Joshua 8:4-12

Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁴ He commanded them: “Pay attention. Lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it, and all of you be ready.^{(A) 5} Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them. ⁶ They will come after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us as before.’ While we are fleeing from them, ⁷ you are to come out of your ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God has handed it over to you. ⁸ After taking the city, set it on fire. Follow the Lord’s command—see that you do as I have ordered you.” ⁹ So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the ambush site and waited between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But he spent that night with the troops.

¹⁰ Joshua started early the next morning and mobilized them. Then he and the elders of Israel led the troops up to Ai. ¹¹ All those^[a] who were with him went up and approached the city, arriving opposite Ai, and camped to the north of it, with a valley between them and the city. ¹² Now Joshua had taken about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.