Joshua 8-11

Living Bible

8 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid or discouraged; take the entire army and go to Ai, for it is now yours to conquer. I have given the king of Ai and all of his people to you. ² You shall do to them as you did to Jericho and her king; but this time you may keep the loot and the cattle for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

^3-4 Before the main army left for Ai, Joshua sent thirty thousand of his bravest troops to hide in ambush close behind the city, alert for action.

⁵ “This is the plan,” he explained to them. “When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away. ⁶ We will let them chase us until they have all left the city; for they will say, ‘The Israelis are running away again just as they did before!’ ⁷ Then you will jump up from your ambush and enter the city, for the Lord will give it to you. ⁸ Set the city on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You now have your instructions.”

⁹ So they left that night and lay in ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai; but Joshua and the rest of the army remained in the camp at Jericho. ¹⁰ Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel, ^11-13 and stopped at the edge of a valley north of the city. That night Joshua sent another five thousand men^[a] to join the troops in ambush on the west side of the city. He himself spent the night in the valley.

¹⁴ The king of Ai, seeing the Israelis across the valley, went out early the next morning and attacked at the plain of the Arabah. But of course he didn’t realize that there was an ambush behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and the Israeli army fled across the wilderness as though badly beaten, ¹⁶ and all the soldiers in the city were called out to chase after them; so the city was left defenseless; ¹⁷ there was not a soldier left in Ai or Bethel, and the city gates were left wide open.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city.” Joshua did. ¹⁹ And when the men in ambush saw his signal, they jumped up and poured into the city and set it on fire. ^20-21 When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the city was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. When Joshua and the troops who were with him saw the smoke, they knew that their men who had been in ambush were inside the city, so they turned upon their pursuers and began killing them. ²² Then the Israelis who were inside the city came out and began destroying the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in a trap and all of them died; not one man survived or escaped, ²³ except for the king of Ai, who was captured and brought to Joshua.

²⁴ When the army of Israel had finished slaughtering all the men outside the city, they went back and finished off everyone left inside. ²⁵ So the entire population of Ai, twelve thousand in all, was wiped out that day. ²⁶ For Joshua kept his spear pointed toward Ai until the last person was dead. ²⁷ Only the cattle and the loot were not destroyed, for the armies of Israel kept these for themselves. (The Lord had told Joshua they could.) ²⁸ So Ai became a desolate mound of refuse, as it still is today.

²⁹ Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening, but as the sun was going down, he took down the body and threw it in front of the city gate. There he piled a great heap of stones over it, which can still be seen.

³⁰ Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel at Mount Ebal, ³¹ as Moses had commanded^[b] in the book of his laws: “Make me an altar of boulders that have neither been broken nor carved,” the Lord had said concerning Mount Ebal. Then the priests offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings to the Lord on the altar. ³² And as the people of Israel watched, Joshua carved upon the stones of the altar each of the Ten Commandments.^[c]

³³ Then all the people of Israel—including the elders, officers, judges, and the foreigners living among them—divided into two groups, half of them standing at the foot of Mount Gerizim and half at the foot of Mount Ebal. Between them stood the priests with the Ark, ready to pronounce their blessing. (This was all done in accordance with the instructions given long before by Moses.) ³⁴ Joshua then read to them all of the statements of blessing and curses that Moses had written in the book of God’s laws. ³⁵ Every commandment Moses had ever given was read before the entire assembly, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among the Israelis.

9 ^1-2 When the kings of the surrounding area heard what had happened to Jericho, they quickly combined their armies to fight for their lives against Joshua and the Israelis. These were the kings of the nations west of the Jordan River, along the shores of the Mediterranean as far north as the Lebanon mountains—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

^3-5 But when the people of Gibeon heard what had happened to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to trickery to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua wearing worn-out clothing, as though from a long journey, with patched shoes, weatherworn saddlebags on their donkeys, old, patched wineskins and dry, moldy bread. ⁶ When they arrived at the camp of Israel at Gilgal, they told Joshua and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land to ask for a peace treaty with you.”

⁷ The Israelis replied to these Hivites, “How do we know you don’t live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a treaty with you.”

⁸ They replied, “We will be your slaves.”

“But who are you?” Joshua demanded. “Where do you come from?”

⁹ And they told him, “We are from a very distant country; we have heard of the might of the Lord your God and of all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰ and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites—Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan. ¹¹ So our elders and our people instructed us, ‘Prepare for a long journey; go to the people of Israel and declare our nation to be their servants, and ask for peace.’ ¹² This bread was hot from the ovens when we left, but now as you see, it is dry and moldy; ¹³ these wineskins were new, but now they are old and cracked; our clothing and shoes have become worn out from our long, hard trip.”

