1And YHWH said to Joshua, "Do not fear and do not be dismayed; take with you all the people of war, and rise up, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.
2And you shall do to Ai and to her king as you did to Jericho and to her king; only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as plunder for yourselves; set yourself an ambush for the city behind it."
3And Joshua rose up, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand men (ish), mighty men of valor, and sent them by night.
4And he commanded (tzivvah) them, saying, "See, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city; do not go very far from the city, and be all of you ready.
5And I and all the people that are with me will draw near to the city; and it shall be, when they come out to meet us as at the first, that we will flee before them.
6And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as at the first'; and we will flee before them.
7And you shall rise up from the ambush and take possession of the city; and YHWH your God will give it into your hand.
8And it shall be, when you seize the city, you shall set the city on fire; according to the word of YHWH you shall do; see, I have commanded (tzivvah) you."
9And Joshua sent them, and they went to the ambush and stayed between Beth-el and Ai, on the west of Ai; but Joshua lodged that night in the midst of the people.
10And Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11And all the people of war that were with him went up and drew near and came before the city, and encamped on the north of Ai; and the valley was between him and Ai.
12And he took about five thousand men (ish) and set them in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west of the city.
13And the people set all the camp that was on the north of the city, and its rear on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men (ish) of the city hastened and rose early and went out to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people, at the appointed time (moed), before the Arabah; but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15And Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them; and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17And there was not a man (ish) left in Ai or Beth-el who did not go out after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18And YHWH said to Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for into your hand I will give it." And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
19And the ambush rose quickly from its place, and they ran when he stretched out his hand, and they came to the city and captured it; and they hastened and set the city on fire.
20And the men (ish) of Ai turned behind them and saw, and behold, the smoke of the city went up to the heavens; and there was no strength in them to flee this way or that way; and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuer.
21And Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city went up; and they turned back and struck the men (ish) of Ai.
22And these came out of the city to meet them; and they were in the midst of Israel, these on this side and these on that side; and they struck them until none was left of them remaining or escaping.
23And the king of Ai they seized alive (chai), and brought him to Joshua.
24And it came to pass, when Israel had finished slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai and struck it by the edge of the sword.
25And all that fell that day, from man (ish) to woman (ishah), were twelve thousand, all the men (ish) of Ai.
26And Joshua did not draw back his hand which he stretched out with the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took as plunder for themselves, according to the word of YHWH which He commanded (tzivvah) Joshua.
28And Joshua burned Ai, and made it a mound forever, a desolation, to this day.
29And the king of Ai he hanged on the tree until the time of evening; and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded (tzivvah), and they took his corpse down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, to this day.
30Then Joshua built an altar to YHWH, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
31as Moses the servant of YHWH commanded (tzivvah) the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Torah of Moses, an altar of whole stones, on which no one had lifted up iron; and they offered on it burnt offerings to YHWH, and sacrificed peace offerings.
32And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Torah of Moses, which he wrote before the children of Israel.
33And all Israel, and its elders and officers and its judges, stood on this side and on that side of the ark, before the priests the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant (berit) of YHWH, the sojourner as the native-born; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of YHWH had commanded (tzivvah), to bless the people of Israel at the first.
34And afterward he read all the words of the Torah, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the Torah.
35There was not a word of all that Moses commanded (tzivvah) which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women (ishah), and the little ones, and the sojourner who walked in their midst.