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Joshua 7

Achan Is Punished for Stealing from the LORD

    ^4-5Joshua sent about three thousand soldiers to attack Ai. But the men of Ai fought back and chased the Israelite soldiers away from the town gate and down the hill to the stone quarries. ^[e] Thirty-six Israelite soldiers were killed, and the Israelite army felt discouraged. ⁶Joshua and the leaders of Israel tore their clothes and put dirt on their heads to show their sorrow. They lay facedown on the ground in front of the sacred chest until sunset. ⁷Then Joshua said:

   Our LORD, did you bring us across the Jordan River just so the Amorites could destroy us? This wouldn't have happened if we had agreed to stay on the other side of the Jordan. ⁸I don't even know what to say to you, since Israel's army has turned and run from the enemy. ⁹Everyone will think you weren't strong enough to protect your people. Now the Canaanites and everyone else who lives in the land will surround us and wipe us out.

    ¹⁰The LORD answered:

   Stop lying there on the ground! Get up! ¹¹I said everything in Jericho belonged to me and had to be destroyed. But the Israelites have kept some of the things for themselves. They stole from me and hid what they took. Then they lied about it. ¹²What they stole was supposed to be destroyed, and now Israel itself must be destroyed. I cannot help you anymore until you do exactly what I have said. That's why Israel turns and runs from its enemies instead of standing up to them.

    ¹³Tell the people of Israel, " Tomorrow you will meet with the LORD your God, so make yourselves acceptable to worship him. The LORD says that you have taken things that should have been destroyed. You won't be able to stand up to your enemies until you get rid of those things.

    ¹⁴" Tomorrow morning everyone must gather near the place of worship. You will come forward tribe by tribe, and the LORD will show which tribe is guilty. Next, the clans in that tribe must come forward, and the LORD will show which clan is guilty. The families in that clan must come, and the LORD will point out the guilty family. Finally, the men in that family must come, ¹⁵and the LORD will show who stole what should have been destroyed. That man must be put to death, his body burned, and his possessions thrown into the fire. He has done a terrible thing by breaking the sacred agreement that the LORD made with Israel."

    ¹⁶Joshua got up early the next morning and brought each tribe to the place of worship, where the LORD showed that the Judah tribe was guilty. ¹⁷Then Joshua brought the clans of Judah to the LORD, and the LORD showed that the Zerah clan was guilty. One by one he brought the leader of each family in the Zerah clan to the LORD, and the LORD showed that Zabdi's family was guilty. ¹⁸Finally, Joshua brought each man in Zabdi's family to the LORD, and the LORD showed that Achan was the guilty one.

    ¹⁹" Achan," Joshua said, " the LORD God of Israel has decided that you are guilty. Is this true? Tell me what you did, and don't try to hide anything."

    ²⁰" It's true," Achan answered. " I sinned and disobeyed the LORD God of Israel. ^21-22While we were in Jericho, I saw a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred pieces of silver, and a gold bar that weighed the same as fifty pieces of gold. I wanted them for myself, so I took them. I dug a hole under my tent and hid the silver, the gold, and the robe."

   Joshua had some people run to Achan's tent, where they found the silver, the gold, and the robe. ²³They brought them back and put them in front of the sacred chest, so Joshua and the rest of the Israelites could see them. ²⁴Then everyone took Achan and the things he had stolen to Trouble Valley. ^[f] They also took along his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys, and sheep, his tent, and everything else that belonged to him. ²⁵Joshua said, " Achan, you caused us a lot of trouble. Now the LORD is paying you back with the same kind of trouble."

   The people of Israel then stoned to death Achan and his family. They made a fire and burned the bodies, together with what Achan had stolen, and all his possessions. ²⁶They covered the remains with a big pile of rocks, which is still there. Then the LORD stopped being angry with Israel.

   That's how the place came to be called Trouble Valley.

