1. And Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not fear, nor be afraid. Take all the people of war with you, and rise up, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land into your hand.
2. And you shall do to Ai and to its king as you have done to Jericho and its king. Only, its spoil and its cattle you shall take for yourselves. Set yourself an ambush for the city behind it.
3. And Joshua rose up, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty warriors and sent them away by night.
4. And he commanded them, saying, See, you will be an ambush against the city, behind the city. You shall not go very far off from the city, and all of you shall be ready.
5. And I and all the people with me shall draw near to the city. And it shall be, when they come out to meet us as at the first, and we have fled before them,
6. and they will come out after us until we have drawn them out of the city. For they will say, They are fleeing before us, as at the first. And we will flee from them;
7. then you shall rise from the ambush and shall possess the city. And Jehovah your God shall give it into your hand.
8. And it shall be when you capture the city, you shall burn the city with fire. You shall do according to the Word of Jehovah. See, I have commanded you.
9. And Joshua sent them away, and they went to the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west of Ai. And Joshua remained that night in the midst of the people.
10. And Joshua rose early in the morning and called up the people, and they went up, he and the elders of Israel in the sight of the people of Ai.
11. And all the people of war with him went up and drew near, and came before the city. And they camped on the north of Ai, and the valley was between him and Ai.
12. And he took about five thousand men and set them as an ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west of the city.
13. And they set the people, all the camp on the north of the city; and its rear on the west of the city. And Joshua went into the middle of the valley on that night.
14. And it happened, when the king of Ai saw, the men of the city rose early and hurried to go out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed time before the plain. He did not know that an ambush was against him behind the city.
15. And Joshua and all Israel were stricken before them, and they fled the way of the wilderness.
16. And all the people in the city were called to chase them. And they pursued Joshua, and were drawn away out of the city.
17. And there was not a man left in Ai and Bethel who had not gone out after Israel. And they left the city open, and chased Israel.
18. And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin in your hand toward Ai. For I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin in his hand toward the city.
19. And the ambush rose up quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered the city, and took it. And they hastened and burned the city with fire.
20. And the men of Ai looked behind them, and saw; and, behold! The smoke of the city had gone up into the heaven. And there was no power in them to flee here or there. And the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.
21. And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city had gone up. And they turned back and struck the men of Ai.
22. And the others came out from the city to meet them. And they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that. And they struck them until not a survivor was left to them, not one that escaped.
23. And they caught the king of Ai and brought him alive to Joshua.
24. And it happened, when Israel had made an end to slaying all the ones living in Ai in the field, even in the wilderness where they pursued them (and they, all of them, fell by the mouth of the sword until they were consumed) all Israel turned back to Ai, and struck it with the mouth of the sword.
25. And all who fell during that day, of men and of women, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai.
26. And Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had destroyed all the ones living in Ai.
27. Only, Israel seized for themselves the livestock, and the plunder of the city, according to the Word of Jehovah which He commanded Joshua.
28. And Joshua burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.
29. And he hanged the king of Ai on the tree until evening time. And at sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his dead body down from the tree, and threw it into the opening of the gate of the city; and raised over it a great heap of stones until this day.
30. Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal,
31. as Moses, the servant of Jehovah, commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses; an altar of whole stones, on which had been wielded no iron. And they offered upon it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and offered peace offerings.
32. And he wrote there on the stones the copy of the Law of Moses which he had written in the presence of the sons of Israel.
33. And all Israel, and its elders, and authorities, and its judges were standing on this side, the alien as well as the native, and on that of the ark, before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.
34. And afterward he read all the Words of the Law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that was written in the book of the Law.
35. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens that walked among them.