men: for they chased them backs before their enemies, befrom before the gate even unto cause they were accursed: Shebarim, and smote them in neither will I be with you any the going down: wherefore the more, except ye destroy the hearts of the people melted, accursed from among you. and became as water.

6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.

7 And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!

8 O LORD, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!

9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

10 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?

11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their

13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst uot stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by housholds; and the houshold which the LORD shall take shall come man by man.

15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

16 So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken :

17 And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites; and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken :

18 And he brought his

houshold man by man; and and they brought them unto Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judalı, was taken.

:

city.

5 And I, and all the people and Ai, on the west side of the 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.

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.

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.

14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up 7 Then ye shall rise up from early, and the men of the city the ambush, and seize upon went out against Israel to battle, the city for the LORD your he and all his people, at a time God will deliver it into your appointed, before the plain; hand. but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

18 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear 11 And all the people, even that is in thy hand toward ́Ai : the people of war that were for I will give it into thine with him, went up, and drew hand. And Joshua stretched nigh, and came before the city, out the spear that he had in and pitched on the north side his hand toward the city. of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.

19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and 12 And he took about five they ran as soon as he had thousand men, and set them to stretched out his hand and lie in ambush between Beth-el they entered into the city, and

took it, and hasted and set the utterly destroyed all the inhacity on fire. bitants of Ai.

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 pur

suers.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

30 ¶ Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal.

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

24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilder- any iron and they offered ness wherein they chased them, thereon burnt offerings unto the and when they were all fallen LORD, and sacrificed peace on the edge of the sword, until offerings. they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

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.

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.

33 And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the 26 For Joshua drew not his ark and on that side before the hand back, wherewith he stretch- priests the Levites, which bare ed out the spear, until he had the ark of the covenant of the

LORD, as well the stranger, as had spoken unto the house of he that was born among them; Israel; all came to pass. half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as