Joshua:8:2-22
Seeker Overlay ON
*
And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king :
only the spoil thereof ,
and the cattle thereof ,
shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves :
lay thee an ambush for the city behind it .
*
So Joshua arose ,
and all the people of war ,
to go up against Ai :
and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour ,
and sent them away by night .
*
And he commanded them ,
saying ,
Behold ,
ye shall lie in wait against the city ,
even behind the city :
go not very far from the city ,
but be ye all ready :
*
And I ,
and all the people that are with me ,
will approach unto the city :
and it shall come to pass ,
when they come out against us ,
as at the first ,
that we will flee before them ,
* (
For 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 :
therefore we will flee before them .
*
Then ye shall rise up from the ambush ,
and seize upon the city :
for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand .
*
And it shall be ,
when ye have taken the city ,
that ye shall set the city on fire :
according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do .
See ,
I have commanded you .
*
Joshua therefore sent them forth :
and they went to lie in ambush ,
and abode between Bethel and Ai ,
on the west side of Ai :
but Joshua lodged that night among the people .
*
And Joshua rose up early in the morning ,
and numbered the people ,
and went up ,
he and the elders of Israel ,
before the people to Ai .
*
And all the people ,
even the people of war that were with him ,
went up ,
and drew nigh ,
and came before the city ,
and pitched on the north side of Ai :
now there was a valley between them and Ai .
*
And he took about five thousand men ,
and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai ,
on the west side of the city .
*
And when they had set the people ,
even all the host that was on the north of the city ,
and their liers in wait on the west of the city ,
Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley .
*
And it came to pass ,
when the king of Ai saw it ,
that they hasted and rose up early ,
and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle ,
he and all his people ,
at a time appointed ,
before the plain ;
but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city .
*
And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them ,
and fled by the way of the wilderness .
*
And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them :
and they pursued after Joshua ,
and were drawn away from the city .
*
And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel ,
that went not out after Israel :
and they left the city open ,
and pursued after Israel .
*
And the LORD said unto Joshua ,
Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai ;
for I will give it into thine hand .
And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city .
*
And the ambush arose quickly out of their place ,
and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand :
and they entered into the city ,
and took it ,
and hasted and set the city on fire .
*
And 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 :
and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers .
*
And 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 slew the men of Ai .
*
And the other issued 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 ,
so that they let none of them remain or escape .