Joshua 8–9

Chapter 8

The Conquest of Ai

¹Now the Lord said to Joshua, “^aDo not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, ^bI have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

²“You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall ^atake only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. ¹Set an ambush for the city behind it.”

³So Joshua rose with all the people of war to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them out at night.

⁴He commanded them, saying, “See, you are ^agoing to ambush the city from behind ¹it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.

⁵“Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as at the first, ^awe will flee before them.

⁶“They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ So we will flee before them.

⁷“And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.

⁸“Then it will be when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it ^aaccording to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.”

⁹So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people.

¹⁰Now Joshua ^arose early in the morning and mustered the people, and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai.

¹¹Then all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and arrived in front of the city, and camped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.

¹²And he took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between ^aBethel and Ai, on the west side of the ¹city.

¹³So they stationed the people, all the army that was on the north side of the city, and its rear guard on the west side of the city, and Joshua spent that night in the midst of the valley.

¹⁴It came about when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place before the desert plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

¹⁵Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them, and fled ^aby the way of the wilderness.

¹⁶And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and ^awere drawn away from the city.

¹⁷So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel, and they left the city ¹unguarded and pursued Israel.

¹⁸Then the Lord said to Joshua, “^aStretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹The men in ambush rose quickly from their place, and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they quickly set the city on fire.

²⁰When the men of Ai turned ¹back and looked, behold, the smoke of the city ascended to the sky, and they had no place to flee this way or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against the pursuers.

²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and ¹slew the men of Ai.

²²¹The others came out from the city to encounter them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, ²some on this side and some on that side; and they ³slew them until ^ano one was left ⁴of those who survived or escaped.

²³But they took alive the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴Now when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

^25aAll who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000—all the ¹people of Ai.

²⁶For Joshua ^adid not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had ¹utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

^27aIsrael took only the cattle and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua.

²⁸So Joshua burned Ai and made it ^aa heap forever, a desolation until this day.

^29aHe hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; and at sunset Joshua gave command and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and raised over it a great heap of stones that stands to this day.

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in ^aMount Ebal,

³¹just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, ^aan altar of uncut stones on which no man had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.

³²He ^awrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which ¹he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel.

^33aAll Israel with their elders and officers and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of ^bMount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had given command at first to bless the people of Israel.

³⁴Then afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in ^athe book of the law.

³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel ^awith the women and the little ones and the strangers who were ¹living among them.

Chapter 9

Guile of the Gibeonites

¹Now it came about when ^aall the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland and on all the ^bcoast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, ^cthe Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, heard of it,

²that they gathered themselves together with ^1aone accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel.

³When the inhabitants of ^aGibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

⁴they also acted craftily and ¹set out as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and ²mended,

⁵and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled.

⁶They went to Joshua to the ^acamp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.”

⁷The men of Israel said to the ^aHivites, “Perhaps you are living ¹within our land; ^bhow then shall we make a covenant with you?”

⁸But they said to Joshua, “^aWe are your servants.” Then Joshua said to them, “Who are you and where do you come from?”

⁹They said to him, “Your servants have come from ^aa very far country because of the ¹fame of the Lord your God; for ^bwe have heard the report of Him and all that He did in Egypt,

¹⁰and 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 at Ashtaroth.

¹¹“So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them and say to them, “^aWe are your servants; now then, make a covenant with us.” ’

¹²“This our bread was warm when we took it for our provisions out of our houses on the day that we left to come to you; but now behold, it is dry and has become crumbled.

¹³“These wineskins which we filled were new, and behold, they are torn; and these our clothes and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey.”

¹⁴So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and ^adid not ask for the ¹counsel of the Lord.

^15aJoshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

¹⁶It came about at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were neighbors and that they were living ¹within their land.

¹⁷Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were ^aGibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim.

¹⁸The sons of Israel did not strike them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord the God of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders.

¹⁹But all the leaders said to the whole congregation, “We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them.

²⁰“This we will do to them, even let them live, so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore to them.”

²¹The leaders said to them, “Let them live.” So they became ^ahewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation, just as the leaders had spoken to them.

²²Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ ^awhen you are living ¹within our land?

²³“Now therefore, you are ^acursed, and ¹you shall never cease being slaves, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.”

²⁴So they answered Joshua and said, “^aBecause it was certainly told your servants that the Lord your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you; therefore we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.

²⁵“Now behold, ^awe are in your hands; do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.”

²⁶Thus he did to them, and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel, and they did not…