear guard was west.ⁿ But Joshua went that night to the middle of the valley. ¹⁴When the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out to meet Israel for battle—he^o and all his army—to the meeting place before the Arabah.^p He did not know that there was an ambush for him behind the city. ¹⁵Then Joshua and all Israel acted like they were beaten before them, and they fled in the direction of the wilderness.^{q 16}All of the people who were in the city were called to pursue after them. As they pursued after Joshua, they were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued after Israel.

¹⁸And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out the sword^r that is in your hand to Ai, because I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the sword that was in his hand to the city. ¹⁹The moment he stretched out his hand, those in the ambush stood up quickly from their place and ran. And they went into the city and captured it, quickly setting the city ablaze with fire. ²⁰Then the men of Ai looked behind them, and they saw smoke from the city rising to the sky; they had no power to flee this way or that,^s and the people fleeing the wilderness turned around to the pursuers.^{t 21}And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city was rising; they returned and struck down the men of Ai. ²²Then the others from the city came out to meet them, and they found themselves surrounded by Israel,^u some on one side, and others on the other side.^v And they^w struck them down until no survivor or fugitive was left. ²³But they captured the king of Ai alive, and they brought him to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the open field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword^x until they all had perished, all Israel returned to Ai and attacked it with the edge of the sword.^{y 25}All the people that fell on that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand—all the inhabitants of Ai. ²⁶For Joshua did not draw back his hand that was stretched out with the sword until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. ²⁷Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of Yahweh that Joshua commanded. ²⁸So Joshua burned Ai and made it an everlasting heap of rubbish, a desolate place until this day. ²⁹The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the time of evening, and as the sun went down Joshua commanded them, and they brought down his dead body from the tree. Then they threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and they raised over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.

Israel Renews the Covenant

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal for Yahweh the God of Israel, ³¹as Moses Yahweh’s servant commanded the Israelites,^z as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses: “an altar of unhewn^a stones on which no one has wielded^b an iron implement.”^c And they offered burnt offerings on it and sacrificed fellowship offerings. ³²And there Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he^d had written, in the presence of the Israelites.^{e 33}Then all Israel, foreigner as well as native,^f with the elders, officials, and judges stood on either side^g of the ark before the priests and the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim, and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses Yahweh’s servant had commanded before to bless the people of Israel. ³⁴And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings^h and the curses,ⁱ according to all that was written in the scroll of the law. ³⁵There was not a word from all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before the assembly of all Israel, and the women, the little children, and the traveling foreigners^j among them.

The Gibeonites Act with Cunning

9Now^a when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the Shephelah,^b and on all the coast of the great sea toward Lebanon^c—the Hittites,^d the Amorites,^e the Canaanites,^f the Perizzites,^g the Hivites,^h and the Jebusitesⁱ—heard of this, ²they gathered themselves together to fight with one accord against^j Joshua and Israel.

³But the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua did to Jericho and Ai, ⁴and they acted on their part with cunning: they went and prepared provisions,^k and took worn-out sacks^l for their donkeys and old wineskins that were torn and mended. ⁵The sandals on their feet were patched and old, their clothes were old, and their food was dry and crumbled. ⁶And they went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far land; so then make a covenant with us.”^{m 7}And the men of Israel said to the Hivites,ⁿ “Perhaps you are living among us; how can we make a covenant^o with you?” ⁸They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you, and from where do you come?” ⁹And they said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far land because of the name of Yahweh your God; we have heard of his reputation, of all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰and of all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan—to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who was in Ashtaroth. ¹¹So our elders said to us and all the inhabitants of our land, ‘Take in your hand provisions for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; so then make a covenant with us.” ’^{p 12}This is our bread; it was hot when we took it from our houses as provisions on the day we set out to come to you. But now, look, it is dry and crumbled. ¹³These are the wineskins that we filled new, but look, they have burst; and these are our clothes and sandals that have worn out from the very long journey.” ¹⁴So the leaders^q took from their provisions, but they did not ask direction from Yahweh.^{r 15}And Joshua made peace with them, and he made a covenant with them^s to allow them to live happily, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

¹⁶And it happened that at the end of three days, after they made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors^t and living among them. ¹⁷And the Israelites^u set out and went to their cities on the third day (their cities were Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim). ¹⁸But the Israelites^v did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh the God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against their leaders.^{w 19}But all the leaders of the congregation said, “We have sworn to them by Yahweh the God of Israel, and so we cannot touch them. ²⁰This we will do to them: we will let them live so that wrath will not be on us because of the oath we swore to them.” ²¹And the leaders^x said to them, “Let them live.” So they became woodcutters and water carriers for all the congregation, just as the leaders had said to them.

²²And Joshua summoned them and said, “Why have you deceived us saying, ‘We are very far from you’ when you are living among us? ²³Therefore you are cursed; some of you will always be slaves as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.” ²⁴And they answered Joshua and said, “Because it was told with certainty to your servants that Yahweh your God commanded Moses his servant to give to you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you, so we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and so we did this thing. ²⁵So then, look, we are in your hand; do with us whatever seems good and right in your eyes.” ²⁶So he did this to them: he saved them from the hand of the Israelites,^y and they did not kill them. ²⁷And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of Yahweh, to this day, in the place that he should choose.