¹⁴ When David again inquired of God, God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; go around and come upon them opposite the balsam trees.^(A)

⁶ When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes,^{(A) 7} saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.^(B)

¹⁰ David inquired of God, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” The Lord said to him, “Go up, and I will give them into your hand.”

² You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may take its spoil and plunder its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush against the city, behind it.”^(A)

³ So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to go up against Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand warriors and sent them out by night ⁴ with the command, “You shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it; do not go very far from the city, but all of you stay alert.^{(B) 5} I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. When they come out against us, as before, we will flee from them. ⁶ They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us as before.’ While we flee from them, ⁷ you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand.