Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of Jordan; but you shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help them;

That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that you might fear the LORD your God forever.

And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.

So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and sent them away by night.

That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty.

So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor.

For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.

These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourns among them, that whosoever kills any person accidentally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.

Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that you have built you an altar, that you might rebel this day against the LORD?

And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel?

But that it may be a witness between us and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, you have no part in the LORD.

And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you.