Dual Panel1Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the entire army and attack Ai, for I have given to you the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.
2You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the captured goods and the cattle for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city."
3So Joshua and the army of Israel set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand fighting men and sent them out at night
4with these orders: "Hide in ambush close behind the city and be ready for action.
5When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them.
6We will let them chase us until they have all left the city. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’
7Then you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the LORD your God will give it to you.
8Set the city on fire, as the LORD has commanded. You have your orders."
9So they left that night and lay in ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night.
10Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the leaders of Israel.
11They camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the city.
12That night Joshua sent five thousand men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13So they stationed the main army north of the city and the ambush west of the city. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.
14When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurriedly went out early the next morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the city.
15Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten,
16and all the men in the city were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the city.
17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the city was left wide open.
18Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city." Joshua did as he was commanded.
19As soon as Joshua gave the signal, the men in ambush jumped up and poured into the city. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.
20When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the city was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers.
21When Joshua and the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the city, they turned and attacked the men of Ai.
22Then the Israelites who were inside the city came out and started killing the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in a trap, and all of them died. Not a single person survived or escaped.
23Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.
24When the Israelite army finished killing all the men outside the city, they went back and finished off everyone inside.
25So the entire population of Ai was wiped out that day––twelve thousand in all.
26For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.
27Only the cattle and the treasures of the city were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.
28So Ai became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.
29Joshua hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body and threw it in front of the city gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today.
30Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal.
31He followed the instructions that Moses the LORD’s servant had written in the Book of the Law: "Make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools." Then on the altar they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.
32And as the Israelites watched, Joshua copied the law of Moses onto the stones of the altar.
33Then all the Israelites––foreigners and citizens alike––along with the leaders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood at the foot of Mount Gerizim, the other at the foot of Mount Ebal. Each group faced the other, and between them stood the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the LORD’s covenant. This was all done according to the instructions Moses, the servant of the LORD, had given for blessing the people of Israel.
34Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of the Law.
35Every command Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among the Israelites.