Joshua:8
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And Jehovah said to Joshua ,
Fear not ,
neither be dismayed .
Take with thee all the people of war ,
and arise ,
go up to Ai .
See ,
I have given into thy hand the king of Ai ,
and his people ,
and his city ,
and his land .
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And thou shalt do to Ai and to its king as thou didst to Jericho and to its king ;
only ,
the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof shall ye take as prey for yourselves .
Set an ambush against the city behind it .
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And Joshua arose ,
and all the people of war ,
to go up to Ai .
And Joshua chose thirty thousand valiant men ,
and sent them away by night .
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And he commanded them ,
saying ,
See ,
ye shall be in ambush against the city ,
behind the city :
go not very far from the city ,
and be all of you ready .
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And I and all the people that are with me will approach to the city ;
and it shall come to pass when they come out against us ,
as at the first ,
that we will flee before them .
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And they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city ;
for they will say ,
They flee before us ,
as at the first ;
and we will flee before them .
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And ye shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city ;
and Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand .
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And it shall be when ye have taken the city ,
that ye shall set the city on fire ;
according to the word of Jehovah shall ye do .
See ,
I have commanded you .
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And Joshua sent them forth ;
and they went to lie in ambush ,
and abode between Bethel and Ai ,
on the west of Ai .
And Joshua lodged that night among the people .
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And Joshua rose early in the morning ,
and inspected the people ,
and went up ,
he and the elders of Israel ,
before the people to Ai .
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And all the people of war that were with him went up ,
and drew near ,
and came before the city ;
and they encamped on the north of Ai ;
and the valley was between them and Ai .
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Now he had taken about five thousand men ,
and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai ,
on the west of the city .
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And when they had set the people ,
the whole camp on the north of the city ,
and their ambush on the west of the city ,
Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley .
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And it came to pass when the king of Ai saw it ,
that the men of the city hasted and rose early ,
and went out against Israel to battle ,
he and all his people ,
at the appointed place before the plain .
But he knew not that there was an ambush against him behind the city .
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And Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten before them ;
and they fled by the way of the wilderness .
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And all the people that were in the city were called together to pursue after them ;
and they pursued after Joshua ,
and were drawn away from the city .
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And not a man remained in Ai and Bethel that went not out after Israel ;
and they left the city open ,
and pursued after Israel .
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And Jehovah said to Joshua ,
Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai ;
for I will give it into thy hand .
And Joshua stretched out the javelin that he had in his hand toward the city .
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And the ambush arose quickly from their place ,
and they ran when he stretched out his hand ,
and came into the city ,
and took it ,
and hasted and set the city on fire .
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And the men of Ai turned and saw ,
and behold ,
the smoke of the city went up to heaven ,
and they had no power to flee this way or that way ;
and the people that fled to the wilderness turned upon the pursuers .
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When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city ,
and that the smoke of the city went up ,
they turned again ,
and slew the men of Ai .
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And the others went out of the city against them ;
so they were in the midst of Israel ,
some on this side ,
and some on that side ;
and they smote them ,
until they let none of them escape or flee away .
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And the king of Ai they took alive ,
and brought him to Joshua .
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And it came to pass when Israel had ended slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field ,
in the wilderness wherein they had chased them ,
and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword ,
until they were consumed ,
that all Israel returned to Ai ,
and smote it with the edge of the sword .
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And so it was ,
that all who fell that day ,
men as well as women ,
were twelve thousand ,
all the people of Ai .
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And Joshua did not draw back his hand ,
which he had stretched out with the javelin ,
until they had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai .
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Only ,
the cattle and the spoil of the city Israel took as prey to themselves ,
according to the word of Jehovah which he had commanded Joshua .
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And Joshua burned Ai ,
and made it an everlasting heap of desolation to this day .
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And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening ;
and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded ,
and they took his carcase down from the tree ,
and threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city ,
and raised upon it a great heap of stones , [
which remains ]
to this day .
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Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah the God of Israel ,
in mount Ebal ,
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as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel ,
as it is written in the book of the law of Moses ,
an altar of whole stones ,
over which iron had not been lifted up .
And they offered up burnt-offerings on it to Jehovah ,
and sacrificed peace-offerings .
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And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses ,
which he had written before the children of Israel .
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And all Israel ,
and their elders ,
and their officers and judges ,
stood on this side and on that side of the ark before the priests the Levites ,
who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah ,
as well the stranger as the home-born [
Israelite ];
half of them toward mount Gerizim ,
and the other half of them toward mount Ebal ;
as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded ,
that they should bless the people of Israel ,
in the beginning .
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And afterwards 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 .
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There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua read not before the whole congregation of Israel ,
and the women ,
and the children ,
and the strangers that lived among them .