Joshua:8:1-29
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Yahweh said to Joshua , "
Don '
t be afraid ,
neither be dismayed .
Take all the people of war with you ,
and arise ,
go up to Ai .
Behold ,
I have given into your hand the king of Ai ,
with his people ,
his city ,
and his land .
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You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king ,
except its spoil and its livestock ,
you shall take for a plunder for yourselves .
Set an ambush for the city behind it ."
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So Joshua arose ,
and all the people of war ,
to go up to Ai .
Joshua chose thirty thousand men ,
the mighty men of valor ,
and sent them out by night .
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He commanded them ,
saying , "
Behold ,
you shall lie in ambush against the city ,
behind the city .
Don '
t go very far from the city ,
but all of you be ready .
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I ,
and all the people who are with me ,
will approach to the city .
It shall happen ,
when they come out against us ,
as at the first ,
that we will flee before them .
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They will come out after us ,
until we have drawn them away from the city ;
for they will say , '
They flee before us ,
like the first time .'
So we will flee before them ,
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and you shall rise up from the ambush ,
and take possession of the city ;
for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand .
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It shall be ,
when you have seized on the city ,
that you shall set the city on fire .
You shall do this according to the word of Yahweh .
Behold ,
I have commanded you ."
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Joshua sent them out ;
and they went to set up the ambush ,
and stayed between Bethel and Ai ,
on the west side of Ai ;
but Joshua stayed among the people that night .
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Joshua rose up early in the morning ,
mustered the people ,
and went up ,
he and the elders of Israel ,
before the people to Ai .
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All the people ,
even the men of war who were with him ,
went up ,
and drew near ,
and came before the city ,
and encamped on the north side of Ai .
Now there was a valley between him and Ai .
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He took about five thousand men ,
and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai ,
on the west side of the city .
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So they set the people ,
even all the army who was on the north of the city ,
and their ambush on the west of the city ;
and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley .
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It happened ,
when the king of Ai saw it ,
that they hurried and rose up early ,
and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle ,
he and all his people ,
at the time appointed ,
before the Arabah ;
but he didn '
t know that there was an ambush against him behind the city .
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Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them ,
and fled by the way of the wilderness .
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All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them .
They pursued Joshua ,
and were drawn away from the city .
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There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who didn '
t go out after Israel .
They left the city open ,
and pursued Israel .
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Yahweh said to Joshua , "
Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai ,
for I will give it into your hand ."
Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city .
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The ambush arose quickly out of their place ,
and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand ,
and entered into the city ,
and took it .
They hurried and set the city on fire .
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When the men of Ai looked behind them ,
they saw ,
and behold ,
the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven ,
and they had no power to flee this way or that way .
The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on 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 ascended ,
then they turned again ,
and killed the men of Ai .
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The others came out of the city against them ,
so they were in the midst of Israel ,
some on this side ,
and some on that side .
They struck them ,
so that they let none of them remain or escape .
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They captured the king of Ai alive ,
and brought him to Joshua .
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It happened ,
when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field ,
in the wilderness in which they pursued them ,
and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword ,
until they were consumed ,
that all Israel returned to Ai ,
and struck it with the edge of the sword .
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All that fell that day ,
both of men and women ,
were twelve thousand ,
even all the men of Ai .
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For Joshua didn '
t draw back his hand ,
with which he stretched out the javelin ,
until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai .
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Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves ,
according to the word of Yahweh which he commanded Joshua .
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So Joshua burnt Ai ,
and made it a heap forever ,
even a desolation ,
to this day .
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He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening ,
and at the sundown 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 a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day .
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