Joshua 8

DOUAI-RHEIMS	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 And the Lord said to Josue: Fear not, nor be thou dismayed: take with thee all the multitude of fighting men, arise and go up to the town of Hai. Behold I have delivered into thy hand the king thereof, and the people, and the city, and the land.	1 The LORD then said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the army with you and prepare to attack Ai. I have delivered the king of Ai into your power, with his people, city, and land.
2 And thou shalt do to the city of Hai, and to the king thereof, as thou hast done to Jericho, and to the king thereof: but the spoils and all the cattle you shall take for a prey to yourselves: lay an ambush for the city behind it.	2 Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king; except that you may take its spoil and livestock as booty. Set an ambush behind the city."
3 And Josue arose, and all the army of the fighting men with him, to go up against Hai: and he sent thirty thousand chosen valiant men in the night,	3 So Joshua and all the soldiers prepared to attack Ai. Picking out thirty thousand warriors, Joshua sent them off by night
4 And commanded them, saying: Lay an ambush behind the city: and go not very far from it: and be ye all ready.	4 with these orders: "See that you ambush the city from the rear, at no great distance; then all of you be on the watch.
5 But I and the rest of the multitude which is with me; will approach on the contrary side against the city. And when they shall come out against us, we will flee, and turn our backs, as we did before:	5 The rest of the people and I will come up to the city, and when they make a sortie against us as they did the last time, we will flee from them.
6 Till they pursuing us be drawn farther from the city: for they will think that we flee as before.	6 They will keep coming out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will think we are fleeing from them as we did the last time. When this occurs,
7 And whilst we are fleeing, and they pursuing, you shall arise out of the ambush, and shall destroy the city: and the Lord your God will deliver it into our hands.	7 rise from ambush and take possession of the city, which the LORD, your God, will deliver into your power.
8 And when you shall have taken it, set it on fire, and you shall do all things so as I have commanded.	8 When you have taken the city, set it afire in obedience to the LORD'S command. These are my orders to you."
9 And he sent them away, and they went on to the place of the ambush, and abode between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the city of Hai. But Josue stayed that night in the midst of the people,	9 Then Joshua sent them away. They went to the place of ambush, taking up their position to the west of Ai, toward Bethel. Joshua, however, spent that night in the plain.
10 And rising early in the morning, he mustered his soldiers, and went up with the ancients in the front of the army environed with the aid of the fighting men.	10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered the army and went up to Ai at its head, with the elders of Israel.
11 And when they were come, and were gone up over against the city, they stood on the north side of the city, between which and them there was a valley in the midst.	11 When all the troops he led were drawn up in position before the city, they pitched camp north of Ai, on the other side of the ravine.
12 And he had chosen five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the same city:	12 (He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city.)
13 But all the rest of the army went in battle array on the north side, so that the last of that multitude reached to the west side of the city. So Josue went that night, and stood in the midst of the valley.	13 Thus the people took up their stations, with the main body north of the city and the ambush west of it, and Joshua waited overnight among his troops.
14 And when the king of Hai saw this, he made haste in the morning, and went out with all the army of the city, and set it in battle array toward the desert, not knowing that there lay an ambush behind his back.	14 The king of Ai saw this, and he and all his army came out very early in the morning to engage Israel in battle at the descent toward the Arabah, not knowing that there was an ambush behind the city.
15 But Josue, and all Israel gave back, making as if they were afraid, and fleeing by the way of the wilderness.	15 Joshua and the main body of the Israelites fled in seeming defeat toward the desert,
16 But they shouting together, and encouraging one another, pursued them. And when they were come from the city,	16 till the last of the soldiers in the city had been called out to pursue them.
17 And not one remained in the city of Hai and of Bethel, that did not pursue after Israel, leaving the towns open as they had rushed out,	17 Since they were drawn away from the city, with every man engaged in this pursuit of Joshua and the Israelites, not a soldier remained in Ai (or Bethel), and the city was open and unprotected.
18 The Lord said to Josue: Lift up the shield that is in thy hand, towards the city of Hai, for I will deliver it to thee.	18 Then the LORD directed Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will deliver it into your power." Joshua stretched out the javelin in his hand toward the city,
19 And when he had lifted up his shield towards the city, the ambush that lay hid, rose up immediately: and going to the city, took it and set it on fire.	19 and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose from their post, rushed in, captured the city, and immediately set it on fire.
