Be sure to keep a distance of about 2,000 cubits between you and it. Don't come near it, so you can be certain where you're going, since you haven't passed this way before."

About 40,000 soldiers equipped to do battle in the LORD's presence crossed over to the desert plains of Jericho.

returned to Joshua. "Not all of the people need to go up," they reported. "Only about two or three thousand men should attack Ai. Since they are so few, don't make all of the army work hard up there."

So about three thousand went up there, but they ran away from the men of Ai.

The men of Ai killed about 36 of them, pursuing them outside the city gates as far as Shebarim, killing them as they descended. As a result, the army became terrified and lost their confidence.

The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of this, will surround us, and eliminate us from the earth! Then what will you do about your great reputation?"

Taking about 5,000 men, he set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai to the west of the city,

When the king of Ai saw what had happened, he and his army quickly got up early and went out to meet Israel in battle. He and all his people met at the place adjacent to the desert plain. But he didn't know about the ambush that had been set for him on the other side of the city.

Eventually all the kings who reigned in the hill country across the Jordan River and in the low-lying coastlands of the Mediterranean Sea facing Lebanon heard about this. So the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites

They answered, "Your servants have arrived from a very distant land, because of the reputation of the LORD your God, because we've heard a report about all that he did in Egypt,

So the leaders of Israel sampled their provisions, but did not ask the LORD about it.

Now it came about that after Joshua and the Israelis had finished the battle, destroying and scattering their survivors, who retreated into their fortified cities,

But the LORD told Joshua, "Don't be afraid of them, because tomorrow about this time I am giving them all to you dead in the presence of Israel. Hamstring their horses and incinerate their chariots."

Now then, give me that hill country about which the LORD spoke back on that day, because you yourself heard back then that the Anakim were there, with great reinforced cities. Perhaps the LORD will be with me and I will expel them, just as the LORD said."

"Tell the people of Israel to set apart cities of refuge about which I spoke to you through Moses,

Not one of the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed all of them came about.

When the Israelis heard about it, they announced, "Look here, the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have constructed an altar in Canaan's frontier district of the Jordan River, on the side apportioned to the Israelis."

What they said pleased the people of Israel, so they blessed God and said no more about going up to attack them in war and to destroy the land where the descendants of Reuben and the descendants of Gad were living.

"Look here: today I'm going down the path that everyone on earth takes, and you know with all your hearts and souls that not a single word of all of the good things that the LORD your God spoke about you has failed to happen. Everything has been fulfilled about you not one of them has failed.

However, just as all of the good things have come about that the LORD your God promised, so also the LORD will bring upon you all of the threats until he has destroyed you from possessing this good land that he has given you.