Joshua 8:12-28

¹²Then Joshua chose about 5,000 men and told them to go and hide just west of the city, between Ai and Bethel.

¹³So those men did that. The main group of soldiers was north of the city, and the others were hiding west of the city. That night Joshua went down into the valley.

¹⁴When the king of Ai saw the Israeli army, he and his soldiers got up early the next morning and quickly went out of the city to fight them. They went to a place east of the city, but they did not know that some Israeli soldiers were hiding behind the city.

¹⁵Joshua and the Israeli soldiers who were with him allowed the army of Ai to push them back. They ran toward the desert.

¹⁶The men in Ai were ordered to chase after Joshua and his men. So they left the city and started to pursue the Israelis.

¹⁷All the men of Ai and the men of Bethel pursued the Israeli army. They did not leave even one man in Ai to defend it. The gates of the city were left wide open.

¹⁸Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “ Lift up your spear and point it toward Ai, because I am going to enable your soldiers to capture it!” So Joshua pointed his spear toward Ai.

¹⁹When the Israeli men who were hiding saw that, they rushed out from the places where they were hiding and ran into the city. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.

²⁰When the men of Ai looked back, they saw smoke rising from their city. But they could not escape, because the Israeli troops stopped running away.

²¹Joshua and his men saw that the men who had been hiding had captured the city and were burning it, and they saw the smoke rising. So they turned around and started to attack the men of Ai.

²²Meanwhile, the soldiers who had captured the city came out and attacked them from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught between the two groups of Israeli soldiers. None of the men of Ai escaped. The Israelis fought until they killed all of them. Only the king of Ai was still alive.

²³Then they seized the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴While they were fighting, the Israeli army pursued the men of Ai into the fields and into the desert, and killed all of them. Then they went to Ai and killed everyone who was there.

²⁵They killed 12,000 men and women.

²⁶Joshua continued to point his spear LIT toward Ai, until all the people in Ai had been killed.

²⁷The Israeli soldiers took for themselves the animals and the other things that had belonged to the people of Ai, just like Yahweh had told Joshua that they should do.

²⁸Joshua and his soldiers burned Ai city and caused it to become a pile of ruins. It is still like that today.