Joshua 8

New International Version

Ai Destroyed

8 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid;^(A) do not be discouraged.^(B) Take the whole army^(C) with you, and go up and attack Ai.^(D) For I have delivered^(E) into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. ²You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder^(F) and livestock for yourselves.^(G) Set an ambush^(H) behind the city.”

³So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night ⁴with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. ⁵I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. ⁶They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, ⁷you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand.^(I) ⁸When you have taken the city, set it on fire.^(J) Do what the Lord has commanded.^(K) See to it; you have my orders.”

⁹Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush^(L) and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people.

¹⁰Early the next morning^(M) Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel^(N) marched before them to Ai. ¹¹The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. ¹²Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

¹⁴When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah.^(O) But he did not know^(P) that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. ¹⁵Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back^(Q) before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.^(R) ¹⁶All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away^(S) from the city. ¹⁷Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

¹⁸Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin^(T) that is in your hand,^(U) for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand.^(V) ¹⁹As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly^(W) from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.^(X)

²⁰The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky,^(Y) but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. ²¹For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around^(Z) and attacked the men of Ai. ²²Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives.^(AA) ²³But they took the king of Ai alive^(AB) and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. ²⁵Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.^(AC) ²⁶For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin^(AD) until he had destroyed^[a]^(AE) all who lived in Ai.^(AF) ²⁷But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua.^(AG)

²⁸So Joshua burned^(AH) Ai^[b]^(AI) and made it a permanent heap of ruins,^(AJ) a desolate place to this day.^(AK) ²⁹He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset,^(AL) Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks^(AM) over it, which remains to this day.

The Covenant Renewed at Mount Ebal

³⁰Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal^(AN) an altar^(AO) to the Lord, the God of Israel, ³¹as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool^(AP) had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings.^(AQ) ³²There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses.^(AR) ³³All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical^(AS) priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born^(AT) were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal,^(AU) as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

³⁴Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law.^(AV) ³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.^(AW)

Footnotes

Joshua 8:26 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
Joshua 8:28 Ai means the ruin.

Jeremiah 2

New International Version

Israel Forsakes God

2 The word^(A) of the Lord came to me: ²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:

“This is what the Lord says:

“‘I remember the devotion of your youth,^(B)
    how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,^(C)
    through a land not sown.
³Israel was holy^(D) to the Lord,^(E)
    the firstfruits^(F) of his harvest;
all who devoured^(G) her were held guilty,^(H)
    and disaster overtook them,’”
declares the Lord.

⁴Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
    that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols^(I)
    and became worthless^(J) themselves.
⁶They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up out of Egypt^(K)
and led us through the barren wilderness,
    through a land of deserts^(L) and ravines,^(M)
a land of drought and utter darkness,
    a land where no one travels^(N) and no one lives?’
⁷I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.^(O)
But you came and defiled my land
    and made my inheritance detestable.^(P)
⁸The priests did not ask,
    ‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;^(Q)
    the leaders^(R) rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,^(S)
    following worthless idols.^(T)

⁹“Therefore I bring charges^(U) against you again,”
declares the Lord.
    “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
¹⁰Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus^(V) and look,
    send to Kedar^[a]^(W) and observe closely;
    see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods?
    (Yet they are not gods^(X) at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious^(Y) God
    for worthless idols.
¹²Be appalled at this, you heavens,
    and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
¹³“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken^(Z) me,
    the spring of living water,^(AA)
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
¹⁴Is Israel a servant, a slave^(AB) by birth?
    Why then has he become plunder?
¹⁵Lions^(AC) have roared;
    they have growled at him.
They have laid waste^(AD) his land;
    his towns are burned^(AE) and deserted.^(AF)
¹⁶Also, the men of Memphis^(AG) and Tahpanhes^(AH)
    have cracked your skull.
¹⁷Have you not brought this on yourselves^(AI)
    by forsaking^(AJ) the Lord your God
    when he led you in the way?
¹⁸Now why go to Egypt^(AK)
    to drink water from the Nile^[b]?^(AL)
And why go to Assyria^(AM)
    to drink water from the Euphrates?^(AN)
¹⁹Your wickedness will punish you;
    your backsliding^(AO) will rebuke^(AP) you.
Consider then and realize
    how evil and bitter^(AQ) it is for you
when you forsake^(AR) the Lord your God
    and have no awe^(AS) of me,”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

²⁰“Long ago you broke off your yoke^(AT)
    and tore off your bonds;^(AU)
    you said, ‘I will not serve you!’^(AV)
Indeed, on every high hill^(AW)
    and under every spreading tree^(AX)
    you lay down as a prostitute.^(AY)
²¹I had planted^(AZ) you like a choice vine^(BA)
    of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
    into a corrupt,^(BB) wild vine?
²²Although you wash^(BC) yourself with soap^(BD)
    and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
    the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.^(BE)
²³“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;^(BF)
    I have not run after the Baals’?^(BG)
See how you behaved in the valley;^(BH)
    consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
    running^(BI) here and there,
²⁴a wild donkey^(BJ) accustomed to the desert,^(BK)
    sniffing the wind in her craving—
    in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
    at mating time they will find her.
²⁵Do not run until your feet are bare
    and your throat is dry.
But you said, ‘It’s no use!^(BL)
    I love foreign gods,^(BM)
    and I must go after them.’^(BN)

²⁶“As a thief is disgraced^(BO) when he is caught,
    so the people of Israel are disgraced—
they, their kings and their officials,
    their priests^(BP) and their prophets.^(BQ)
²⁷They say to wood,^(BR) ‘You are my father,’
    and to stone,^(BS) ‘You gave me birth.’
They have turned their backs^(BT) to me
    and not their faces;^(BU)
yet when they are in trouble,^(BV) they say,
    ‘Come and save^(BW) us!’
²⁸Where then are the gods^(BX) you made for yourselves?
    Let them come if they can save you
    when you are in trouble!^(BY)
For you, Judah, have as many gods
    as you have towns.^(BZ)

²⁹“Why do you bring charges against me?
    You have all^(CA) rebelled against me,”
declares the Lord.
³⁰“In vain I punished your people;
    they did not respond to correction.^(CB)
Your sword has devoured your prophets^(CC)
    like a ravenous lion.

³¹“You of this generation, consider the word of the Lord:

“Have I been a desert to Israel
    or a land of great darkness?^(CD)
Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam;
    we will come to you no more’?^(CE)
³²Does a young woman forget her jewelry,
    a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten^(CF) me,
    days without number.
³³How skilled you are at pursuing^(CG) love!
    Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
³⁴On your clothes is found
    the lifeblood^(CH) of the innocent poor,
    though you did not catch them breaking in.^(CI)
Yet in spite of all this
³⁵    you say, ‘I am innocent;^(CJ)
    he is not angry with me.’
But I will pass judgment^(CK) on you
    because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’^(CL)
³⁶Why do you go about so much,
    changing^(CM) your ways?
You will be disappointed by Egypt^(CN)
    as you were by Assyria.
³⁷You will also leave that place
    with your hands on your head,^(CO)
for the Lord has rejected those you trust;
    you will not be helped^(CP) by them.