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They will chase after us until we have drawn them away from the city; because they will say, ‘They're running away from us, as they did before'; so we'll run away from them.

The king of ‘Ai saw this, so the men in the city hurried out early in the morning to battle against Isra'el, he and all his people, at a meeting-place facing the ‘Aravah. But he was unaware that behind the city an ambush had been laid against him.

All the people in ‘Ai were summoned together to pursue them, so they chased Y'hoshua and were drawn away from the city.

while the others came out of the city against them too; so that they were surrounded by Isra'el with some on this side and some on that side. They attacked them, allowing none to remain or escape.

So Y'hoshua burned down ‘Ai and turned it into a tel forever, so that it remains a ruin to this day.

The king of ‘Ai he hanged on a tree until evening; at sundown Y'hoshua gave an order, so they took his carcass down from the tree, threw it at the entrance of the city gate and piled on it a big heap of stones, which is there to this day.

So our leaders and all the people living in our country said to us, "Take provisions with you for the journey, go to meet them, and say to them, ‘We are your servants, and now make a covenant with us.'

so Y'hoshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to spare their lives, and the leading officials of the community swore to them.

However, the leaders replied to the whole community, "We have sworn to them by Adonai , the God of Isra'el; so we can't touch them.

Here is what we will do to them: we will let them live, so that God's anger will not be on us because of the oath we swore to them.

They answered Y'hoshua, "It is because we heard the reports that Adonai your God had ordered his servant Moshe to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from ahead of you. So we were terrified for our lives on account of you; that's why we did this.

So Y'hoshua did exactly that: he saved them from the power of the people of Isra'el, so that they didn't kill them.

But he did that same day make them choppers of wood and drawers of water for the community and for the altar of Adonai in the place which he would choose; and they remain so to this day.

So Adoni-Tzedek king of Yerushalayim sent this message to Hoham king of Hevron, Pir'am king of Yarmut, Yafia king of Lakhish and D'vir king of ‘Eglon:

So the five kings of the Emori — the kings of Yerushalayim, Hevron, Yarmut, Lakhish and ‘Eglon — got together, went up with all their armies, pitched camp against Giv‘on and made war against it.

So the sun stood still and the moon stayed put, till Isra'el took vengeance on their enemies. This is written in the book of Yashar. The sun stood still in the sky and was in no rush to set for nearly a whole day.

But then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lakhish; so Y'hoshua attacked him and his people, until he had no one left with him.

So Y'hoshua attacked all the land — the hills, the Negev, the Sh'felah and the mountain slopes — and all their kings; he left none but completely destroyed everything that breathed, as Adonai the God of Isra'el had ordered.

So they set out, they and all their armies, many people, in number like the sand at the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.

So Y'hoshua came against them suddenly with all his fighting men and fell on them at the Merom Spring.