Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Fall of Ai

8 And the Lord said to Joshua, ^(A)“Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, ^(B)I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. ² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did ^(C)to Jericho and its king. Only ^(D)its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.”

³ So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. ⁴ And he commanded them, “Behold, ^(E)you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. ⁵ And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us ^(F)just as before, we shall flee before them. ⁶ And they will come out after us, until we have ^(G)drawn them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before them. ⁷ Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. ⁸ And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. ^(H)See, I have commanded you.” ⁹ So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people.

¹⁰ Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. ¹¹ And ^(I)all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. ¹² He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³ So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. ¹⁴ And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place^[a] toward ^(J)the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. ^(K)But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. ¹⁵ And Joshua and all Israel ^(L)pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. ¹⁶ So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they ^(M)were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷ Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, ^(N)“Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹ And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire. ²⁰ So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. ²¹ And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. ²² And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was ^(O)left none that survived or escaped. ²³ But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua.

Do Not Grow Weary

^3 (A)Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or ^(B)fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. ^(F)God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ If you are left without discipline, ^(G)in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to ^(H)the Father of spirits ^(I)and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, ^(J)that we may share his holiness. ^11 (K)For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields ^(L)the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

¹² Therefore ^(M)lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and ^(N)make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint ^(O)but rather be healed.