Joshua 8:14-29

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the inhabitants of the city, hurried out early in the morning to the meeting place facing the Arabah to meet Israel in battle, but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.^{(A) 15} And Joshua and all Israel made a pretense of being beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. ¹⁶ So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷ There was not a man left in Ai^[a] who did not go out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued Israel.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the sword that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the sword that was in his hand toward the city.^{(B) 19} As soon as he stretched out his hand, the troops in ambush rose quickly out of their place and rushed forward. They entered the city, took it, and at once set the city on fire.^{(C) 20} So when the men of Ai looked back, the smoke of the city was rising to the sky. They had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. ²¹ When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was rising, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. ²² And the other Israelites came out from the city against them, so they were surrounded by Israelites, some on one side and some on the other, and Israel struck them down until no one was left who survived or escaped.^{(D) 23} But the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and attacked it with the edge of the sword. ²⁵ The total of those who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve thousand—all the people of Ai.^{(E) 26} For Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the sword until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.^{(F) 27} Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel plundered for themselves, according to the word of the Lord that he had issued to Joshua.^{(G) 28} So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day.^{(H) 29} And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, threw it down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.^(I)