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¹Now the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear or be dismayed (intimidated). Take all the men of war with you and set out, go up to Ai; see, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land into your hand.

²You shall do [the same] to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; [except that] you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set up an ambush for the city behind it [on the west side]."

³So Joshua set out with all the people of war to go up against Ai; then Joshua chose thirty thousand valiant men, and sent them out at night.

⁴He commanded them, saying, "Listen closely, you are going to lie in wait and ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far away from the city, but all of you be ready.

⁵Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us [for battle] as [they did] the first time, we will run away from them.

⁶They will come out after us until we have lured them away from the city, because they will say, 'They are running from us as [they did] before.' So we will run from them.

⁷Then you will emerge from the ambush and take possession of the city, for the LORD your God will hand it over to you.

⁸When you have taken the city, you shall set it on fire; you shall do [exactly] as the LORD commanded. See, I have commanded you."

⁹So Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place for the ambush and stayed [hidden] between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people [in Gilgal].

¹⁰Now Joshua got up early in the morning and assembled the people, and went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai.

¹¹Then all the fighting men who were with him went up and advanced and arrived in front of the city, and camped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a ravine between them and Ai.

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

¹³So they stationed the people, all the army—the main encampment that was north of the city, and their rear guard on the west side of the city—and Joshua spent that night in the valley.

¹⁴Now when the king [and the people] of Ai saw it, the men of the city hurried and got up early and went out to meet Israel in battle, the king and all his people at the appointed [time and] place before the desert plain (the Arabah). But he did not know that there was an ambush against him [waiting] behind the city [on the west side].

¹⁵So Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them, and ran toward the wilderness.

¹⁶Then all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city.

¹⁷Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel; so they left the city open and unguarded and they pursued Israel.

¹⁸Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Reach out with the spear that is in your hand [and point it] toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." So Joshua reached out with the spear in his hand [and pointed it] toward the city.

¹⁹The [men in] ambush emerged quickly from their [hiding] place, and when Joshua stretched out his hand they ran and entered the city and captured it, and quickly set the city on fire.

²⁰When the men of Ai turned back and looked, behold, the smoke of the city was ascending toward the sky, and they had no opportunity to run this way or that way. Then the people who had been running to the wilderness turned back toward the pursuers.

²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the [men in] ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was ascending, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.

²²Then the others came out of the city to confront the men of Ai [as they returned], so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side; then Israel struck them until none of them survived or escaped.

²³But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel had finished killing 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 destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

²⁵And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.

²⁶For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

²⁷Israel took only the livestock and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of the LORD which He had commanded Joshua.

²⁸So Joshua burned Ai and made it a rubbish heap forever, a desolation until this day.

²⁹He hanged [the body of] the king of Ai on a tree [leaving it there] until evening; at sunset Joshua gave a command and they took the body down from the tree and dumped it at the entrance of the city gate, and piled a great heap of stones over it that stands to this day.

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,

³¹just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no one has wielded an iron tool; and they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

³²And there, in the presence of the sons of Israel, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses which Moses had written.

³³All Israel, the stranger as well as the native born [among them], with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on either side of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at first to bless the people of Israel.

³⁴Then afterward Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessing and curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.

³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and the children and the foreigners who were living among them.

¹Now when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland [at the western edge of the hills of Judea], and all along the coast of the Great [Mediterranean] Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, heard of this [army and its victories over Jericho and Ai],

²they gathered together with one purpose to fight with Joshua and with Israel.

³But when the people of Gibeon [the Hivites] heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

⁴they too acted craftily and cunningly, and set out and took along provisions, but took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins (leather bottles) that were worn out and split open and patched together,

⁵and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes; and all their supply of food was dry and had turned to crumbs.

⁶They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, "We have come from a far country; so now, make a covenant (treaty) with us."

⁷But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you are living within our land; how then can we make a covenant (treaty) with you?"

⁸They said to Joshua, "We are your servants." Then Joshua said to them, "Who are you, and where do you come from?"

⁹They said to him, "Your servants have come from a country that is very far away because of the fame of the LORD your God; for we have heard the news about Him and all [the remarkable things] that He did in Egypt,

¹⁰and everything that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon and to Og the king of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth.

¹¹So our elders and all the residents of our country said to us, 'Take provisions for the journey and go to meet the sons of Israel and say to them, "We are your servants; now make a covenant (treaty) with us."'

¹²This bread of ours was hot (fresh) when we took it along as our provision from our houses on the day we left to come to you; now look, it is dry and has turned to crumbs.

¹³These wineskins which we filled were new, and look, they are split; our clothes and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey [that we had to make]."

¹⁴So the men [of Israel] took some of their own provisions [and offered them in friendship], and [foolishly] did not ask for the counsel of the LORD.

¹⁵Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant (treaty) with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation [of Israel] swore an oath to them.

¹⁶It happened that three days after they had made a covenant (treaty) with them, the Israelites heard that they were [actually] their neighbors and that they were living among them.

¹⁷Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now the cities [of the Hivites] were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim.

¹⁸But the sons of Israel did not strike them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD the God of Israel [to spare them]. And all the congregation murmured [expressing great dissatisfaction] against the leaders.

¹⁹But all the leaders said to the whole congregation, "We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, so now we cannot touch them.

²⁰This [is what] we will do to them: we will let them live, so that the wrath [of God] does not come upon us for [violating] the oath which we have sworn to them."

