Thematic Bible

Joshua 8:1

Then Yahweh said to Joshua, "Do not fear or be dismayed. Take {all the fighting men} with you {and go up immediately to Ai}. Look, I am giving into your hand the king of Ai, his city, and his land.

Joshua 8:2

You will do to Ai and its king that which you did to Jericho and its king; you may take only its spoils and livestock as booty for yourself. Set for yourself an ambush against the city [from] behind [it]."

Joshua 8:3

So Joshua and {all the fighting men} went up immediately to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand of the best fighting men and sent them [by] night.

Joshua 8:4

And he commanded them, saying, "Look, you are to lay an ambush against the city from behind. Do not go very far from the city and be ready.

Joshua 8:5

Then I and all of the people who [are] with me will approach the city. And when they go out to meet us {as before}, we will flee from them.

Joshua 8:6

They will come out after us until we draw them away from the city, because they will think, '[They are] fleeing from us {as before}.' So we will flee from them.

Joshua 8:7

Then you will rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city, for Yahweh your God will give it into your hand.

Joshua 8:8

And when you capture the city you will set it on fire as Yahweh commanded. Look, I have commanded you."

Joshua 8:9

So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the [place of the] ambush, and they sat between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai; but Joshua spent the night {with the people}.

Joshua 8:10

Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people, and he went up [with] the elders of Israel before the people of Ai.

Joshua 8:11

{All the fighting men} who [were] with him {went up and drew near before the city} and camped north of Ai; [there was] a valley between him and Ai.

Joshua 8:12

And he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

Joshua 8:13

So they stationed the forces; all the army [was] north of the city while {the rear guard was west}. But Joshua went that night to the middle of the valley.

Joshua 8:14

When the king of Ai saw [this], the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out to meet Israel for battle--he and all his army--to the meeting place before the Arabah. He did not know that [there was] an ambush for him behind the city.

Joshua 8:15

Then Joshua and all Israel acted like they were beaten before them, and they fled {in the direction of the wilderness}.

Joshua 8:16

All of the people who [were] in the city were called to pursue after them. As they pursued after Joshua, they were drawn away from the city.

Joshua 8:17

Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel; they left the city open and pursued after Israel.

Joshua 8:18

And Yahweh said to Joshua, "Stretch out the sword that is in your hand to Ai, because I will give it into your hand." And Joshua stretched out the sword that was in his hand to the city.

Joshua 8:19

The moment he stretched out his hand, those in the ambush stood up quickly from their place and ran. And they went [into] the city and captured it, quickly setting the city ablaze with fire.

Joshua 8:20

Then the men of Ai looked behind them, and they saw smoke from the city rising to the sky; {they had no power to flee this way or that}, and the people fleeing the wilderness turned around to the pursuers.

Joshua 8:21

And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city was rising; they returned and struck down the men of Ai.

Joshua 8:22

Then the others from the city came out to meet them, {and they found themselves surrounded by Israel}, {some on one side, and others on the other side}. And they struck them down until no survivor or fugitive [was] left.

Joshua 8:23

But they captured the king of Ai alive, and they brought him to Joshua.

Joshua 8:24

When Israel finished slaughtering all the inhabitants of Ai in the open field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when all of them had fallen by {the edge of the sword} until they all had perished, all Israel returned [to] Ai and attacked it with {the edge of the sword}.

Joshua 8:25

All the people that fell on that day, both men and women, [were] twelve thousand--all the inhabitants of Ai.

Joshua 8:26

For Joshua did not draw back his hand that was stretched out with the sword until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

Joshua 8:27

Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of Yahweh that Joshua commanded.
No Themes for this verse.

Joshua 8:28

So Joshua burned Ai and made it an everlasting heap of rubbish, a desolate place until this day.

Joshua 8:29

The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the time of evening, and as the sun went down Joshua commanded [them], and they brought down his dead body from the tree. Then they threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and they raised over it a great heap of stones [that remains] to this day.

Joshua 8:30

Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal for Yahweh the God of Israel,

Joshua 8:31

as Moses Yahweh's servant commanded the {Israelites}, as [it is] written in the scroll of the law of Moses: "an altar of unhewn stones [on] which no one has {wielded} an iron implement." And they offered burnt offerings on it and sacrificed fellowship offerings.

Joshua 8:32

And there Joshua wrote on the stones copy of the law of Moses, which he had written, in the presence of the {Israelites}.

Joshua 8:33

Then all Israel, {foreigner as well as native}, with the elders, officials, and judges stood {on either side} of the ark before the priests and the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. Half of them [stood] in front of Mount Gerizim, and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses Yahweh's servant had commanded before to bless the people of Israel.

Joshua 8:34

And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, according to all that was written in the scroll of the law.

Joshua 8:35

There was not a word from all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before the assembly of all Israel, and the women, the little children, and the traveling foreigners among them.