Joshua 8:3-11

³So Joshua led all his army toward Ai. He chose 30,000 of his best fighters/warriors and prepared to send them out during the night.

⁴He said to them, “Listen carefully. Some of you must hide on the other side of the city. Do not go far from the city. Just be ready to attack.

⁵I and the men who are with me will march toward the city in the morning. The men in the city will come out to fight us, like they did before. Then we will turn around and start to run away from them.

⁶They will think that we are running away from them like we did before. So they will chase us away from the city. While we are running away,

⁷those of you who are hiding come out and rush into the city and capture it. Yahweh your God will enable you to conquer it.

⁸After you capture the city, burn it. Do what Yahweh has commanded us to do. Those are the orders I am giving to you.”

⁹Then Joshua prepared to send some of them to hide and wait between Ai and Bethel, which was west of Ai. But Joshua stayed with his other soldiers that night.

¹⁰Early the next morning, Joshua gathered his soldiers together. Then he and the other Israeli leaders led them up to Ai.

¹¹They all set up their tents close to Ai, just to the north of the city, where all the people of the city could see them. There was a valley between them and the city.