Study Desk

So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.

They took them from the midst of the tent, and brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel; and they laid them down before Yahweh.

Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his donkeys, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.

Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? Yahweh shall trouble you this day. All Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones.

They raised over him a great heap of stones, to this day; and Yahweh turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called "The valley of Achor" to this day.

and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them;

and they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: so we will flee before them;

Joshua sent them forth; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.

So they set the people, even all the host who was on the north of the city, and their liers-in-wait who were on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

It happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn't know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

There was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, who didn't go out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.

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

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 who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai.

The others came forth out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

The king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening: and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, to this day.