20 And the men of the city, that pursued after Josue, looking back and seeing the smoke of the city rise up to heaven, had no more power to flee this way or that way: especially as they that had counterfeited flight, end were going toward the wilderness, turned back most valiantly against them that pursued.	20 By the time the men of Ai looked back, the smoke from the city was already sky-high. Escape in any direction was impossible, because the Israelites retreating toward the desert now turned on their pursuers;
21 So Josue and all Israel seeing that the city was taken, and that the smoke of the city rose up, returned and slew the men of Hai.	21 for when Joshua and the main body of Israelites saw that the city had been taken from ambush and was going up in smoke, they struck back at the men of Ai.
22 And they also that had taken and set the city on fire, issuing out of the city to meet their own men, began to cut off the enemies who were surrounded by them. So that the enemies being cut off on both sides, not one of so great a multitude was saved.	22 Since those in the city came out to intercept them, the men of Ai were hemmed in by Israelites on either side, who cut them down without any fugitives or survivors
23 And they took the king of the city of Hai alive, and brought him to Josue.	23 except the king, whom they took alive and brought to Joshua.
24 So all being slain that had pursued after Israel in his flight to the wilderness, and tailing by the sword in the same place, the children of Israel returned and laid waste the city.	24 All the inhabitants of Ai who had pursued the Israelites into the desert were slain by the sword there in the open, down to the last man. Then all Israel returned and put to the sword those inside the city.
25 And the number of them that fell that day, both of men and women, was twelve thousand persons all of the city of Hai.	25 There fell that day a total of twelve thousand men and women, the entire population of Ai.
26 But Josue drew not back his hand, which he had stretched out on high, holding the shield, till all the inhabitants of Hai were slain.	26 Joshua kept the javelin in his hand stretched out until he had fulfilled the doom on all the inhabitants of Ai.
27 And the children of Israel divided among them the cattle and the prey of the city, as the Lord had commanded Josue.	27 However, the Israelites took for themselves as booty the livestock and the spoil of that city, according to the command of the LORD issued to Joshua.
28 And he burned the city, and made it a heap for ever:	28 Then Joshua destroyed the place by fire, reducing it to an everlasting mound of ruins, as it remains today.
29 And he hung the king thereof on a gibbet until the evening and the going down of the sun. Then Josue commanded, and they took down his carcass from the gibbet: and threw it in the very entrance of the city, heaping upon it a great heap of stones, which remaineth until this present day.	29 He had the king of Ai hanged on a tree until evening; then at sunset Joshua ordered the body removed from the tree and cast at the entrance of the city gate, where a great heap of stones was piled up over it, which remains to the present day.
30 Then Josue built an altar to the Lord the God of Israel in mount Hebal,	30 Later Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
31 As Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, and it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of unhewn stones which iron had not touched: and he offered upon it holocausts to the Lord, and immolated victims of peace offerings.	31 of unhewn stones on which no iron tool had been used, in keeping with the command to the Israelites of Moses, the servant of the LORD, as recorded in the book of the law. On this altar they offered holocausts and peace offerings to the LORD.
32 And he wrote upon stones the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he had ordered before the children of Israel.	32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed upon the stones a copy of the law written by Moses.
33 And all the people, and the ancients, and the princes and judges stood on both sides of the ark, before the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, both the stranger and he that was born among them, half of them by mount Garizim, and half by mount Hebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. And first he blessed the people of Israel.	33 And all Israel, stranger and native alike, with their elders, officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark facing the levitical priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Half of them were facing Mount Gerizim and half Mount Ebal, thus carrying out the instructions of Moses, the servant of the LORD, for the blessing of the people of Israel on this first occasion.
34 After this he read all the words of the blessing and the cursing and all things that were written in the hook of the law.	34 Then were read aloud all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, exactly as written in the book of the law.
35 He left out nothing of those things which Moses had commanded, but he repeated all before all the people of Israel, with the women and children and strangers that dwelt among them.	35 Every single word that Moses had commanded, Joshua read aloud to the entire community, including the women and children, and the strangers who had accompanied Israel.