Joshua 8 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Then Yahweh said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid, and don't lose heart. Take all your fighting men with you and march against Ai. Look — I'm handing over the king of Ai to you, along with his people, his city, and his land.

Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king — except this time you can keep the plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city."

So Joshua and all the fighting men got ready to march against Ai. Joshua picked thirty thousand of his best warriors and sent them out at night.

He gave them these orders: "Listen carefully — you're going to set up an ambush behind the city. Don't go too far from it. All of you stay ready.

I'll advance toward the city with all the troops who are with me. When they come out to meet us like they did before, we'll retreat in front of them.

They'll chase us until we've drawn them away from the city, because they'll think, 'They're running from us just like the first time.' So we'll run from them.

Then you'll come out of your ambush position and take the city. Yahweh your God will hand it over to you.

Once you've captured the city, set it on fire. Do exactly what Yahweh has commanded. Those are your orders."

Joshua sent them off, and they went to the ambush position and stationed themselves between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. Joshua spent that night with the main body of troops.

Early the next morning, Joshua mustered the troops. Then he and the leaders of Israel marched at the head of the army toward Ai.

All the troops with him advanced and approached the city. They set up camp north of Ai, with a valley between them and the city.

He had positioned about five thousand men in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

So the army was in position — the main camp north of the city and the ambush force to its west. That night Joshua went into the middle of the valley.

When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, he and his whole army rushed out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at the designated place overlooking the Jordan Valley. He had no idea there was an ambush waiting behind the city.

Joshua and all the Israelites let themselves be pushed back by them and retreated toward the wilderness.

Every last man in Ai was called out to chase them. As they pursued Joshua, they were drawn farther and farther from the city.

Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who hadn't gone out after Israel. They left the city wide open as they chased Israel.

Then Yahweh said to Joshua, "Hold out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, because I'm giving it to you." So Joshua held out his javelin toward the city.

The moment he stretched out his hand, the men in ambush rushed from their position. They charged into the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

When the men of Ai looked back, they saw smoke rising from the city into the sky. They had no way to escape in any direction, because the Israelite force that had been fleeing toward the wilderness now turned around to face their pursuers.

When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush force had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.

The men from the city came out to meet them too, so the men of Ai were caught in the middle — Israelites on both sides. Israel struck them down until no survivor or fugitive was left.

But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the open fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all of Israel returned to Ai and put it to the sword.

The total number who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve thousand — all the people of Ai.

Joshua did not draw back the hand holding the javelin until he had completely destroyed everyone living in Ai.

But Israel did keep the livestock and plunder from that city for themselves, exactly as Yahweh had instructed Joshua.

So Joshua burned Ai and turned it into a permanent ruin — a desolate mound. It remains that way to this day.

Joshua hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body down from the tree. They threw it at the entrance of the city gate and piled a large heap of stones over it — which is still there today.

Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal.

He built it exactly the way Moses, Yahweh's servant, had commanded the Israelites — as it's written in the Book of the Law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones that no iron tool had touched. On it they offered entirely burned offerings to Yahweh and presented fellowship offerings.

And there, on the stones, Joshua wrote a copy of the law of Moses in the presence of the Israelites.

All Israel — immigrants and native-born alike — with their leaders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the chest of Yahweh's covenant, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, Yahweh's servant, had commanded earlier for the ceremony where Israel would receive their charge.

After that, Joshua read aloud every word of the law — the commitments to do right and the warnings of consequences — exactly as it is written in the Book of the Law.

There was not a single word of everything Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read aloud to the entire assembly of Israel — including the women, the children, and the immigrants who lived among them.