Joshua 8:4–12

⁴with the command, “You shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it; do not go very far from the city, but all of you stay alert.^{* 5}I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. When they come out against us, as before, we will flee from them. ⁶They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us as before.’ While we flee from them, ⁷you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. ⁸And when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, doing as the Lord has ordered; see, I have commanded you.”^{* 9}So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night with the people.^l

¹⁰In the morning Joshua rose early and mustered the people and went up, with the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.^{* 11}All the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and camped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. ¹²Taking about five thousand men, he set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.