Joshua 8:1-29

New International Version

Ai Destroyed

8 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid;^(A) do not be discouraged.^(B) Take the whole army^(C) with you, and go up and attack Ai.^(D) For I have delivered^(E) into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. ²You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder^(F) and livestock for yourselves.^(G) Set an ambush^(H) behind the city.”

³So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night ⁴with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. ⁵I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. ⁶They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, ⁷you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand.^(I) ⁸When you have taken the city, set it on fire.^(J) Do what the Lord has commanded.^(K) See to it; you have my orders.”

⁹Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush^(L) and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people.

¹⁰Early the next morning^(M) Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel^(N) marched before them to Ai. ¹¹The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. ¹²Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

¹⁴When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah.^(O) But he did not know^(P) that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. ¹⁵Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back^(Q) before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.^(R) ¹⁶All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away^(S) from the city. ¹⁷Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

¹⁸Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin^(T) that is in your hand,^(U) for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand.^(V) ¹⁹As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly^(W) from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.^(X)

²⁰The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky,^(Y) but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. ²¹For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around^(Z) and attacked the men of Ai. ²²Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives.^(AA) ²³But they took the king of Ai alive^(AB) and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. ²⁵Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.^(AC) ²⁶For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin^(AD) until he had destroyed^[a]^(AE) all who lived in Ai.^(AF) ²⁷But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua.^(AG)

²⁸So Joshua burned^(AH) Ai^[b]^(AI) and made it a permanent heap of ruins,^(AJ) a desolate place to this day.^(AK) ²⁹He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset,^(AL) Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks^(AM) over it, which remains to this day.

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Footnotes

Joshua 8:26 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
Joshua 8:28 Ai means the ruin.

Joshua 10:1-15

New International Version

The Sun Stands Still

10 Now Adoni-Zedek^(A) king of Jerusalem^(B) heard that Joshua had taken Ai^(C) and totally destroyed^[a]^(D) it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon^(E) had made a treaty of peace^(F) with Israel and had become their allies. ²He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. ³So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron,^(G) Piram king of Jarmuth,^(H) Japhia king of Lachish^(I) and Debir^(J) king of Eglon.^(K) ⁴“Come up and help me attack Gibeon,” he said, “because it has made peace^(L) with Joshua and the Israelites.”

⁵Then the five kings^(M) of the Amorites^(N)—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon—joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it.

⁶The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal:^(O) “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

⁷So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army,^(P) including all the best fighting men. ⁸The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid^(Q) of them; I have given them into your hand.^(R) Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”^(S)

⁹After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. ¹⁰The Lord threw them into confusion^(T) before Israel,^(U) so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon.^(V) Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon^(W) and cut them down all the way to Azekah^(X) and Makkedah.^(Y) ¹¹As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones^(Z) down on them,^(AA) and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.

¹²On the day the Lord gave the Amorites^(AB) over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
    and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.^(AC)”
¹³So the sun stood still,^(AD)
    and the moon stopped,
    till the nation avenged itself on^[b] its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.^(AE)

The sun stopped^(AF) in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. ¹⁴There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting^(AG) for Israel!

¹⁵Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.^(AH)

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Footnotes

Joshua 10:1 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them; also in verses 28, 35, 37, 39 and 40.
Joshua 10:13 Or nation triumphed over