Joshua 8:24-35

New International Version

²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. ²⁵ Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.^{(A) 26} For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin^(B) until he had destroyed^[a](C) all who lived in Ai.^{(D) 27} But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua.^(E)

²⁸ So Joshua burned^(F) Ai^[b](G) and made it a permanent heap of ruins,^(H) a desolate place to this day.^{(I) 29} He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset,^(J) Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks^(K) over it, which remains to this day.

The Covenant Renewed at Mount Ebal

³⁰ Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal^(L) an altar^(M) to the Lord, the God of Israel, ³¹ as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool^(N) had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings.^{(O) 32} There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses.^{(P) 33} All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical^(Q) priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born^(R) were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal,^(S) as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

³⁴ Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law.^{(T) 35} There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.^(U)