Joshua 8:12-28

¹²He took about five thousand men and set them in ambush on the west side of the city between Bethel and Ai.

¹³They positioned all the soldiers, the main army on the north side of the city, and the rear guard on the west side of the city. Joshua spent that night in the valley.

¹⁴It came about when the king of Ai saw it, he and his army got up early and rushed out to attack Israel at a certain place that was overlooking the Jordan River valley. He did not know that an ambush was waiting to attack from behind the city.

¹⁵Joshua and all Israel let themselves be defeated before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.

¹⁶All the people who were in the city were called together to go after them, and they went after Joshua and they were drawn away from the city.

¹⁷There was not a man left in Ai and Bethel who had not gone out to pursue Israel. They abandoned the city and left it open as they pursued Israel.

¹⁸Yahweh said to Joshua, “Point that spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give Ai into your hand.” Joshua held out the spear that was in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹The soldiers hiding in ambush quickly rushed out of their place as he reached out with his hand. They ran and entered the city and captured it. They quickly set the city on fire.

²⁰The men of Ai turned and looked back. They saw the smoke from the city rising into the sky, and they could not escape this way or that. For the Israelite soldiers who had fled into the wilderness now turned back to face those who were pursuing them.

²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw the ambush had captured the city with the smoke rising, they turned around and killed the men of Ai.

²²The other soldiers of Israel, those who had gone in the city, came out to attack them. So the men of Ai were caught between the armies of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. Israel attacked the men of Ai; none of them survived or escaped.

²³They kept the king of Ai, whom they captured alive, and they brought him to Joshua.

²⁴It came about when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field near the wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them, to the very last one, had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai. They attacked it with the edge of the sword.

²⁵All those who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.

²⁶Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he had reached out while holding his spear, until he had completely destroyed all the people of Ai.

²⁷Israel took only the livestock and the plunder from the city for themselves, just as Yahweh had commanded Joshua.

²⁸Joshua burned Ai and turned it into a heap of ruins forever. It is an abandoned place to this day.