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The
Conquest of Ai |
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| Joshua 8:1 |
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Now the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear or
be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see,
I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. |
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| Joshua 8:2 |
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You shall do to Ai and its king just as you
did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder
for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it." |
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| Joshua 8:3 |
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So Joshua rose with all the people of war to
go up to Ai; and Joshua chose 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them out
at night. |
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| Joshua 8:4 |
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He commanded them, saying, "See, you are going
to ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of
you be ready. |
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| Joshua 8:5 |
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Then I and all the people who are with me will
approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as at the first, we will
flee before them. |
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| Joshua 8:6 |
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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.' So we will flee before them. |
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| Joshua 8:7 |
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And you shall rise from your ambush and take
possession of the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. |
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| Joshua 8:8 |
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Then it will be when you have seized the city,
that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it according to the word of
the LORD. See, I have commanded you." |
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| Joshua 8:9 |
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So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the
place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but
Joshua spent that night among the people. |
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| Joshua 8:10 |
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Now Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered
the people, and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai. |
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| Joshua 8:11 |
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Then all the people of war who were with him
went up and drew near and arrived in front of the city, and camped on the north
side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai. |
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| Joshua 8:12 |
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And he took about 5,000 men and set them in
ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. |
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| Joshua 8:13 |
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So they stationed the people, all the army
that was on the north side of the city, and its rear guard on the west side of
the city, and Joshua spent that night in the midst of the valley. |
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| Joshua 8:14 |
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It came about when the king of Ai saw it, that
the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went out to meet Israel in battle,
he and all his people at the appointed place before the desert plain. But he did
not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. |
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| Joshua 8:15 |
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Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten
before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. |
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| Joshua 8:16 |
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And all the people who were in the city were
called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from
the city. |
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| Joshua 8:17 |
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So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had
not gone out after Israel, and they left the city unguarded and pursued Israel. |
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| Joshua 8:18 |
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Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Stretch out the
javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." So
Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. |
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| Joshua 8:19 |
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The men in ambush rose quickly from their place,
and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured
it, and they quickly set the city on fire. |
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| Joshua 8:20 |
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When the men of Ai turned back and looked, behold,
the smoke of the city ascended to the sky, and they had no place to flee this
way or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against
the pursuers. |
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| Joshua 8:21 |
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When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men
in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they
turned back and slew the men of Ai. |
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| Joshua 8:22 |
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The others came out from the city to encounter
them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, some on this side and
some on that side; and they slew them until no one was left of those who survived
or escaped. |
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| Joshua 8:23 |
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But they took alive the king of Ai and brought
him to Joshua. |
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| Joshua 8:24 |
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Now when Israel had finished killing all the
inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and
all of them were 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. |
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| Joshua 8:25 |
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All who fell that day, both men and women, were
12,000-all the people of Ai. |
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| Joshua 8:26 |
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For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which
he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants
of Ai. |
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| Joshua 8:27 |
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Israel took only the cattle and the spoil of
that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of the LORD which He
had commanded Joshua. |
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| Joshua 8:28 |
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So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever,
a desolation until this day. |
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| Joshua 8:29 |
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He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening;
and at sunset Joshua gave command and they took his body down from the tree and
threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and raised over it a great heap of
stones that stands to this day. |
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| Joshua 8:30 |
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Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the
God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, |
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| Joshua 8:31 |
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just 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 man had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt
offerings on it to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. |
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| Joshua 8:32 |
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He wrote there on the stones a copy of the law
of Moses, which he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel. |
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| Joshua 8:33 |
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All Israel with their elders and officers and
their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests
who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as the native.
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 given command at first to bless
the people of Israel. |
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| Joshua 8:34 |
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Then afterward he read all the words of the
law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book
of the law. |
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| Joshua 8:35 |
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There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded
which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women and
the little ones and the strangers who were living among them. |
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