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Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men with you, and go up and attack Ai. See, I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off its spoil and livestock as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.
3 So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to go up and attack Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand of his best soldiers and sent them away by night. 4 He commanded them: “Listen carefully. You are to lie in ambush against the city, from 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 advance on the city, and when they come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will come after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, as they did before’. So when we flee from them, 7 you will come out from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, you are to set the city on fire. You must do as the Lord has commanded. See that you do as I have ordered you.”
9 Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to place of the ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
10 Joshua started early the next morning and mustered the troops, and he and the elders of Israel led them up to Ai. 11 All the fighting men who were with him went up and approached the city, and they arrived at the front of it. They camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and Ai. 12 Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So they had the fighting men take up their positions, with the main camp to the north of the city, and its rear guard to the west of the city. And Joshua stayed in the valley that night.
14 When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle, so they could attack Israel at a certain place facing the Arabah. But he did not know that there was an ambush set against him behind the city. 15 Joshua and all Israel made out that they were beaten back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. 16 Then all the men in Ai were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. 17 Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel, and they left the city unguarded and pursued Israel.
18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua held out the javelin in his hand toward the city. 19 As soon as he held out his hand, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it. Then they immediately set the city on fire.
20 When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke of the city rising into the sky. They had no chance to escape in any direction, for the Israelites who had been fleeing into the wilderness turned back on their pursuers. 21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was rising from it, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. 22 The men of the ambush also came out from the city against them, so the men of Ai were surrounded by the Israelites, some on this side and some on the other side. They struck them down until no one was left who survived or escaped. 23 But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. 25 The number of those who fell that day, both men and women was twelve thousand—all the people of Ai. 26 For Joshua did not draw back his hand that was holding out the javelin until he had completely destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 27 Israel plundered only the livestock and the spoil of that city for themselves, according to the command that the Lord had given Joshua.
28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap of ruins permanently, a desolation to this day. 29 He hung the king of Ai from a tree, and left him there until evening. Then at sunset Joshua commanded that they take his body down from the tree. They threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones over it that remains to this day.
30 Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, 31 just 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 man had used an iron tool. Then they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 All Israel, both foreigners and citizens alike, with their elders, officials, and judges stood on either side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded them, to bless the Israelites.
34 After this, he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and the curses, according to that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who were with them.