Joshua 8

Wycliffe Bible

8 And the Lord said to Joshua, Neither dread thou, nor be thou afeared; take with thee all the multitude of fighting men, and rise thou, and go up into the city of Ai; lo, I have betaken into thine hand the king thereof, and the people, and the city, and the land.

² And thou shalt do to the city of Ai, and to the king thereof, as thou didest to Jericho, and the king thereof; soothly ye shall take to you the prey (but this time ye can take the prey for yourselves), and all [the] living beasts; (and this time,) set thou ambushes, either ambushments, to the city behind it.

³ And Joshua rose, and all the host of fighting men with him, for to go up into Ai; and by night he sent (away) thirty chosen thousand of strong men; (And so Joshua, and all his army of fighters, rose up to go into Ai; and he chose thirty thousand strong men, and sent them away in the night;)

⁴ and he commanded to them, and said, Set ye ambushments behind the city, and go ye not further; and all ye shall be ready (and all of ye be ready to fight);

⁵ forsooth I, and the tother multitude which is with me, shall come on the contrary side against the city; and when they shall go out against us, as we did before, we shall flee, and turn the backs, (and I, and the other multitude who be with me, shall come on the opposite side toward the city; and when they shall go out against us, we shall turn our backs, and flee, as we did before,)

⁶ till they pursue us, and be drawn away further from the city; for they shall guess, that we shall flee them as we did before. Then while we shall flee, and while they pursue,

⁷ ye shall rise from the ambushments, and shall waste the city; and your Lord God shall betake it into your hands. (ye shall rise up from ambush, or from lying in wait, and shall destroy the city; and the Lord your God shall deliver it into your hands.)

⁸ And when ye have taken it, burn ye it; (yea,) do ye all things, as I have commanded to you.

⁹ And Joshua let go them, and they went to the place of [the] ambushments, and sat betwixt Bethel and Ai, at the west coast of the city of Ai. Forsooth Joshua dwelled in that night in the midst of the people. (And Joshua let them go, and they went to the place of ambush, and sat between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night in the midst of his people.)

¹⁰ And he rose (up) early, and numbered his fellows, and he went up with the elder men in the front of the host (and he went up with the elders at the front of the army), and was compassed with the help of (his) fighters.

¹¹ And when they had come, and had gone up against the city, they stood at the north coast of the city, betwixt the which city and them a valley was in the midst. (And they came toward the city, and arrived at the north side of it, and there was a valley between them and the city.)

¹² And Joshua had chosen five thousand men, and he had set them in [the] ambushments betwixt Bethel and Ai, in the west part of the same city. (And Joshua chose five thousand men, and he put them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.)

¹³ And all the tother host dressed the battle array to the north, so [that] the last men of the multitude reached to the west coast of the city. Then Joshua went in that night, and stood in the midst of [the] valley;

¹⁴ and when the king of Ai had seen this, he hasted (and rose up) early, and went out with all the host of the city, and he dressed (the) battle array against the desert; and he wist not that ambushments were hid behind his back. (and when the king of Ai had seen this, he hastened, and rose up early, and went out of the city with all of his army, and he directed the battle array toward the wilderness; but he did not know that men were hidden in ambush behind his back.)

¹⁵ Forsooth Joshua and all the multitude of Israel gave place, feigning dread, and fleeing (away) by the way of (the) wilderness;

¹⁶ and the men cried together, and with gladness stirred themselves together (and with gladness stirred themselves up), and they pursued the men of Israel. And when they had gone away from the city,

¹⁷ and soothly not one had (been) left in the city of Ai and Bethel, that pursued not Israel, and they left the cities open, as they had broken out, (and truly there was no one left in the city of Ai, who did not pursue Israel, and they left the city wide open, when they had broken out,)

¹⁸ the Lord said to Joshua, Raise up the shield that is in thine hand, against the city of Ai; for I shall give it to thee. And when Joshua had raised up his banner against the city of Ai, [the Lord said to Joshua, Heave up thy sword that is in thine hand, against the city of Ai; for to thee I shall take it (for I shall deliver it to thee). And when he had heaved up the sword over against the city,]

¹⁹ the ambushments, that were hid, rose up anon; and they went to the city, and took [it], and burnt it. (those in ambush, who were hid, rose up at once; and they went into the city, and took it, and set it afire.)

