All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city.

Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand.

The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers.

For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai.

But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

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.

Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.

For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai.

So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day.

He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, 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 over it, which remains to this day.

However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

The Sun Stands Still

Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies.

He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters.

On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

the king of Jericho one the king of Ai (near Bethel) one

Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain and Rimmon—a total of twenty-nine towns and their villages.

Ain, Rimmon, Ether and Ashan—four towns and their villages—

Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah,

Ain, Juttah and Beth Shemesh, together with their pasturelands—nine towns from these two tribes.

Aijalon and Gath Rimmon, together with their pasturelands—four towns.

And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor.

Then Elon died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

That day, after the Israelites had struck down the Philistines from Mikmash to Aijalon, they were exhausted.