Joshua 8–9

Israel Destroys Ai

8Then the Lord spoke to Joshua. He said, “Do not be afraid. Do not lose hope. Go up and attack Ai. Take the whole army with you. I have handed the king of Ai over to you. I have given you his people, his city and his land.

²“Remember what you did to Jericho and its king. You will do the same thing to Ai and its king. But this time you can keep for yourselves the livestock and everything else you take from them. Have some of your fighting men hide behind the city and take them by surprise.”

³So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose 30,000 of his best fighting men. He sent them out at night. ⁴He gave them orders. He said, “Listen carefully to what I’m saying. You must hide behind the city. Don’t go very far away from it. All of you must be ready to attack it.

⁵“I and all of the men who are with me will go up to the city. The men of Ai will come out to fight against us, just as they did before. Then we’ll run away from them. ⁶They’ll chase us until we’ve drawn them away from the city. They’ll say, ‘They are running away from us, just as they did before.’

“When we run away from them, ⁷come out of your hiding place. Take over the city. The Lord your God will hand it over to you. ⁸When you have taken it, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. Make sure you obey my orders.”

⁹Then Joshua sent them away. They went to the place where they had planned to hide. They hid in a place west of Ai. It was between Bethel and Ai. But Joshua spent that night with his men.

¹⁰Early the next morning Joshua brought his men together. He and the leaders of Israel marched in front of them to Ai. ¹¹The whole army that was with him marched up to the city. They stopped in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai. There was a valley between them and the city.

¹²Joshua had chosen about 5,000 soldiers. He had ordered them to hide in a place west of Ai. It was between Bethel and Ai.

¹³The men took up their battle positions. All of the men who were in the camp that was north of the city took up their positions. So did those who were supposed to hide west of the city. That night Joshua went into the valley.

¹⁴The king of Ai saw what the army of Israel was doing. So he and all of his men hurried out of the city early in the morning. They marched out to meet Israel in battle. They went to a place that looked out over the Arabah Valley. The king didn’t know that some of Israel’s fighting men were hiding behind the city.

¹⁵Joshua and all of his men let the men of Ai drive them back. The men of Israel ran away toward the desert.

¹⁶All of the men of Ai were called out to chase them. They chased Joshua. So they were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷Not even one man remained in Ai or Bethel. All of them went out to chase Israel. When they did, they left the city wide open.

¹⁸Then the Lord spoke to Joshua. He said, “Point the javelin that is in your hand at Ai. I will hand the city over to you.” So Joshua pointed his javelin at Ai.

¹⁹As soon as he did, the men who were hiding behind the city got up quickly. They came out of their hiding places and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it. They quickly set it on fire.

²⁰The men of Ai looked back. They saw smoke rising up from the city into the sky. But they couldn’t escape in any direction.

The men of Israel had been running away toward the desert. But now they turned around to face those who were chasing them. ²¹Joshua and all of his men saw that the men who had been hiding behind the city had captured it. They also saw the smoke that was going up from it. So they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. ²²The men who had set Ai on fire came out of the city. They also fought against the men of Ai.

So the men of Ai were caught in the middle. The army of Israel was on both sides of them. Israel struck them down. They didn’t let anyone remain alive or get away. ²³But they took the king of Ai alive. They brought him to Joshua.

²⁴Israel finished killing all of the men of Ai. They destroyed them in the fields and in the desert where they had chased them. They struck every one of them down with their swords. Then all of the men of Israel returned to Ai. And they killed those who were left in it.

²⁵The total number of men and women they killed that day was 12,000. They put to death all of the people of Ai.

²⁶Joshua kept the javelin that was in his hand pointed at Ai. He didn’t lower his hand until he and his men had totally destroyed everyone who lived there.

²⁷But this time Israel kept for themselves the livestock and everything else they had taken from the city. The Lord had directed Joshua to let them do it.

²⁸So Joshua burned Ai down. He tore it down so it could never be built again. It has been deserted to this very day.

