And יהוה spoke to Yehoshua, 'Do not fear and do not be terrified. Take with you all the people of war, and rise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai and his people and his city and his land.

And you shall do to Ai and to its king as you did to Yericho and to its king; only its spoil and its livestock you shall plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city from behind it.

And Yehoshua rose and all the people of war to go up to Ai. And Yehoshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them by night.

And he commanded them, saying, 'See, you are ambushing the city from behind the city. Do not go far from the city at all, and be all of you ready.

And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And it will be, when they come out to meet us, as at the first time, and we will flee before them.

And they will come out after us until we draw them out from the city, because they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as at the first time,' and we will flee before them.

And you shall rise from the ambush and take the city, and יהוה your Elohim will give it into your hand.

And it will be, when you capture the city, you shall set the city on fire. According to the word of יהוה you shall do. See, I have commanded you.'

And Yehoshua sent them, and they went to the ambush, and they sat between Beit-El and between Ai, to the west of Ai. And Yehoshua stayed that night in the midst of the people.

And Yehoshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people, and he and the elders of Yisra'el went up before the people to Ai.

And all the people of war who were with him went up and approached and came opposite the city, and they encamped north of Ai, and the valley was between them and Ai.

And he took about five thousand men and set them as an ambush between Beit-El and between Ai, to the west of the city.

And the people set all the camp that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. And Yehoshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

And it was, when the king of Ai saw, and they hurried and rose early, and the men of the city came out to meet Yisra'el for war, he and all his people, at the appointed time before the plain. And he did not know that an ambush was for him from behind the city.

And Yehoshua and all Yisra'el were struck before them, and they fled by way of the wilderness.

And all the people who were in Ai cried out to pursue after them, and they pursued after Yehoshua, and they were drawn away from the city.

And there was not a man left in Ai and Beit-El who did not go out after Yisra'el. And they left the city open, and they pursued after Yisra'el.

And יהוה said to Yehoshua, 'Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for into your hand I will give it.' And Yehoshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

And the ambush rose quickly from its place, and they ran as his hand stretched out, and they came to the city and captured it, and they hurried and set the city on fire.

And the men of Ai turned around behind them, and they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to the heavens, and they had no strength to flee here and there. And the people fleeing into the wilderness turned back toward the pursuers.

And Yehoshua and all Yisra'el saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city had ascended, and they turned back and struck the men of Ai.

And these came out from the city to meet them, and Yisra'el became in the midst, these from this side and these from that side. And they struck them until no survivor and no escapee was left for them.

And the king of Ai they captured alive, and they brought him to Yehoshua.

And it was, when Yisra'el finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and they all fell by the edge of the sword until they were finished. And all Yisra'el returned to Ai and struck it by the edge of the sword.

And it was, all who fell on that day, from man to woman, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai.

And Yehoshua did not withdraw his hand which he had stretched out with the javelin until he had completely destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

Only the livestock and the spoil of that city, Yisra'el plundered for themselves, according to the word of יהוה which he commanded Yehoshua.

And Yehoshua burned Ai and made it an everlasting mound, a desolation, until this day.

And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the time of evening. And as the sun set, Yehoshua commanded, and they took his corpse down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and they raised over it a great pile of stones until this day.

Then Yehoshua built an altar to יהוה, the Elohim of Yisra'el, on Mount Eival.

As Mosheh the servant of יהוה commanded the sons of Yisra'el, as it is written in the book of the Torah of Mosheh, an altar of whole stones, on which no iron tool was lifted. And they offered on it burnt offerings to יהוה, and sacrificed peace offerings.

And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Torah of Mosheh, which he had written before the sons of Yisra'el.

And all Yisra'el and their elders and their officers and their judges stood on this side and on that side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, carrying the ark of the covenant of יהוה. The sojourner and the native, half of them facing Mount Gerizim and half of them facing Mount Eival, as Mosheh the servant of יהוה commanded to bless the people Yisra'el at the first.

And afterward, he read all the words of the Torah, the blessing and the curse, according to all that was written in the book of the Torah.

There was not a word of all that Mosheh commanded which Yehoshua did not read before all the assembly of Yisra'el, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourner who walked among them.