18The LORD then said to Joshua, “Hold out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will deliver it into your hands.” So Joshua held out the javelin in his hand toward the city. 19As soon as he held out his hand, the ambush came rushing out of their station. They entered the city and captured it; and they swiftly set fire to the city. 20The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising to the sky; they had no room for flight in any direction.
The people who had been fleeing to the wilderness now became the pursuers. 21For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had cap-tured the city, and that smoke was rising from the city, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. 22Now the other [Israelites] were coming out of the city against them, so that they were between two bodies of Israelites, one on each side of them. They were slaughtered, so that no one escaped or got away. 23The king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.
24When Israel had killed all the inhabitants of Ai who had pursued them into the open wilderness, and all of them, to the last man, had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites turned back to Ai and put it to the sword.
25The total of those who fell that day, men and women, the entire population of Ai, came to twelve thousand.
26Joshua did not draw back the hand with which he held out his javelin until all the inhabitants of Ai had been exterminated. 27However, the Israelites took the cattle and the spoil of the city as their booty, in ac-cordance with the instructions that the LORD had given to Joshua.
28Then Joshua burned down Ai, and turned it into a mound of ruins for all time, a desolation to this day. 29And the king of Ai was impaled on a stake until the evening. At sunset, Joshua had the corpse taken down from the stake and it was left lying at the entrance to the city gate. They raised a great heap of stones over it, which is there to this day.
30At that time Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded the Israelites—as is written in the Book of the Teaching of Mosesd—an altar of unhewn stone upon which no iron had been wielded. They offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and brought sacrifices of well-being. 32And there, on the stones, he inscribed a copy of the Teaching that Moses had written for the Israelites. 33All Israel—stranger and citizen alike—with their elders, officials, and magistrates, stood on either side of the Ark, facing the levitical priests who carried the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. Half of them faced Mount Gerizim and half of them faced Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded them of old, in order to bless the people of Israel. 34After that, he read all the words of the Teaching, the blessing and the curse, just as is written in the Book of the Teaching.e 35There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read in the presence of the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the strangers who accompanied them.
9 When all the kings a-west of-a the Jordan—in the hill country, in the Shephelah, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea up to the vicinity of Lebanon, the [land of the] Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—learned of this, 2they gathered with one accord to fight against Joshua and Israel.
3But when the inhabitants of Gibeon learned how Joshua had treated Jericho and Ai, 4they for their part resorted to cunning. They set out b-in disguise:-b they took worn-out sacks for their asses, and worn-out waterskins that were cracked and patched; 5they had worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and threadbare clothes on their bodies; and all the bread they took as provision was dry and crumbly. 6And so they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We come from a distant land; we propose that you make a pact with us.” 7The men of Israel replied to the Hivites, “But perhaps you live among us; how then can we make a pact with you?”c
8They said to Joshua, “We will be your subjects.” But Joshua asked them, “Who are you and where do you come from?” 9They replied, “Your servants have come from a very distant country, because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we heard the report of Him: of all that He did in Egypt, 10and of all that He did to the two Amorite kings on the other side of the Jordan, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth. 11So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country instructed us as follows, ‘Take along provisions for a trip, and go to them and say: We will be your subjects; come make a pact with us.’ 12This bread of ours, which we took from our houses as provision, was still hot when we set out to come to you; and see how dry and crumbly it has become. 13These wineskins were new when we filled them, and see how they have cracked. These clothes and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.” 14The men b-took [their word] because of-b their provisions, and did not inquire of the LORD. 15Joshua established friend-ship with them; he made a pact with them to spare their lives, and the chieftains of the community gave them their oath.
16But when three days had passed after they made this pact with them, they learned that they were neighbors, living among them. 17So the Is-raelites set out, and on the third day they came to their towns; these towns were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. 18But the Israelites did not attack them, since the chieftains of the community had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. The whole community muttered against the chieftains, 19but all the chieftains answered the whole community, “We swore to them by the LORD, the God of Israel; therefore we cannot touch them. 20This is what we will do to them: We will spare their lives, so that there may be no wrath against us because of the oath that we swore to them.” 21And the chieftains declared concerning them, “They shall live!” And they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole community, as the chieftains had decreed concerning them.
22Joshua summoned them and spoke to them thus: “Why did you de-ceive us and tell us you lived very far from us, when in fact you live among us? 23Therefore, be accursed! Never shall your descendants cease to be slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the House of my God.” 24But they replied to Joshua, “You see, your servants had heard that the LORD your God had promised His servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all the inhabitants of the country on your account; so we were in great fear for our lives on your account. That is why we did this thing. 25And now we are at your mercy; do with us what you consider right and proper.” 26And he did so; he saved them from being killed by the Israelites. 27That day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water—as they still are—for the community and for the altar of the LORD, in the place that He would choose.
10 When King Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem learned that Joshua had captured Ai and proscribed it, treating Ai and its king as he had treated Jericho and its king, and that, moreover, the people of Gibeon had come to terms with Israel and remained among them, 2 a-he was-a very fright-ened. For Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal cities—in fact, larger than Ai—and all its men were warriors. 3So King Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem sent this message to King Hoham of Hebron, King Piram of Jarmuth, King Japhia of Lachish, and King Debir of Eglon: 4“Come up and help me defeat Gibeon; for it has come to terms with Joshua and the Israelites.”
5The five Amorite kings—the
