YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8

YAHWEH Encourages Yehoshua

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:1

1 ?And YAHWEH said to Yehoshua, Fear not, neither be you dismayed: take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land:

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:2

2 And you shall do to Ai and her king as you did unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall you take for a prey to yourselves: lay you an ambush for the city behind it.

The Taking Of Ai

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:3

3 ?So Yehoshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and Yehoshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and sent them away by night.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:4

4 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:

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:5

5 And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach to the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them,

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:6

6 For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before them.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:7

7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city: for YAHWEH your ABBA will deliver it into your hand.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:8

8 And it shall be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire: according to the commandment of YAHWEH so shall you do. See, I have commanded you.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:9

9 Yehoshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Yehoshua lodged that night among the people.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:10

10 And Yehoshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Yisrael, before the people to Ai.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:11

11 And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:12

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

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:13

13 And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Yehoshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:14

14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hastened and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Yisrael to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he knew not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:15

15 And Yehoshua and all Yisrael made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:16

16 And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Yehoshua, and were drawn away from the city.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:17

17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Yisrael: and they left the city open, and pursued after Yisrael.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:18

18 And YAHWEH said to Yehoshua, Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand. And Yehoshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:19

19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city, and took it, and hastened and set the city on fire.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:20

20 And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:21

21 And when Yehoshua and all Yisrael saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:22

22 And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Yisrael, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

The Destruction Of Ai And Its King

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:23

23 ?And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Yehoshua.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:24

24 And it came to pass, when Yisrael had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Yisraelites returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:25

25 And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:26

26 For Yehoshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:27

27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Yisrael took for a prey unto themselves, according to the Word of YAHWEH which he commanded Yehoshua.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:28

28 And Yehoshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap forever, even a desolation to this day.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:29

29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening: and as soon as the sun was down, Yehoshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remains to this day.

The Torah Read On Ebal And Gerizim

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:30

30 ?Then Yehoshua built an altar to YAHWEH the Sovereign Ruler of Yisrael in mount Ebal,

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:31

31 As Mosheh the servant of YAHWEH commanded the children of Yisrael, as it is written in the book of the torah of Mosheh, an altar of whole stones, over which no man has lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings to YAHWEH, and sacrificed shalom offerings.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:32

32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the torah of Mosheh, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Yisrael.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:33

33 And all Yisrael, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the kohenim the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of YAHWEH, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Mosheh the servant of YAHWEH had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Yisrael.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:34

34 And afterward he read all the words of the torah, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the torah.

YEHOSHUA BEN NUN - JOSHUA 8:35

35 There was not a word of all that Mosheh commanded, which Yehoshua read not before all the congregation of Yisrael, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.