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Joshua / Question
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Joshua
The LORD directed Joshua to set an ambush against Ai Joshua 8:2. Israel drew the men of Ai out by a feigned retreat, then the ambush rose, entered the city, and set it on fire Joshua 8:15–19.
2You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king: only the spoil of it, and the cattle of it, shall you take for a prey to yourselves: set you an ambush for the city behind it.
3So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.
4He commanded them, saying, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city; don`t go very far from the city, but be you all ready:
5and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them;
6and they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: so we will flee before them;
7and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city: for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand.
8It shall be, when you have seized on the city, that you shall set the city on fire; according to the word of Yahweh shall you do: behold, I have commanded you.
9Joshua sent them forth; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.
10Joshua arose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11All the people, [even] the [men of] war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between him and Ai.
12He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13So they set the people, even all the host who was on the north of the city, and their liers-in-wait who were on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14It happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn`t know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
16All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17There was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, who didn`t go out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18Yahweh said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand. Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
19The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it; and they hurried and set the city on fire.