^14-15 Joshua and the other leaders finally believed them. They did not bother to ask the Lord but went ahead and signed a peace treaty. And the leaders of Israel ratified the agreement with a binding oath.

¹⁶ Three days later the facts came out—these men were close neighbors. ¹⁷ The Israeli army set out at once to investigate and reached their cities in three days. (The names of the cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.) ¹⁸ But the cities were not harmed because of the vow which the leaders of Israel had made before the Lord God. The people of Israel were angry with their leaders because of the peace treaty.

¹⁹ But the leaders replied, “We have sworn before the Lord God of Israel that we will not touch them, and we won’t. ²⁰ We must let them live, for if we break our oath, the wrath of Jehovah will be upon us.”

²¹ So they became servants of the Israelis, chopping their wood and carrying their water.

²² Joshua summoned their leaders and demanded, “Why have you lied to us by saying that you lived in a distant land, when you were actually living right here among us? ²³ Now a curse shall be upon you! From this moment you must always furnish us with servants to chop wood and carry water for the service of our God.”

²⁴ They replied, “We did it because we were told that Jehovah instructed his disciple Moses to conquer this entire land and destroy all the people living in it. So we feared for our lives because of you; that is why we have done it. ²⁵ But now we are in your hands; you may do with us as you wish.”

²⁶ So Joshua would not allow the people of Israel to kill them, ²⁷ but they became woodchoppers and water-carriers for the people of Israel and for the altar of the Lord—wherever it would be built (for the Lord hadn’t yet told them where to build it). This arrangement is still in force at the time of this writing.

10 When Adoni-zedek, the king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured and destroyed Ai and had killed its king, the same as he had done at Jericho, and how the people of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were now their allies, ² he was very frightened. For Gibeon was a great city—as great as the royal cities and much larger than Ai—and its men were known as hard fighters. ³ So King Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem sent messengers to several other kings: King Hoham of Hebron, King Piram of Jarmuth, King Japhia of Lachish, King Debir of Eglon.

⁴ “Come and help me destroy Gibeon,” he urged them, “for they have made peace with Joshua and the people of Israel.”

⁵ So these five Amorite kings combined their armies for a united attack on Gibeon. ⁶ The men of Gibeon hurriedly sent messengers to Joshua at Gilgal.

“Come and help your servants!” they demanded. “Come quickly and save us! For all the kings of the Amorites who live in the hills are here with their armies.”

⁷ So Joshua and the Israeli army left Gilgal and went to rescue Gibeon.

⁸ “Don’t be afraid of them,” the Lord said to Joshua, “for they are already defeated! I have given them to you to destroy. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.”

⁹ Joshua traveled all night from Gilgal and took the enemy armies by surprise. ¹⁰ Then the Lord threw them into a panic so that the army of Israel slaughtered great numbers of them at Gibeon and chased the others all the way to Beth-horon and Azekah and Makkedah, killing them along the way. ¹¹ And as the enemy was racing down the hill to Beth-horon, the Lord destroyed them with a great hailstorm that continued all the way to Azekah; in fact, more men died from the hail than by the swords of the Israelis.

¹² As the men of Israel were pursuing and harassing the foe, Joshua prayed aloud, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and let the moon stand in its place over the valley of Aijalon!”

¹³ And the sun and the moon didn’t move until the Israeli army had finished the destruction of its enemies! This is described in greater detail in The Book of Jashar. So the sun stopped in the heavens and stayed there for almost twenty-four hours! ¹⁴ There had never been such a day before, and there has never been another since, when the Lord stopped the sun and moon—all because of the prayer of one man. But the Lord was fighting for Israel. ¹⁵ (Afterwards Joshua and the Israeli army returned to Gilgal.)

¹⁶ During the battle the five kings escaped and hid in a cave at Makkedah. ¹⁷ When the news was brought to Joshua that they had been found, ¹⁸ he issued a command that a great stone be rolled against the mouth of the cave and that guards be placed there to keep the kings inside.

¹⁹ Then Joshua commanded the rest of the army, “Go on chasing the enemy and cut them down from the rear. Don’t let them get back to their cities, for the Lord will help you to completely destroy them.”

²⁰ So Joshua and the Israeli army continued the slaughter and wiped out the five armies except for a tiny remnant that managed to reach their fortified cities. ²¹ Then the Israelis returned to their camp at Makkedah without having lost a single man! And after that no one dared to attack Israel.