Joshua 8

Israel Destroys the Town of Ai

   Don't be afraid, and don't be discouraged by what happened at the town of Ai. Take the army and attack again. But first, have part of the army set up an ambush on the other side of the town. I will help you defeat the king of Ai and his army, and you will capture the town and the land around it. Destroy Ai and kill its king as you did at Jericho. But you may keep the livestock and everything else you want.

    ^3-4Joshua quickly got the army ready to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best soldiers and gave them these orders:

   Tonight, while it is dark, march to Ai and take up a position behind the town. Get as close to the town as you can without being seen, but be ready to attack.

    ^5-6The rest of the army will come with me and attack near the gate. When the people of Ai come out to fight, we'll run away and let them chase us. They will think we are running from them just like the first time. But when we've let them chase us far enough away, ⁷you come out of hiding. The LORD our God will help you capture the town. ⁸Then set it on fire, as the LORD has told us to do. Those are your orders, ⁹now go!

   The thirty thousand soldiers went to a place on the west side of Ai, between Ai and Bethel, where they could hide and wait to attack.

   That night, Joshua stayed in camp with the rest of the army. ¹⁰Early the next morning he got his troops ready to move out, and he and the other leaders of Israel led them to Ai. ¹¹They set up camp in full view of the town, across the valley to the north. ¹²Joshua had already sent five thousand soldiers to the west side of the town to hide and wait to attack. ¹³Now all his troops were in place. Part of the army was in the camp to the north of Ai, and the others were hiding to the west, ready to make a surprise attack. That night, Joshua went into the valley. ^{[g] 14-15}The king of Ai saw Joshua's army, so the king and his troops hurried out early the next morning to fight them. Joshua and his army pretended to be beaten, and they let the men of Ai chase them toward the desert. The king and his army were facing the Jordan valley as Joshua had planned.

   The king did not realize that some Israelite soldiers were hiding behind the town. ^16-17So he called out every man in Ai to go after Joshua's troops. They all rushed out to chase the Israelite army, and they left the town gates wide open. Not one man was left in Ai or in Bethel. ^[h] Joshua let the men of Ai chase him and his army farther and farther away from Ai. ¹⁸Finally, the LORD told Joshua, " Point your sword ^[i] at the town of Ai, because now I am going to help you defeat it!" As soon as Joshua pointed his sword at the town, ¹⁹the soldiers who had been hiding got up and ran into the town. They captured it and set it on fire.

    ^20-21When Joshua and his troops saw smoke rising from the town, they knew that the other part of their army had captured it. So they turned and attacked.

   The men of Ai looked back and saw smoke rising from their town. But they could not escape, because the soldiers they had been chasing had suddenly turned and started fighting. ^22-24Meanwhile, the other Israelite soldiers had come from the town and attacked the men of Ai from the rear. The Israelites captured the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua. They also chased the rest of the men of Ai into the desert and killed them. ^[j] The Israelite army went back to Ai and killed everyone there. ^25-26Joshua kept his sword pointed at the town of Ai until every last one of Ai's twelve thousand people was dead. ²⁷But the Israelites took the animals and the other possessions of the people of Ai, because this was what the LORD had told Joshua to do.

    ^28-29Joshua made sure every building in Ai was burned to the ground. He told his men to kill the king of Ai and hang his body on a tree. Then at sunset he told the Israelites to take down the body, ^[k] throw it in the gateway of the town, and cover it with a big pile of rocks. Those rocks are still there, and the town itself has never been rebuilt.

Joshua Reads the Blessings and Curses

(Deuteronomy 27.1-26)

Joshua 9

The People of Gibeon Trick the Leaders of Israel

    ³The people of Gibeon had also heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai. ⁴So they decided that some of their men should pretend to be messengers to Israel from a faraway country. ^[s] The men put worn-out bags on their donkeys and found some old wineskins that had cracked and had been sewn back together. ⁵Their sandals were old and patched, and their clothes were worn out. They even took along some dry and crumbly bread. ⁶Then they went to the Israelite camp at Gilgal, where they said to Joshua and the men of Israel, " We have come from a country that is far from here. Please make a peace treaty with us." ^7-8The Israelites replied, " But maybe you really live near us. We can't make a peace treaty with you if you live nearby." ^[t] The Gibeonites ^[u] said, " If you make a peace treaty with us, we will be your servants." " Who are you?" Joshua asked. " Where do you come from?"