²⁰ Forsooth the men of the city, that pursued Joshua, beheld, and saw the smoke of the(ir) city ascend till to (the) heaven(s); and they might no more flee hither and thither; most(ly) since they that had feigned flight, and went to (the) wilderness, withstood strongliest against the pursuers (now strongly withstood their pursuers).

²¹ And Joshua saw, and all Israel, that the city was taken, and that the smoke of the city went up; and he turned again, and killed the men of Ai. (And Joshua, and all of Israel, saw that the city was taken, and that the smoke of the city went up; and then they turned, and killed the men of Ai.)

²² And also those men that had taken and burnt the city, went out of the city against their enemies, and they began to smite the middle men of their enemies (And those men who had taken and set the city afire, now came out of the city against their enemies, and they began to strike down the enemies who were in their midst); and when their adversaries were slain behind and before, so that no man of so great [a] multitude was saved,

²³ they took also the king of Ai living (they took the king of Ai alive), and they brought him to Joshua.

²⁴ Therefore, when all the men were slain, that pursued Israel fleeing to desert, and had fallen by sword in the same place, the sons of Israel turned again, and destroyed the city of Ai. (And so, when all the men were killed, that Israel had pursued fleeing to the desert, and they had fallen by the sword in that place, then the Israelites turned back, and completely destroyed the city of Ai.)

²⁵ Forsooth they that felled down in the same day, from man till to woman, were twelve thousand of men, all men of the city of Ai. (And they who fell that day, from the men unto the women, were twelve thousand people, yea, all the inhabitants of the city of Ai.)

²⁶ For Joshua withdrew not his hand, which he had directed on high holding up his banner [that in height he put up holding the sword (that he had put on high holding up his sword)], till that all the dwellers of Ai were slain.

²⁷ And the sons of Israel parted to themselves the work beasts (And the Israelites divided among themselves the work beasts), and the prey of the city, as the Lord commanded to Joshua;

²⁸ and Joshua burnt that city (and Joshua burned down that city), and made it an everlasting burial.

²⁹ And he hanged the king thereof in a gibbet, till to the eventide, and the going down of the sun. And Joshua commanded, and they putted down his dead body from the cross; and they casted forth him in that entering of the city, and gathered on him a great heap of stones, which heap dwelleth till into present day. (And he hanged its king upon a gallows, or a tree, until the evening, and the going down of the sun. And then Joshua commanded, and they took down his dead body from the tree; and they threw him forth at the entrance to the city gate, and gathered upon him a great heap of stones, which heap remaineth there until this present day.)

³⁰ Then Joshua builded an altar to the Lord God of Israel in the hill of Ebal, (Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal,)

³¹ as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded to the sons of Israel, and (as) it is written in the book of Moses’ law, an altar of stones unpolished, that iron hath not touched. And he offered thereon burnt sacrifices to the Lord, and he offered also peaceable sacrifices; (as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded to the Israelites, and as it is written in the Book of the Law by Moses, yea, an altar of unpolished stones that iron hath not touched. And he offered on it burnt sacrifices to the Lord, and also peace offerings;)

³² and he wrote on the stones the Deuteronomy of Moses’ law, not all the book, but the ten behests only, which he had declared before the sons of Israel. (and he wrote on the stones the Deuteronomy of the Law by Moses, not all the book, but only the Ten Commandments, which he had declared before the Israelites.)

³³ And all the people, and the greater men in birth, and dukes, and judges, stood on either side of the ark, in the sight of (the) priests and deacons, that bare the ark of the bond of peace of the Lord; as a comeling, so and a man born in the land; the half part of them stood beside the hill Gerizim, and the half part of them stood beside the hill Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. And Joshua first blessed the people of Israel. (And all the people, and the men of great age, that is, the elders, and the leaders, and the judges, and the officers, stood on either side of the Ark, before the priests and the Levites, who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; a stranger as well as someone born in the land; half of them stood facing Mount Gerizim, and half of them stood facing Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. And first Joshua blessed the people of Israel.)

³⁴ And (then) after these things he read all the words of blessing and of cursing, and all things that were written in the book of (the) law.

³⁵ Joshua left nothing untouched of these things that Moses commanded; but he declared all things before all the multitude of Israel, to women, and little children, and to comelings that dwelled among them. (Joshua left nothing untouched of those things that Moses commanded; yea, he declared everything before all the multitude of Israel, including the women, and the little children, and the newcomers, or the foreigners, who lived among them.)