| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land. | 1The LORD told Joshua, "Don't be afraid and don't panic! Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! See, I am handing over to you the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land. |
| 2You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.” | 2Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city!" |
| 3So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night | 3Joshua and the whole army marched against Ai. Joshua selected thirty thousand brave warriors and sent them out at night. |
| 4with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action. | 4He told them, "Look, set an ambush behind the city. Don't go very far from the city; all of you be ready! |
| 5When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them. | 5I and all the troops who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them. |
| 6We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running from them, | 6They will attack us until we have lured them from the city, for they will say, 'They are retreating from us like before.' We will retreat from them. |
| 7you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the LORD your God will give it to you. | 7Then you rise up from your hiding place and seize the city. The LORD your God will hand it over to you. |
| 8Set the town on fire, as the LORD has commanded. You have your orders.” | 8When you capture the city, set it on fire. Do as the LORD says! See, I have given you orders." |
| 9So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night. | 9Joshua sent them away and they went to their hiding place west of Ai, between Bethel and Ai. Joshua spent that night with the army. |
| 10Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel. | 10Bright and early the next morning Joshua gathered the army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched at the head of it to Ai. |
| 11All the fighting men who were with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the town. | 11All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city. They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley. |
| 12That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town. | 12He took five thousand men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel and Ai. |
| 13So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley. | 13The army was in position--the main army north of the city and the rear guard west of the city. That night Joshua went into the middle of the valley. |
| 14When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town. | 14When the king of Ai saw Israel, he and his whole army quickly got up the next day and went out to fight Israel at the meeting place near the Arabah. But he did not realize men were hiding behind the city. |
| 15Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten. | 15Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them and they retreated along the way to the desert. |
| 16Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town. | 16All the reinforcements in Ai were ordered to chase them; they chased Joshua and were lured away from the city. |
| 17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open. | 17No men were left in Ai or Bethel; they all went out after Israel. They left the city wide open and chased Israel. |
| 18Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Point the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded. | 18The LORD told Joshua, "Hold out toward Ai the curved sword in your hand, for I am handing the city over to you." So Joshua held out toward Ai the curved sword in his hand. |
| 19As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire. | 19When he held out his hand, the men waiting in ambush rose up quickly from their place and attacked. They entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire. |
| 20When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers. | 20When the men of Ai turned around, they saw the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction. In the meantime the men who were retreating to the desert turned against their pursuers. |
| 21When Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai. | 21When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the city was going up in smoke, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai. |
| 22Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides. Israel attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped. | 22At the same time the men who had taken the city came out to fight, and the men of Ai were trapped in the middle. The Israelites struck them down, leaving no survivors or refugees. |
| 23Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua. | 23But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. |
| 24When the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside. | 24When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had chased them toward the desert (they all fell by the sword), all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it. |
| 25So the entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that day—12,000 in all. | 25Twelve thousand men and women died that day, including all the men of Ai. |
| 26For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed. | 26Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai. |
| 27Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these as plunder for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua. | 27But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in accordance with the LORD's orders to Joshua. |
| 28So Joshua burned the town of Ai, and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day. | 28Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day). |
| 29Joshua impaled the king of Ai on a sharpened pole and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body, as Joshua commanded, and threw it in front of the town gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today. The LORD’s Covenant Renewed | 29He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening. At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree. They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day). |
| 30Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal. | 30Then Joshua built an altar for the LORD God of Israel on Mount Ebal, |
| 31He followed the commands that Moses the LORD’s servant had written in the Book of Instruction: “Make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools.” Then on the altar they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD. | 31just as Moses the LORD's servant had commanded the Israelites. As described in the law scroll of Moses, it was made with uncut stones untouched by an iron tool. They offered burnt sacrifices on it and sacrificed tokens of peace. |
| 32And as the Israelites watched, Joshua copied onto the stones of the altar the instructions Moses had given them. | 32There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a duplicate of the law written by Moses. |
| 33Then all the Israelites—foreigners and native-born alike—along with the elders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood in front of Mount Gerizim, the other in front of Mount Ebal. Each group faced the other, and between them stood the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. This was all done according to the commands that Moses, the servant of the LORD, had previously given for blessing the people of Israel. | 33All the people, rulers, leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there. Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the LORD's servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony. |
| 34Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction. | 34Then Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the law scroll. |
| 35Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them. | 35Joshua read aloud every commandment Moses had given before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and resident foreigners who lived among them. |
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