   They answered:

    ⁹We are your servants, and we live far from here. We came because the LORD your God is so famous. We heard what the LORD did in Egypt ¹⁰and what he did to those two Amorite kings on the other side of the Jordan: King Og of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, and King Sihon of Heshbon.

    ¹¹Our leaders and everyone who lives in our country told us to meet with you and tell you that all of us are your servants. They said to ask you to make a peace treaty with our people. They told us to be sure and take along enough food for our journey. ¹²See this dry, crumbly bread of ours? It was hot out of the oven when we packed the food on the day we left our homes. ¹³These cracked wineskins were new when we filled them, and our clothes and sandals are worn out because we have traveled so far.

    ¹⁴The Israelites tried some of the food, ^[v] but they did not ask the LORD if he wanted them to make a treaty. ¹⁵So Joshua made a peace treaty with the messengers and promised that Israel would not kill their people. Israel's leaders swore that Israel would keep this promise. ^16-17A couple of days later, ^[w] the Israelites found out that these people actually lived in the nearby towns of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-Jearim. ^[x] So the Israelites left the place where they had camped and arrived at the four towns two days later. ^{[y] 18}But they did not attack the towns, because the Israelite leaders had sworn in the name of the LORD that they would let these people live. The Israelites complained about their leaders' decision not to attack, ^19-21but the leaders reminded them, " We promised these people in the name of the LORD God of Israel that we would let them live, so we must not harm them. If we break our promise, God will punish us. We'll let them live, but we'll make them cut wood and carry water for our people."

    ²²Joshua told some of his soldiers, " I want to meet with the Gibeonite leaders. Bring them here."

   When the Gibeonites came, Joshua said, " You live close to us. Why did you lie by claiming you lived far away? ²³Now you are under a curse, and your people will have to send workers to cut wood and carry water for the place of worship." ^{[z] 24}The Gibeonites answered, " The LORD your God told his servant Moses that you were to kill everyone who lives here and take their land for yourselves. We were afraid you would kill us, and so we tricked you into making a peace treaty. But we agreed to be your servants, ²⁵and you are strong enough to do anything to us that you want. We just ask you to do what seems right."

    ²⁶Joshua did not let the Israelites kill the Gibeonites, ²⁷but he did tell the Gibeonites that they would have to be servants of the nation of Israel. They would have to cut firewood and bring it for the priests to use for burning sacrifices on the LORD's altar, wherever the LORD decided the altar would be. The Gibeonites would also have to carry water for the priests. And that is still the work of the Gibeonites.

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²¹The crowd was waiting for Zechariah and kept wondering why he was staying so long in the temple. ²²When he did come out, he could not speak, and they knew he had seen a vision. He motioned to them with his hands, but did not say a thing.

    ²³When Zechariah's time of service in the temple was over, he went home. ²⁴Soon after that, his wife was expecting a baby, and for five months she did not leave the house. She said to herself, ²⁵"What the Lord has done for me will keep people from looking down on me." ^[a]

An Angel Tells about the Birth of Jesus

    ²⁹Mary was confused by the angel's words and wondered what they meant. ³⁰Then the angel told Mary, "Don't be afraid! God is pleased with you, ³¹and you will have a son. His name will be Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of God Most High. The Lord God will make him king, as his ancestor David was. ³³He will rule the people of Israel forever, and his kingdom will never end."

    ³⁴Mary asked the angel, "How can this happen? I am not married!"

    ³⁵The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come down to you, and God's power will come over you. So your child will be called the holy Son of God. ³⁶Your relative Elizabeth is also going to have a son, even though she is old. No one thought she could ever have a baby, but in three months she will have a son. ³⁷Nothing is impossible for God!"

    ³⁸Mary said, "I am the Lord's servant! Let it happen as you have said." And the angel left her.