Ai Captured by a Stratagem and Destroyed

8 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed; take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land; ² and you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves; lay an ambush against the city, behind it.”

³ So Joshua arose, and all the fighting men, to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night. ⁴ And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it; do not go very far from the city, but hold yourselves all in readiness; ⁵ and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach the city. And when they come out against us, as before, we shall flee before them; ⁶ and they will come out after us, till we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, as before.’ So we will flee from them; ⁷ then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize the city; for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. ⁸ And when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, doing as the Lord has bidden; see, I have commanded you.” ⁹ So Joshua sent them forth; and they went to the place of ambush, and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people.

¹⁰ And Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people, and went up, with the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. ¹¹ And all the fighting men who were with him went up, and drew near before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. ¹² And he took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³ So they stationed the forces, the main encampment which was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. ¹⁴ And when the king of Ai saw this he and all his people, the men of the city, made haste and went out early to the descent^[a] toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. ¹⁵ And Joshua and all Israel made a pretense of being beaten before them, and fled in the direction of the wilderness. ¹⁶ So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷ There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open, and pursued Israel.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹ And the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and took it; and they made haste to set the city on fire. ²⁰ So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven; and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. ²¹ And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and smote the men of Ai. ²² And the others came forth from the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side; and Israel smote them, until there was left none that survived or escaped.