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

  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.
And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the
city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you
remain ready. And I and all the people who are with me will
approach the city. And when they come out against us just as
before, we shall flee before them. And they will come out after us,
until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say,
‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before
them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city,
for the LORD your God will give it into your hand. 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. See, I have commanded you.”
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.

  Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and
went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And
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. He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush
between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 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. 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 toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he
did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and
fled in the direction of the wilderness. So all the people who were
in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they
pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. Not a man was
left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the
city open and pursued Israel.

  Then the LORD said to Joshua, “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. 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. 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.
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. 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 left none that survived or escaped. But the king of
Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua.

  When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the
open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the
very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned
to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. And all who
fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of
Ai. But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched
out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to
destruction. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel
took as their plunder, according to the word of the LORD that he
commanded Joshua. So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of
ruins, as it is to this day. And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree
until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his
body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of
the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands
there to this day.

  At that time Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of
Israel, on Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had
commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the
Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has
wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to
the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence
of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law
of Moses, which he had written. And all Israel, sojourner as well
as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges,
stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who
carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front
of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as
Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, to bless
the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the
law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written
in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses
commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of
Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who
lived among them.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001
by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.