³ And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called ^[a]Hormah.

Vengeance on the Midianites

31 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ^2 (A)“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall ^(B)be gathered to your people.”

³ So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Lord on ^(C)Midian. ⁴ A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.”

⁵ So there were recruited from the divisions of Israel one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. ⁶ Then Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from each tribe; he sent them to the war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the holy articles and ^(D)the signal trumpets in his hand. ⁷ And they warred against the Midianites, just as the Lord commanded Moses, and ^(E)they killed all the ^(F)males.

²⁰ Then ^(A)Moses said to them: “If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, ²¹ and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him,

A Chosen People^(A)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(B)possess, and has cast out many ^(C)nations before you, ^(D)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(E)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(F)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.

The Commander of the Army of the Lord

¹³ And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, ^(A)a Man stood opposite him ^(B)with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”

¹⁴ So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

And Joshua ^(C)fell on his face to the earth and ^(D)worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”

¹⁵ Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ^(E)“Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

²⁰ So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that ^(A)the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. ²¹ And they ^(B)utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

The Fall of Ai

8 Now the Lord said to Joshua: ^(A)“Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, ^(B)I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. ² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to ^(C)Jericho and its king. Only ^(D)its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it.”

³ So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. ⁴ And he commanded them, saying: “Behold, ^(E)you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. ⁵ Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first, that ^(F)we shall flee before them. ⁶ For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ Therefore we will flee before them. ⁷ Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. ⁸ And it will be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the Lord you shall do. ^(G)See, I have commanded you.”

²⁹ Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, to ^(A)Libnah; and they fought against Libnah. ³⁰ And the Lord also delivered it and its king into the hand of Israel; he struck it and all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword. He let none remain in it, but did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.

³¹ Then Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, to Lachish; and they encamped against it and fought against it. ³² And the Lord delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, who took it on the second day, and struck it and all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, according to all that he had done to Libnah.

⁷ So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and they attacked them. ⁸ And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who defeated them and chased them to ^[a]Greater ^(A)Sidon, to the ^[b]Brook ^(B)Misrephoth, and to the Valley of Mizpah eastward; they attacked them until they left none of them remaining. ⁹ So Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

¹⁰ Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor, and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms. ¹¹ And they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, ^(C)utterly destroying them. There was none left ^(D)breathing. Then he burned Hazor with fire.

¹² So all the cities of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua took and struck with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed them, ^(E)as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. ¹³ But as for the cities that stood on their ^[c]mounds, Israel burned none of them, except Hazor only, which Joshua burned. ¹⁴ And all the ^(F)spoil of these cities and the livestock, the children of Israel took as booty for themselves; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they left none breathing. ^15 (G)As the Lord had commanded Moses His servant, so ^(H)Moses commanded Joshua, and ^(I)so Joshua did. ^[d]He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

Summary of Joshua’s Conquests

¹⁶ Thus Joshua took all this land: ^(J)the mountain country, all the South, ^(K)all the land of Goshen, the lowland, and the Jordan ^[e]plain—the mountains of Israel and its lowlands, ^17 (L)from ^[f]Mount Halak and the ascent to Seir, even as far as Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured ^(M)all their kings, and struck them down and killed them. ¹⁸ Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. ¹⁹ There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except ^(N)the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others they took in battle. ²⁰ For ^(O)it was of the Lord ^[g]to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, ^(P)as the Lord had commanded Moses.