⁴Joshua gave them these orders: “Listen carefully. You must set up an ambush behind the city. Don’t go far from it, but continue to watch and be ready. ⁵I and the men who are with me will march toward the city, and the men in the city will come out to fight us, just as they did before. Then we will turn and run away from them. ⁶They will chase us away from the city, thinking we are running away from them as we did before. When we run away, ⁷come out from your ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give you the power to win. ⁸After you take the city, burn it. See to it! You have your orders.”

⁹Then Joshua sent them to wait in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua stayed the night with his people.

¹⁰Early the next morning Joshua gathered his men together. He and the older leaders of Israel led them up to Ai. ¹¹All of the soldiers who were with Joshua marched up to Ai and stopped in front of the city and made camp north of it. There was a valley between them and the city. ¹²Then Joshua chose about five thousand men and set them in ambush in the area west of the city between Bethel and Ai.

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