¹⁴ so David inquired of God again, and God answered him, “Do not go directly after them, but circle around them and attack them in front of the poplar trees.

⁶ After saying this, he spit^(A) on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam”^(B) (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.^(C)

¹⁰ so David inquired of God: “Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?”

The Lord answered him, “Go, I will deliver them into your hands.”

² You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder^(A) and livestock for yourselves.^(B) Set an ambush^(C) behind the city.”

³ So 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 ⁴ with 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. ⁵ I 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. ⁶ They 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, ⁷ you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand.^(D)