Joshua 8
Open in the reader1Then He-Who-Is said to He-Who-Is-Saves, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack The-Ruin. See, I have delivered into your hand the king of The-Ruin, his people, his city, and his land.
2And you shall do to The-Ruin and its king as you did to Moon and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.”
3So He-Who-Is-Saves and the whole army set out to attack The-Ruin. He-Who-Is-Saves chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out at night
4with these orders: “Pay attention. You are to lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it. All of you must be ready.
5Then I and all the troops with me will advance on the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them.
6They will pursue us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ So as we flee from them,
7you are to rise from the ambush and seize the city, for He-Who-Is your God will deliver it into your hand.
8And when you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do as He-Who-Is has commanded! See, I have given you orders.”
9So He-Who-Is-Saves sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between House-of-God and The-Ruin, to the west of The-Ruin. But He-Who-Is-Saves spent that night among the people.
10He-Who-Is-Saves got up early the next morning and mobilized his men, and he and the elders of Strives-with-God marched before them up to The-Ruin.
11Then all the troops who were with him marched up and approached the city. They arrived in front of The-Ruin and camped to the north of it, with the valley between them and the city.
12Now He-Who-Is-Saves had taken about five thousand men and set up an ambush between House-of-God and The-Ruin, to the west of the city.
13So the forces were stationed with the main camp to the north of the city and the rear guard to the west of the city. And that night He-Who-Is-Saves went into the valley.
14When the king of The-Ruin saw the Israelites, he hurried out early in the morning with the men of the city to engage them in battle at an appointed place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set up against him behind the city.
15He-Who-Is-Saves and all Strives-with-God let themselves be beaten back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.
16Then all the men of The-Ruin were summoned to pursue them, and they followed He-Who-Is-Saves and were drawn away from the city.
17Not a man was left in The-Ruin or House-of-God who did not go out after Strives-with-God, leaving the city wide open while they pursued Strives-with-God.
18Then He-Who-Is said to He-Who-Is-Saves, “Hold out your battle lance toward The-Ruin, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So He-Who-Is-Saves held out his battle lance toward City-of-Serpent,
19and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.
20When the men of The-Ruin turned and looked back, the smoke of the city was rising into the sky. They could not escape in any direction, and the troops who had fled to the wilderness now turned against their pursuers.
21When He-Who-Is-Saves and all Strives-with-God saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and struck down the men of The-Ruin.
22Meanwhile, those in the ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the child of Strives-with-God forces on both sides. So Strives-with-God struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained.
23But they took the king of The-Ruin alive and brought him to He-Who-Is-Saves.
24When Strives-with-God had finished killing all the men of The-Ruin who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the children of Strives-with-God returned to The-Ruin and put it to the sword as well.
25A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of The-Ruin.
26He-Who-Is-Saves did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction all who lived in The-Ruin.
27Strives-with-God took for themselves only the cattle and plunder of that city, as He-Who-Is had commanded He-Who-Is-Saves.
28So He-Who-Is-Saves burned The-Ruin and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.
29He hung the king of The-Ruin on a tree until evening, and at sunset He-Who-Is-Saves commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And over it they raised a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.
30At that time He-Who-Is-Saves built an altar on Mount Bare to He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God,
31just as Drawn-Out the servant of He-Who-Is had commanded the Strives-with-Godites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Teaching of Drawn-Out: “an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used.” And on it they offered burnt offerings to He-Who-Is, and they sacrificed peace offerings.
32And there in the presence of the children of Strives-with-God, He-Who-Is-Saves inscribed on the stones a copy of the teaching of Drawn-Out, which he had written.
33All Strives-with-God, foreigners and citizens alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the Chest of the covenant of He-Who-Is facing the Joined-One priests who carried it. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Rocky and half of them in front of Mount Bare, as Drawn-Out the servant of He-Who-Is had commanded earlier, to bless the people of Strives-with-God.
34Afterward, He-Who-Is-Saves read aloud all the words of the teaching—the blessings and the curses—according to all that is written in the Book of the Teaching.
35There was not a word of all that Drawn-Out had commanded that He-Who-Is-Saves failed to read before the whole assembly of Strives-with-God, including the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who lived among them.