² Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the country.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

^12 (A)Their border on the north side began at the Jordan, and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the mountains westward; it ended at the Wilderness of Beth Aven.

^23 (A)So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle shifted ^(B)to Beth Aven.

⁵ Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, ^[a]thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people ^(A)as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of ^(B)Beth Aven.

Persecutions Are Coming^(A)

^16 (B)“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. ^(C)Therefore be wise as serpents and ^(D)harmless^[a] as doves.

⁸ And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and ^(A)called on the name of the Lord.