²¹The leaders said to them, "Let them live [as our slaves]." So they became the cutters and gatherers of firewood and water carriers for the entire congregation, just as the leaders had said of them.

²²Joshua called the [Hivite] men and said, "Why did you deceive us, saying, 'We live very far away from you,' when [in fact] you live among us?

²³Now therefore, you are cursed, and you shall always be slaves, both cutters and gatherers of firewood and water carriers for the house of my God."

²⁴They replied to Joshua and said, "Because your servants were told in no uncertain terms that the LORD your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the land's inhabitants before you, we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and so we did this [deceptive] thing.

²⁵Now look, we are in your hands; do to us as it seems good and right in your sight."

²⁶So that is what he did to them; he rescued them from the hands of the Israelites and they did not kill them.

²⁷Now on that day Joshua made them cutters and gatherers of firewood and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to this day, in the place which He would choose.

¹When Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured Ai, and had utterly destroyed it—as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he had done to Ai and its king—and that the residents of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were [living] among them,

²he [and his people] feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.

³So Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham king of Hebron, and to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying,

⁴"Come up to me and help me, and let us attack Gibeon [with a combined army], because it has made peace with Joshua and with the sons (people) of Israel."

⁵Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered together and went up, they with all their armies, and they camped by Gibeon and fought against it.

⁶So the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, "Do not abandon your servants; come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all [five of] the kings of the Amorites who live in the hill country have assembled against us."

⁷So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the men of valor.

⁸The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, because I have given them into your hand; not one of them shall stand before you."

⁹So Joshua came upon them suddenly, [surprising them] by marching [uphill] all night from Gilgal.

¹⁰And the LORD caused them to panic and be confused before Israel, and He struck them dead in a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goes up to Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

¹¹As they fled before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down large stones [of hail] from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. More [Amorites] died because of the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

¹²Then Joshua spoke to the LORD on the day when the LORD handed over the Amorites to the sons of Israel, and Joshua said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, And moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."

¹³So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Until the nation [of Israel] took vengeance upon their enemies. Is it not written in the Book of Jashar? So the sun stood still in the middle of the sky and was in no hurry to go down for about a whole day.

¹⁴There has not been a day like that before it or after it, when the LORD listened to (heeded) the voice of a man; for the LORD was fighting for Israel.

¹⁵Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal.

¹⁶Now these five [Amorite] kings fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah.

¹⁷And Joshua was told, "The five kings have been found and are hidden in the cave at Makkedah."

¹⁸Joshua said, "Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave, and assign men by it to guard them,

¹⁹but do not stay there yourselves; pursue your enemies and attack them from the rear. Do not allow them to enter their cities, for the LORD your God has given them into your hand."

²⁰Now when Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking the Amorites dead in a very great defeat, until they were wiped out, and the surviving remnant among them had entered the fortified cities,

²¹all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace. No one uttered a [threatening] word against any of the sons of Israel.

²²Then Joshua said, "Open the mouth of the cave and bring out to me those five [Amorite] kings from the cave."

²³They did so, and brought these five [Amorite] kings out of the cave to him—the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.

²⁴When they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and told the commanders of the men of war who had gone with him, "Come up close, put your feet on the necks of these kings." So they came forward and put their feet on the necks [of the five kings].

²⁵Joshua said to them, "Do not fear or be dismayed (intimidated)! Be strong and courageous, for this is what the LORD will do to all your enemies against whom you [are about to] fight."

²⁶Then afterward Joshua struck them [with his sword] and put them to death, and he hung them on five trees; and they hung on the trees until evening.

²⁷At sunset Joshua gave a command, and they took the bodies down from the trees and threw them into the cave where the kings had hidden themselves, and placed large stones over the mouth of the cave, [where they remain] to this very day.

²⁸Now Joshua captured Makkedah on that day, and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword; he utterly destroyed it and everyone who was in it. He left no survivor. So he did to the king of Makkedah just as he had done to the king of Jericho.

²⁹Then Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Makkedah to Libnah, and fought against Libnah.

³⁰The LORD gave it also along with its king into the hands of Israel, and Joshua struck it and every person who was in it with the edge of the sword. He left no survivor in it. So he did to the king of Libnah just as he had done to the king of Jericho.

³¹And Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish, and they camped by it and fought against it.

³²The LORD gave Lachish into the hands of Israel; and Joshua captured it on the second day, and struck it and every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, just as he had done to Libnah.

³³Then Horam king of Gezer went up to help Lachish, and Joshua struck him and his people down until he had left him no survivor.

³⁴And Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Lachish to Eglon, and they camped by it and fought against it.

³⁵They captured it on that day and struck it with the edge of the sword; and on that day he utterly destroyed every person who was in it, just as he had done to Lachish.

³⁶Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and they fought against it

³⁷and captured it and struck it and its king and all its cities and all the persons who were in it with the edge of the sword. He left no survivor, just as he had done to Eglon. He utterly destroyed it and every person who was in it.

³⁸Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to Debir, and fought against it.

³⁹He captured it with its king and all its cities, and they struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed every person who was in it. He left no survivor. Just as he had done to Hebron, so Joshua did to Debir and its king, as he had done also to Libnah and its king.

⁴⁰So Joshua struck all the land, the hill country, the Negev (South country) and the lowland and the slopes [that descend to the Dead Sea] and all their kings. He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.

⁴¹Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea even as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen even as far as Gibeon.

⁴²Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.

⁴³So Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal.