Joshua 8

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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.	1 Then the Lord said to Joshua: “You should not fear, and you should not dread. Take with you the entire multitude of fighters, and rising up, ascend to the town of Ai. Behold, I have delivered into your hand its king and people, and the city and the land.
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."	2 And you shall do to the city of Ai, and to its king, just as you did to Jericho, and to its king. Yet truly, the spoils, and all the living things, you shall plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush against the city behind it.”
3 So Joshua and all the soldiers prepared to attack Ai. Picking out thirty thousand warriors, Joshua sent them off by night	3 And Joshua rose up, and the entire army of warriors with him, so that they might ascend against Ai. And he sent thirty thousand elect strong men in the night.
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.	4 And he instructed them, saying: “Set an ambush behind the city. You shall withdraw not far away, and let everyone be prepared.
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.	5 But I and the remainder of the multitude that is with me will approach from the opposite side of the city. And when they come out against us, we will flee and turn our backs, just as we did 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,	6 until, pursuing us, they are drawn away from the city. For they will think that we are fleeing as before.
7 rise from ambush and take possession of the city, which the LORD, your God, will deliver into your power.	7 Then, while we are fleeing and they are pursuing, you shall rise up from the ambush, and you shall lay waste to the city. And the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands.
8 When you have taken the city, set it afire in obedience to the LORD'S command. These are my orders to you."	8 And when you have seized it, set it on fire. And you shall do all that I have ordered.”
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.	9 And he sent them away, and they traveled to the place of the ambush, and they settled between Bethel and Ai, toward the western region of the city of Ai. But Joshua remained for that night in the midst of the people.
10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered the army and went up to Ai at its head, with the elders of Israel.	10 And rising at first light, he reviewed his troops, and he went up, with the elders at the front of the army, surrounded by an auxiliary of fighters.
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.	11 And when they had arrived, and had ascended from the opposite side of the city, they stood toward the northern region of the city. And there was a valley in the middle, between them and the city.
12 (He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city.)	12 Now he had chosen five thousand men, and he had positioned them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, at the western part of the same city.
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.	13 Yet truly, all the remainder of the army was arranged in a line to the north, so that the very end of that multitude reached to the western region of the city. Then Joshua went out that night, and he stood in the middle of the valley.
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.	14 And when the king of Ai had seen this, he hurried in the morning, and he went out with the entire army of the city. And he arranged them in a line opposite the desert, not knowing that an ambush lay hidden behind his back.
15 Joshua and the main body of the Israelites fled in seeming defeat toward the desert,	15 Yet truly, Joshua, and all of Israel, withdrew from the place, pretending to be afraid, and fleeing along the way of the wilderness.
16 till the last of the soldiers in the city had been called out to pursue them.	16 And they pursued them, shouting together and encouraging one another. And when they had withdrawn from the city,
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.	17 and indeed not one remained in the city of Ai and of Bethel who did not pursue after Israel, (leaving the towns open after they had rushed out,)
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,	18 the Lord said to Joshua: “Lift up the shield that is in your hand, toward the city of Ai. For I will deliver it to you.”
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.	19 And when he had lifted up the shield toward the city, the ambush, which lay hidden, rose up quickly. And advancing to the city, they seized it, and set it on fire.
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;	20 Now the men of the city who were pursuing Joshua, looking back and seeing the smoke of the city rising up even to heaven, were no longer able to flee in one direction or another, especially since those who had pretended to flee, and who were heading toward the wilderness, had turned back very strongly against those who were pursuing them.
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.	21 And Joshua, and all of Israel, seeing that the city had been captured, and that the smoke of the city was ascending, returned and struck down the men of Ai.
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	22 Then too, those who had seized and set the city on fire, departing from the city toward their own men, began to strike the enemies in the middle. Therefore, since the adversaries were cut off from both sides, none of so great a multitude was saved.
23 except the king, whom they took alive and brought to Joshua.	23 Also, they apprehended the king of the city of Ai, alive, and they brought him before Joshua.
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.	24 And so, after all were slain who had pursued Israel fleeing toward the wilderness, and after they fell by the sword in the same place, the sons of Israel returned and struck the city.
25 There fell that day a total of twelve thousand men and women, the entire population of Ai.	25 Now there were twelve thousand persons who had fallen on the same day, from man even to woman, the entire city of Ai.
26 Joshua kept the javelin in his hand stretched out until he had fulfilled the doom on all the inhabitants of Ai.	26 Truly Joshua did not draw back his hand, which he had stretched out on high, keeping hold of the shield until all the inhabitants of Ai were put to death.
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.	27 Then the sons of Israel divided among themselves the cattle and the plunder of the city, just as the Lord had instructed Joshua.
28 Then Joshua destroyed the place by fire, reducing it to an everlasting mound of ruins, as it remains today.	28 And he set fire to the city, and he caused it to be a perpetual tomb.
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.	29 Also, he suspended the king on a gallows, until evening and the setting of the sun. And Joshua instructed, and they took down his dead body from the hanging tree. And they cast it at the very entrance of the city, gathering a great pile of stones upon it, which remains even to the present day.
30 Later Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,	30 Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
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.	31 just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had instructed to the sons of Israel, and this was written in the book of the law of Moses: truly, an altar of uncut stones, which iron has not touched. And he offered holocausts upon it to the Lord, and he immolated victims as peace-offerings.
32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed upon the stones a copy of the law written by Moses.	32 And he wrote on the stones, the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he had set in order before the sons 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.	33 Then all the people, and those greater by birth, and the commanders and judges were standing on both sides of the ark, in the sight of the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, with both the new arrival and the native born, one half part of them beside Mount Gerizim, and one half beside Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had instructed. And first, certainly, he blessed the people of Israel.
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.	34 After this, he read all the words of the blessing and the cursing, and all the things that were written in the book of the law.
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.	35 He left nothing untouched out of those things that Moses had ordered, and he repeated everything before the entire multitude of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the new arrivals who were staying among them.