1Yahweh said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid or discouraged. Take all the soldiers with you and go up to Ai. Look, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land into your control.
2You will do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, except you may keep its valuable things and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it."
3So Joshua and all the soldiers got ready to go to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand brave men and sent them out at night.
4He ordered them, “Hide in ambush behind the city. Don’t go too far from the city, and be ready.
5I and everyone with me will approach the city. When they come out to attack us, just like the first time, we will run away from them.
6They will chase us until we have lured them far away from the city, because they will think, ‘They are running from us again, just like before.’ So we will keep running from them,
7and then you will come out of your hiding place and capture the city, because Yahweh your God will give it into your control.”
8When you have captured the city, set it on fire. You must do this as Yahweh has commanded. I have given you these instructions.
9Joshua sent them out, and they went to set up the ambush. They positioned themselves between Bethel and Ai, west of Ai. Joshua, however, spent that night among the people.
10Early the next morning, Joshua got up, gathered the people, and he and the elders of Israel led them toward Ai.
11All the people, including the soldiers, marched forward, approached the city, and camped on the north side of Ai. There was a valley between them and Ai.
12Joshua took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13So they arranged the troops, with the main army to the north of the city and the ambush to the west. That night, Joshua went into the middle of the valley.
14When the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people quickly got up early and went out from the city to fight Israel at the appointed time, in front of the Arabah. But he didn't know that there was an ambush waiting for him behind the city.
15Joshua and all of Israel pretended to be defeated and fled toward the wilderness.
16All the people in the city were called together to chase after them. They pursued Joshua, and in doing so, were drawn away from the city.
17Not a single man was left in Ai or Bethel; everyone had gone out to chase Israel. They left the city gates open and pursued Israel.
18Yahweh said to Joshua, "Point the spear you are holding toward Ai, because I will give it into your hand." So Joshua pointed his spear toward the city.
19The ambush quickly rose from their hiding place. As soon as Joshua stretched out his hand, they ran into the city, captured it, and quickly set it on fire.
20When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke of the city rising to the sky. They had no way to escape in any direction. Then the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back against their pursuers.
21When Joshua and all of Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and began killing the men of Ai.
22The other Israelites came out of the city to meet them, so the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. The Israelites attacked them and did not let any of them survive or escape.
23They captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24After Israel had finished killing all the people of Ai in the open fields where they had chased them, and everyone had been killed by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed the remaining people there with their swords.
25That day, a total of twelve thousand people, both men and women, were killed; this included all the people of Ai.
26Joshua did not lower his hand, which held the spear, until all the people of Ai were completely destroyed.
27Israel took only the livestock and other goods from that city for themselves, as Yahweh had commanded Joshua.
28So Joshua burned Ai, making it a permanent ruin and a desolate heap, which it remains to this day.
29He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sundown, Joshua gave the command, and they took his body down from the tree. They threw it at the entrance of the city gate and piled a large heap of stones over it, which is still there today.
30Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
31just as Moses, the servant of Yahweh, had commanded the Israelites. It was written in the Book of the Law of Moses that an altar should be made of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On this altar, they offered burnt offerings to Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings.
32There on the stones, he wrote a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the Israelites.
33All of Israel, including their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark. They stood before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of Yahweh's covenant. Both foreigners and native-born people were there. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of Yahweh, had commanded earlier, so they could bless the people of Israel.
34Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as it is all written in the Book of the Law.
35Joshua read every word that Moses had commanded to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women, the little children, and the foreigners who lived among them; he did not leave out a single word.