¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw the main camp, he and all his troops got up early in the morning. They rushed out toward the plains to meet Israel for battle, just where Joshua expected. However, the king didn’t know there were troops behind the city waiting to attack him.

¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated. They ran away toward the desert. ¹⁶ All the troops in the city were called out to chase them. As they chased Joshua, they were lured away from the city.