nkjv Joshua:8:2-22 SEEK
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And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king .
Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves .
Lay an ambush for the city behind it ."
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So Joshua arose ,
and all the people of war ,
to go up against Ai ;
and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night .
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And he commanded them ,
saying : "
Behold ,
you shall lie in ambush against the city ,
behind the city .
Do not go very far from the city ,
but all of you be ready .
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Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city ;
and it will come about ,
when they come out against us as at the first ,
that we shall flee before them .
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For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city ,
for they will say , "
They are fleeing before us as at the first .'
Therefore we will flee before them .
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Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city ,
for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand .
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And it will be ,
when you have taken the city ,
that you shall set the city on fire .
According to the commandment of the LORD you shall do .
See ,
I have commanded you ."
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Joshua therefore sent them out ;
and they went to lie in ambush ,
and stayed between Bethel and Ai ,
on the west side of Ai ;
but Joshua lodged that night among the people .
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Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered 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 who were with him went up and drew near ;
and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai .
Now a valley lay between them and Ai .
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So 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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And when they had set the people ,
all the army that was on the north of the city ,
and its rear guard on the west of the city ,
Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley .
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Now it happened ,
when the king of Ai saw it ,
that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle ,
he and all his people ,
at an appointed place before the plain .
But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city .
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And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them ,
and fled by the way of the wilderness .
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So all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them .
And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city .
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There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel .
So they left the city open and pursued Israel .
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Then the LORD said to Joshua , "
Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai ,
for I will give it into your hand ."
And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city .
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So those in ambush arose quickly out of their place ;
they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand ,
and they entered the city and took it ,
and hurried to set the city on fire .
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And when the men of Ai looked behind them ,
they saw ,
and behold ,
the smoke of the city ascended to heaven .
So they had no power to flee this way or that way ,
and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers .
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Now when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended ,
they turned back and struck down the men of Ai .
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Then the others came out of the city against them ;
so they were caught in the midst of Israel ,
some on this side and some on that side .
And they struck them down ,
so that they let none of them remain or escape .