Fear Not - Joshua 8

8:1 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither  be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and  arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king  of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land: 

Joshua 8:2 And  thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho  and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof,  shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush  for the city behind it.  

Joshua 8:3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up  against Ai: and 

Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty  men of valour, and sent them away by night. 

Joshua 8:4 And he  commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait  against the city, even behind the city: go not very far from  the city, but be ye all ready: 

Joshua 8:5 And I, and all the people  that are with me, will approach unto the city: and it shall  come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first,  that we will flee before them, 

Joshua 8:6 (For they will come out  after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will  say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will  flee before them. 

Joshua 8:7 Then ye shall rise up from the  ambush, and seize upon the city: for the LORD your God  will deliver it into your hand. 

Joshua 8:8 And it shall be, when ye  have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire:  according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do.  See, I have commanded you. 

Joshua 8:9 Joshua therefore sent  them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode  between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua  lodged that night among the people. 

Joshua 8:10 And Joshua  rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and  went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.  

Joshua 8:11 And all the people, even the people of war that  were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before  the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there  was a valley between them and Ai. 

Joshua 8:12 And he took  about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush  between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 

Joshua 8:13  And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the  west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the  valley.   

Joshua 8:14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it,  that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city  went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a  time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there  were liers in ambush against him behind the city. 

Joshua 8:15  And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten  before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. 

Joshua 8:16  And 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. 

Joshua 8:17 And there was not a man  left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they  left the city open, and pursued after Israel. 

Joshua 8:18 And the  LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy  hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand  toward the city. 

Joshua 8:19 And the ambush arose quickly out  of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out  his hand: and they entered into the city, and took it, and  hasted and set the city on fire. 

Joshua 8:20 And when the men of  Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of  the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to  flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the  wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. 

Joshua 8:21 And when  Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city,  and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned  again, and slew the men of Ai. 

Joshua 8:22 And the other issued  out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of  Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they  smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.  

Joshua 8:23 And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him  to Joshua. 

Joshua 8:24 And it came to pass, when Israel had  made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field,  in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they  were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were  consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote  it with the edge of the sword. 

Joshua 8:25 And so it was, that  all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve  thousand, even all the men of Ai. 

Joshua 8:26 For Joshua drew  not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear,  until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.  

Joshua 8:27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took  for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the  LORD which he commanded Joshua. 

Joshua 8:28 And Joshua  burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation  unto this day. 

Joshua 8:29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a  tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua  commanded that they should take his carcase down from the  tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and  raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto  this day.  

Joshua 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of  Israel in mount Ebal, 

Joshua 8:31 As Moses the servant of the  LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in  the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over  which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered  thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed  peace offerings.  

Joshua 8:32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the  law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the  children of Israel. 

Joshua 8:33 And all Israel, and their elders,  and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and  on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the  ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he  that was born among them; half of them over against mount  Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as  Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before,  that they should bless the people of Israel. 

Joshua 8:34 And  afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and  cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the  law. 

Joshua 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses  commanded, which 

Joshua read not before all the  congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones,  and the strangers that were conversant among them.  KJV

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