Joshua 8:4-17

⁴And he gave them their orders, saying, Go and take up your position secretly at the back of the town: do not go very far away, and let all of you be ready:

⁵And I and all the people with me will come near the town, and when they come out against us as they did before, we will go in flight from them;

⁶And they will come out after us, till we have got them away from the town; for they will say, They have gone in flight from us as before; so we will go in flight before them;

⁷Then you will get up from your secret position and take the town, for the Lord your God will give it up into your hands.

⁸And when you have taken the town, put fire to it, as the Lord has said: see, I have given you your orders.

⁹So Joshua sent them out: and they took up a secret position between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua kept with the people that night.

¹⁰And early in the morning Joshua got up, and put the people in order, and he and the chiefs of Israel went up before the people to Ai.

¹¹And all the fighting-men who were with him went up and came near the town, and took up a position on the north side of Ai facing the town, with a valley between him and the town.

¹²And taking about five thousand men, he put them in position for a surprise attack on the west side of Ai, between Beth-el and Ai.

¹³So all the people were in their places, the army on the north side of the town and the secret force on the west; and that night Joshua went down into the valley.

¹⁴Now when the king of Ai saw it, he got up quickly and went out to war against Israel, he and all his people, to the slope going down to the valley; but he had no idea that a secret force was waiting at the back of the town.

¹⁵Then Joshua and all Israel, acting as if they were overcome before them, went in flight by way of the waste land.

¹⁶And all the people in Ai came together to go after them; and they went after Joshua, moving away from the town.

¹⁷There was not a man in Ai and Beth-el who did not go out after Israel; and the town was open and unwatched while they went after Israel.