²⁶ Joshua didn’t pull back the hand that was stretched out holding a dagger until he had wiped out the whole population of Ai as something reserved for God. ²⁷ However, Israel did take the cattle and other booty of that city as plunder for themselves, in agreement with the command that the Lord had given Joshua. ²⁸ Then Joshua burned Ai. He made it a permanently deserted mound. That is still the case today. ²⁹ He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sundown, Joshua gave an order, and they took his body down from the tree. They threw it down at the opening of the city gate. Then they raised over it a great pile of stones that is still there today.

Joshua reads the Instruction

³⁰ Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel. ³¹ This was exactly what Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. It is what is written in the Instruction scroll from Moses: “an altar of crude stones against which no iron tool has swung.”^[a] On it they offered entirely burned offerings to the Lord and sacrificed well-being offerings. ³² There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the Instruction from Moses, which Moses had written earlier. ³³ All Israel—with its elders, officers, and judges—were standing on either side of the chest. They were facing the levitical priests who carry the Lord’s chest containing the covenant. They included both immigrants and full citizens. Half stood facing Mount Gerizim and half stood facing Mount Ebal. This was exactly what Moses the Lord’s servant had initially commanded for the blessing of the Israelite people. ³⁴ Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the Instruction, both blessing and curse, in agreement with everything written in the Instruction scroll. ³⁵ There wasn’t a single word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read aloud in the presence of the entire assembly of Israel. This assembly included the women and small children, along with the immigrants who lived among them.