^22-23 Joshua now instructed his men to remove the stone from the mouth of the cave and to bring out the five kings—of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. ²⁴ Joshua told the captains of his army to put their feet on the kings’ necks.

²⁵ “Don’t ever be afraid or discouraged,” Joshua said to his men. “Be strong and courageous, for the Lord is going to do this to all of your enemies.”

²⁶ With that, Joshua plunged his sword into each of the five kings, killing them. He then hanged them on five trees until evening.

²⁷ As the sun was going down, Joshua instructed that their bodies be taken down and thrown into the cave where they had been hiding; and a great pile of stones was placed at the mouth of the cave. (The pile is still there today.)

²⁸ On that same day Joshua destroyed the city of Makkedah and killed its king and everyone in it. Not one person in the entire city was left alive. ²⁹ Then the Israelis went to Libnah. ³⁰ There, too, the Lord gave them the city and its king. Every last person was slaughtered, just as at Jericho.

³¹ From Libnah they went to Lachish and attacked it. ³² And the Lord gave it to them on the second day; here, too, the entire population was slaughtered, just as at Libnah.

³³ During the attack on Lachish, King Horam of Gezer arrived with his army to try to help defend the city, but Joshua’s men killed him and destroyed his entire army.

^34-35 The Israeli army then captured Eglon on the first day and, as at Lachish, they killed everyone in the city. ³⁶ After leaving Eglon they went to Hebron ³⁷ and captured it and all of its surrounding villages, slaughtering the entire population. Not one person was left alive. ³⁸ Then they turned back to Debir, ³⁹ which they quickly captured with all of its outlying villages. And they killed everyone just as they had at Libnah.

⁴⁰ So Joshua and his army conquered the whole country—the nations and kings of the hill country, the Negeb, the lowlands, and the mountain slopes. They destroyed everyone in the land, just as the Lord God of Israel had commanded, ⁴¹ slaughtering them from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and from Goshen to Gibeon. ⁴² This was all accomplished in one campaign, for the Lord God of Israel was fighting for his people. ⁴³ Then Joshua and his army returned to their camp at Gilgal.

11 ^1-3 When King Jabin of Hazor heard what had happened, he sent urgent messages to the following kings:

⁴ All these kings responded by mobilizing their armies and uniting to crush Israel. Their combined troops, along with a vast array of horses and chariots, covered the landscape around the springs of Merom as far as one could see; ⁵ for they established their camp at the springs of Merom.

⁶ But the Lord said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow they will all be dead! Hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.” ⁷ Joshua and his troops arrived suddenly at the springs of Merom and attacked. ⁸ And the Lord gave all that vast army to the Israelis, who chased them as far as Great Sidon and a place called the Salt Pits, and eastward into the valley of Mizpah; so not one enemy troop survived the battle. ⁹ Then Joshua and his men did as the Lord had instructed, for they hamstrung the horses and burned all the chariots.

¹⁰ On the way back, Joshua captured Hazor and killed its king. (Hazor had at one time been the capital of the federation of all those kingdoms.) ¹¹ Every person there was killed and the city was burned.

¹² Then he attacked and destroyed all the other cities of those kings. All the people were slaughtered, just as Moses had commanded long before. ¹³ (However, Joshua did not burn any of the cities built on mounds except for Hazor.) ¹⁴ All the loot and cattle of the ravaged cities were taken by the Israelis for themselves, but they killed all the people. ¹⁵ For so the Lord had commanded his disciple Moses; and Moses had passed the commandment on to Joshua, who did as he had been told: he carefully obeyed all of the Lord’s instructions to Moses.

¹⁶ So Joshua conquered the entire land—the hill country, the Negeb, the land of Goshen, the lowlands, the Arabah, and the hills and lowlands of Israel. ¹⁷ The Israeli territory now extended all the way from Mount Halak, near Seir, to Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, at the foot of Mount Hermon. And Joshua killed all the kings of those territories. ¹⁸ It took seven years^[d] of war to accomplish all of this. ¹⁹ None of the cities was given a peace treaty except the Hivites of Gibeon; all of the others were destroyed. ²⁰ For the Lord made the enemy kings want to fight the Israelis instead of asking for peace; so they were mercilessly killed, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²¹ During this period Joshua routed all of the giants—the descendants of Anak who lived in the hill country in Hebron, Debir, Anab, Judah, and Israel; he killed them all and completely destroyed their cities. ²² None was left in all the land of Israel, though some still remained in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod.

²³ So Joshua took the entire land just as the Lord had instructed Moses; and he gave it to the people of Israel as their inheritance, dividing the land among the tribes. So the land finally rested from its war.