Joshua 8

1 And the Lorde sayde vnto Iosuah: Feare not, neither be thou faint hearted: Take all the men of warre with thee, and vp, & get thee to Ai. Beholde, I haue geuen into thy hande the kyng of Ai, and his people, his citie, and his lande:

2 And thou shalt do to Ai and her kyng, as thou dyddest vnto Iericho and her king. Neuerthelesse, the spoyle & cattell thereof, shall ye take vnto your selues: Thou shalt lye in wayte agaynst the citie, on the backside thereof.

3 And so Iosuah arose, and all the men of warre, to go vp agaynst Ai: And Iosuah chose out thirtie thousande strong men and valiaunt, and sent them away by nyght:

4 And he commaunded them, saying: Beholde, ye shall lye in wayte agaynst the towne on the backside thereof: Go not verie farre from the citie, but be all redie:

5 And I, and al the people that are with me, wyll approche vnto the citie: And when they come out against vs, as they dyd at the first tyme, then wyll we flee before them:

6 For they wyll come out after vs tyll we haue brought them out of the citie. For they wyll say, They flee before vs, as at the first tyme: and we will flee before them.

7 In the meane tyme shall ye ryse vp from lying in wayte, and destroy the citie: for the Lorde your God wyll delyuer it into your hande.

8 And when ye haue taken the citie, ye shall set it on fire: Accordyng to the commaundement of the Lorde shall ye do. Behold, I haue charged you.

9 Iosuah therfore sent them foorth, and they went to lye in wayte, and abode betweene Bethel & Ai, on the westsyde of the citie of Ai: But Iosuah lodged that nyght among the people.

10 And Iosuah rose vp early in the mornyng, and numbred the people, & went vp, he and the elders of Israel before the people, against Ai.

11 And all the men of warre that were with him, went vp, & drue nye, and came agaynst the citie, and pitched on the northsyde of Ai: and there was a valley betweene them and Ai.

12 And he toke vpon a fiue thousande men, and set them to lye in wayte betweene Bethel and Ai, on the westsyde of the citie.

13 And the people set all the hoast that was on the northsyde agaynst the citie, & the lyers in wayte on the west, against the citie: And Iosuah walked the same nyght in the myddes of the valley.

14 And when the kyng of Ai sawe it, they hasted and rose vp early, and the men of the citie went out agaynst Israel to battayle, he and all his people at a tyme appoynted, euen before the playne: and wyst not that there were lyers in wayte agaynst him on the backsyde of the citie.

15 And Iosuah & all Israel as beaten before them, fledde by the way of the wildernesse.

16 And all the people of the towne were called together, to folowe after them: And they folowed after Iosuah, and were drawen away from the citie.

17 And there was not a man left in Ai and in Bethel, that went not out after Israel: And they left the citie open, and folowed after Israel.

18 And the Lorde sayde vnto Iosuah: Stretch out ye speare that is in thine hand towarde Ai, for I will geue it into thy hand. And Iosuah stretched out the speare that he had in his hand, towarde the citie.

19 And the lyers in waite arose quickly out of their place, and ran assoone as Iosuah had stretched out his hande: and they entred into the citie, and toke it, and hasted, and set the citie on fyre.

20 And when the men of Ai loked backe after them, they sawe the smoke of the citie ascend vp to heauen, and they had no place to flee either this way or that: and the people that fled to the wildernes, turned backe againe vpon the folowers.

21 And when Iosuah & all Israel sawe that the lyers in waite had taken the citie, and that the smoke of it ascended, they turned againe and slue the men of Ai.

22 And the other issued out of the citie against them, and so were they in the middest of Israel: for these were on the one side of them, and the rest on the other side. And they laide vpon them, so that they let none of them escape, nor remaine:

23 And the kyng of Ai they toke aliue, and brought him to Iosuah.

24 And when Israel had made an ende of slayeng all the inhabitantes of Ai in the fielde of the wildernesse where they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sworde, vntill they were wasted, all the Israelites returned vnto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sworde.

25 And al that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelue thousande, euen all the men of Ai.

26 For Iosuah plucked not his hande backe againe which he stretched out vpo the speare vntil, he had vtterly destroyed al the enhabitours of Ai.

27 Onely the cattell and the spoile of the citie, Israel toke vnto them selues, according vnto the word of the Lorde, whiche he commaunded Iosuah.

28 And Iosuah set Ai on fire, and made it an heape for euer, & a wildernesse, [euen] vnto this day.

29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree, vntill euen: And assoone as the sunne was downe, Iosuah commaunded that they should take ye carkasse downe of the tree, and cast it at the entring of the gate of the citie, and laye theron a great heape of stones, [that remaineth] vnto this day.

30 Then Iosuah buylt an aulter vnto the Lorde God of Israel in mount Ebal,

31 As Moyses the seruaunt of the Lord commaunded the chyldren of Israel, and as it is written in the booke of the lawe of Moyses, an aulter of whole stones, ouer which no man hath lyft an iron: And they sacrificed theron burnt sacrifices vnto the Lorde, and offered peace offerynges.

32 And he wrote there vpon the stones a rehearsal of the lawe of Moyses, and wrote it in the presence of the chyldren of Israel.

33 And all Israel and the elders therof, and their officers & iudges, stoode part on this syde the arke, and part on that syde, before the priestes that were Leuites whiche bare the arke of the couenaunt of the Lorde, aswell the straunger, as they that were borne among them: halfe of the ouer against mount Garizim, & halfe of them ouer against mount Ebal, as Moyses the seruaunt of the Lorde had commaunded before, that they shoulde blesse the people of Israel.

34 Afterwarde he read all the wordes of the lawe, the blessinges, and cursinges, accordyng to all that is written in the booke of the lawe.

35 And there was not one worde of all that Moyses commaunded, which Iosuah read not before all the congregation of Israel, aswel the women and chyldren, as the straungers that were conuersaunt among them.