Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

The Lord said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid; take all the warriors with you and arise, go up to Ai. I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king: taking only the spoil and cattle for yourselves; lay an ambush for the city behind it. Joshua arose and all the people of war went up against Ai. He chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night.

He commanded them, saying, "Lie in wait against the city, behind it; do not go far from the city, but be ready. And I, along with all the people who are with me, will approach the city. It shall come to pass when they come out against us as at the first that we will flee before them.

They will come out after us, saying they flee before us as at the first, so we will flee before them until we have drawn them from the city. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize upon the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.

When you have taken the city, set it on fire according to the command I have given you; see, I have commanded you." Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city, while Joshua lodged that night among the people.

Joshua rose up early in the morning, and he and the elders of Israel went up before the people to Ai. And all the people, including those of war who were with him, went up and drew near to the city, pitching their camp on the north side of Ai, while a valley lay between them and the city.

He took about five thousand men and stationed them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. When they had stationed all the troops on the north side of the city and their ambushes on the west, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

When the king of Ai saw them, he and all his people hastened out to battle against Israel at the appointed time before the plain, unaware that there were men lying in ambush behind the city. Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated before them, fleeing by the way of the wilderness.

And all the people in Ai were summoned to pursue them, but they pursued Joshua and were diverted from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, leaving the city open and pursuing them.

The Lord said to Joshua, "Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, and I will give it into your hand." The ambush sprang into action quickly from their position and ran as soon as he had given the signal; they entered the city, captured it, and set it ablaze with haste.

When the men of Ai looked back, they saw that the smoke of the city was rising up to heaven and had no power to flee either way; meanwhile, those who had fled into the wilderness turned back against their pursuers. When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned again and slew the men of Ai.

The other forces emerged from the city to attack them, surrounding Israel on all sides; they struck down their enemies so thoroughly that none were left alive. The king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

When Israel had finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the field and wilderness, where they had pursued them until everyone was killed with the sword, the entire Israelite army returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. And so it was, that all who fell that day, both men and women, numbered twelve thousand, every man of Ai.

Joshua did not withdraw his hand from the spear until he had completely destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for themselves, in accordance with the word of the Lord which he had commanded Joshua.

Joshua burned Ai, making it an eternal ruin and desolate to this day. The king of Ai was hanged on a tree until evening; and when the sun had set, Joshua ordered that his body be taken down from the tree and cast at the city gate, with a great heap of stones raised over it, which remains to this day.

Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal. As Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, they built an altar of uncut stones over which no iron tool had been raised, and there they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings.

And he inscribed on those stones a copy of the law of Moses in the presence of all Israel. All Israel, along with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on one side of the ark and on the other before the Levite priests who carried the covenant ark of the Lord, including both native-born Israelites and resident aliens; half were positioned in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses had commanded them to do.

And afterward he read all the words of the law, including the blessings and curses, just as they are written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read before all the congregation of Israel, including women, little ones, and strangers living among them.