About forty thousand battle-ready troops marched past the Lord to fight on the plains of Jericho.

Your wives, your young children, and your livestock will remain in the land that Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan River, but you and all your warriors will cross, ready for battle, in full view of your relatives, and you will help them

Now Joshua had instructed the army, "Do not give a battle cry or raise your voices; say nothing until the day I tell you, 'Give the battle cry.' Then give the battle cry!"

Then the LORD told Joshua, "Stretch out the battle lance that's in your hand toward Ai, because I will give it into your control." So Joshua stretched out the battle lance that was in his hand toward the city.

"Moses my servant is dead. Get ready! Cross the Jordan River! Lead these people into the land which I am ready to hand over to them.

And he commanded them, saying, Behold, you shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be you all ready:

“Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you will be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit.’”

And it happened, when the king of Ai saw, they hurried and rose up early. And the men of the city went out to do battle against Israel, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the plain. But he did not know that there were some lying in ambush against him behind the city.

There was not a city that made peace with the sons of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All others they took in battle.

For it was of Jehovah to harden their hearts so that they should come against Israel in battle, so that they might be destroyed, so that they might have no favor, but that He might destroy them, as Jehovah commanded Moses.

And the thing pleased the sons of Israel. And the sons of Israel blessed God and no more said to go up against them in battle, to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and Gad lived.