²⁹Joshua killed the king of Ai. He stuck a pole through the body. Then he set it up where people could see it. He left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered his men to remove the body from the pole. He told them to throw the body down at the entrance of the city gate. They put a large pile of rocks over the body. That pile is still there to this very day.

Joshua Reads the Scroll of the Law to the People

³⁰Joshua built an altar to honor the Lord, the God of Israel. He built it on Mount Ebal. ³¹Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the people of Israel to do that. Joshua built the altar in keeping with what is written in the Scroll of the Law of Moses. He built an altar out of stones that iron tools had never touched. Then the people offered on the altar burnt offerings to the Lord. They also sacrificed friendship offerings on it.

³²Joshua copied the written law of Moses on stones. He did it while all of the people of Israel were watching. ³³They were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All of the people of Israel, including outsiders and citizens, were there. Israel’s elders, officials and judges were also there. All of them faced the priests, who were Levites. They were carrying the ark. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim. The other half stood in front of Mount Ebal. Moses, the servant of the Lord, had earlier told them to do it. It was when he had given directions to bless the people of Israel.

³⁴Then Joshua read all of the words of the law out loud. He read the blessings and the curses. He read them in keeping with what is written in the Scroll of the Law. ³⁵Joshua read every word Moses had commanded. He read them to the whole community of Israel. That included the women and children. It also included the outsiders who were living among them.

The People of Gibeon Trick Israel

9All of the kings who ruled west of the Jordan River heard about the battles Israel had won. That included the kings who ruled in the central hill country and the western hills. It also included those who ruled along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea all the way to Lebanon. They were the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ²They brought their armies together to fight against Joshua and Israel.

³The people of Gibeon heard about what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai. ⁴So they decided to trick the people of Israel. They packed supplies as if they were going on a long trip. They loaded their donkeys with old sacks and old wineskins. The wineskins were cracked but had been mended. ⁵The men put worn-out sandals on their feet. The sandals had been patched. The men also wore old clothes. All of the bread they took along was dry and moldy.

⁶They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal. They spoke to him and the men of Israel. They said, “We’ve come from a country that’s far away. Make a peace treaty with us.”

⁷The men of Israel spoke to the Hivites. They said, “But suppose you live close to us. If you do, we can’t make a peace treaty with you.”

⁸“We’ll serve you,” they said to Joshua.

But Joshua asked, “Who are you? Where do you come from?”

⁹They answered, “We’ve come from a country that’s very far away. We’ve come because the Lord your God is famous. We’ve heard reports about him. We’ve heard about everything he did in Egypt.

¹⁰“We’ve heard about everything he did to Sihon and Og. They were the two kings of the Amorites. They ruled east of the Jordan River. Sihon was the king of Heshbon. Og was the king of Bashan. He ruled in Ashtaroth.

¹¹“Our elders and all of the people who are living in our country spoke to us. They said, ‘Take supplies for your trip. Go and meet the people of Israel. Say to them, “We’ll serve you. Make a peace treaty with us.” ’

¹²“Look at our bread. It was warm when we packed it. We packed it at home on the day we left to come and see you. But look at how dry and moldy it is now. ¹³When we filled these wineskins, they were new. But look at how cracked they are now. And our clothes and sandals are worn out because we’ve traveled so far.”

¹⁴The men of Israel looked over the supplies those men had brought. But they didn’t ask the Lord what they should do.

¹⁵Joshua made a peace treaty with the men who had come. He agreed to let them live. The leaders of the community took an oath to show that they agreed with the treaty.

¹⁶The people of Israel made a peace treaty with the people of Gibeon. But three days later they heard that the people of Gibeon lived close to them. ¹⁷So the people of Israel started out to go to the cities of those men. On the third day they came to Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath Jearim.

¹⁸But they didn’t attack those cities. That’s because the leaders of the community had taken an oath and made a peace treaty with them. They had taken the oath in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

The whole community told the leaders they weren’t happy with them.

¹⁹But all of the leaders answered, “We’ve made a peace treaty with them. We’ve taken an oath in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. So we can’t touch them now.

²⁰“But here is what we’ll do to them. We’ll let them live. Then the Lord’s anger won’t fall on us…