Josué 8

¹ After, the Lord saide vnto Ioshua, Feare not, neither bee thou faint hearted: take all the men of warre with thee and arise, go vp to Ai: beholde, I haue giuen into thine hand the King of Ai, and his people, and his citie, and his land.

² And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the cityMeaning on the west side, as in (Jos_8:9).behind it.

³ Then Ioshua arose, and all the men of warre to goe vp against Ai: and Ioshua chose out thirtie thousand strong men, and valiant, and sent them away by night.

⁴ And he commanded them, saying, Behold, yeGod would not destroy Ai by a miracle, as Jericho, so that other nations would fear the power and policy of his people.shall lie in wait against the city, [even] behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready:

⁵ And I and all the people that are with me, will approche vnto the citie: and when they shall come out against vs, as they did at the first time, then will we flee before them.

⁶ For they wil come out after vs, till we haue brought them out of the citie: for they will say, They flee before vs as at the first time: so we will flee before them.

⁷ Then you shall rise vp from lying in waite and destroy the citie: for the Lord your God wil deliuer it into your hand.

⁸ And when ye haue taken the citie, ye shall set it on fire: according to the commandement of the Lord shall ye do: behold, I haue charged you.

⁹ Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that nightWith the rest of the army.among the people.

¹⁰ And Joshua rose up early in the morning, andThat is, viewed or mustered them and set them in array.numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.

¹¹ Also all the men of warre that were with him went vp and drewe neere, and came against the citie, and pitched on the Northside of Ai: and there was a valley betweene them and Ai.

¹² And he took about five thousand men,He sent these few, that the others who lay in ambush might not be discovered.and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

¹³ And when they had set the people, [even] all the host that [was] on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into theTo the intent that they in the city more easily discover his army.midst of the valley.

¹⁴ And when the King of Ai sawe it, then the men of the citie hasted and rose vp earely, and went out against Israel to battell, hee and all his people at the time appointed, before the plaine: for he knew not that any lay in waite against him on the backeside of the citie.

¹⁵ And Joshua and all IsraelAs they who pretended to flee for fear.made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

¹⁶ And all the people of the citie were called together, to pursue after them: and they pursued after Ioshua, & were drawen away out of the city,

¹⁷ So that there was not a man left in Ai, nor in Beth-el, that went not out after Israel: and they left the citie open, and pursued after Israel.

¹⁸ And the LORD said unto Joshua,Or, lift up the banner to signify when they should invade the city.Stretch out the spear that [is] in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that [he had] in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹ And they that lay in wait, arose quickly out of their place, and ranne as soone as he had stretched out his hand, and they entred into the citie, and tooke it, and hasted, and set the citie on fire.

²⁰ And the men of Ai looked behinde them, and sawe it: for loe, the smoke of the citie ascended vp to heauen, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: for the people that fled to the wildernesse, turned backe vpon the pursuers.

²¹ When Ioshua and all Israel sawe that they that lay in waite, had taken the citie, and that the smoke of the citie mounted vp, then they turned againe and slewe the men of Ai.

²² And theWho came out of the ambush.other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³ And the King of Ai they tooke aliue, and brought him to Ioshua.

²⁴ And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, andFor the fire, which they had before set in the city, was not to consume it, but to signify to Joshua that they had entered.smote it with the edge of the sword.

²⁵ And all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelue thousande, euen all the men of Ai.

²⁶ For Ioshua drewe not his hande backe againe which he had stretched out with the speare, vntill hee had vtterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

²⁷ Onely the cattell and the spoyle of this citie, Israel tooke for a praye vnto themselues, according vnto the worde of the Lorde, which hee commaunded Ioshua.

²⁸ And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap forThat it could never be built again.ever, [even] a desolation unto this day.

²⁹ And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commandedAccording as it was commanded, (Deu_21:23).that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, [that remaineth] unto this day.

³⁰ Then Ioshua built an altar vnto the Lord God of Israel, in mount Ebal,

³¹ As Moses the seruant of the Lord had commaunded the children of Israel, as it is written in the booke of the Lawe of Moses, an altar of whole stone, ouer which no man had lift an yron: and they offered thereon burnt offrings vnto the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.

³² And he wrote there upon the stones aMeaning, the ten commandments, which are the sum of the whole Law.copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.

³³ And all Israel (and their Elders, and officers and their iudges stoode on this side of the Arke, and on that side, before the Priestes of the Leuites, which bare the Arke of the couenant of the Lorde) as well the stranger, as he that is borne in the countrey: halfe of them were ouer against mount Gerizim, and halfe of them ouer against mount Ebal, as Moses the seruant of the Lorde had commaunded before, that they should blesse the people of Israel.

³⁴ Then afterwarde hee read all the wordes of the Lawe, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the booke of the Lawe.

³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with theSo neither young nor old, man nor woman, were exempted from hearing the word of the Lord.women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.