²¹ When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and ^[a]killed the men of Ai. ^22 [b]The others came out from the city to confront them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, ^[c]some on this side and some on that side; and they ^[d]killed them until there was not ^(A)one ^[e]left who escaped or survived. ²³ But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴ Now when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. ²⁵ So ^(B)all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand—all the ^[f]people of Ai. ²⁶ For Joshua ^(C)did not withdraw his hand with which he reached out with the sword until he had ^[g]utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. ^27 (D)Israel took only the cattle and the spoils of that city as plunder for themselves, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua. ²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it ^(E)a refuse heap forever, a desolation until this day. ²⁹ And ^(F)he hanged the king of Ai on ^[h]a tree until evening; but at sunset Joshua gave the command and they took his body down from ^[i]the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and erected over it a large heap of stones that stands to this day.

³⁰ Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on ^(G)Mount Ebal, ³¹ just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, ^(H)an altar of uncut stones on which no one had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. ³² And he ^(I)wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which ^[j]he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel. ^33 (J)And all Israel with their elders, officers, and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of ^(K)Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at first to bless the people of Israel. ³⁴ Then afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessing and the curse, according to everything that is written in ^(L)the Book of the Law. ³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel ^(M)with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were ^[k]living among them.