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Joshua 8
New English Translation

Israel Conquers Ai

8 The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic![a] Take the whole army with you and march against Ai![b] See, I am handing over to you[c] the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land. 2 Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city.”

3 Joshua and the whole army marched against Ai.[d] Joshua selected 30,000 brave warriors and sent them out at night. 4 He ordered them, “Look, set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city; all of you be ready! 5 I and all the troops[e] who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them. 6 They will attack[f] us until we have lured them from the city, for they will say, ‘They are retreating from us like before.’ We will retreat from them. 7 Then you rise up from your hiding place[g] and seize[h] the city. The Lord your God will hand it over to you. 8 When you capture the city, set it[i] on fire in keeping with the Lord’s message. See, I have given you orders.”[j] 9 Joshua sent them away and they went to their hiding place[k] west of Ai, between Bethel and Ai.[l] Joshua spent that night with the army.[m]

10 Bright and early the next morning Joshua gathered[n] the army,[o] and he and the leaders[p] of Israel marched[q] at the head of it[r] to Ai. 11 All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city.[s] They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley.[t] 12 He took 5,000 men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel and Ai. 13 The army was in position—the main army north of the city and the rear guard west of the city. That night Joshua went into[u] the middle of the valley.

14 When the king of Ai and all his people saw Israel, they rushed to get up early. Then the king and the men of the city went out to meet Israel in battle, at the meeting place near the rift valley.[v] But he did not realize an ambush was waiting for him behind the city.[w] 15 Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them, and they retreated along the way to the wilderness. 16 All the reinforcements[x] in Ai[y] were ordered[z] to chase them; they chased Joshua and were lured away from the city. 17 No men were left in Ai or Bethel;[aa] they all went out after Israel.[ab] They left the city wide open and chased Israel.

18 The Lord told Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the curved sword[ac] in your hand, for I am handing the city[ad] over to you.” So Joshua held out toward Ai the curved sword in his hand. 19 When he held out his hand, the men waiting in ambush rose up quickly from their place and attacked.[ae] They entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire. 20 When the men of Ai turned around, they saw[af] the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction.[ag] In the meantime the men who were retreating to the wilderness turned against their pursuers. 21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the city was going up in smoke,[ah] they turned around and struck down the men of Ai. 22 At the same time the men who had taken the city came out to fight, and the men of Ai were trapped in the middle.[ai] The Israelites struck them down, leaving no survivors or refugees. 23 But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

24 When Israel had finished killing all the men[aj] of Ai who had chased them toward the wilderness[ak] (they all fell by the sword),[al] all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it. 25 So 12,000 men and women died[am] that day, including all the men of Ai. 26 Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai.[an] 27 But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in keeping with the Lord’s orders[ao] to Joshua. 28 Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day).[ap] 29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening.[aq] At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree.[ar] They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day).[as]

Covenant Renewal

30 Then Joshua built an altar for the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. As described in the law scroll of Moses, it was made with uncut stones untouched by an iron tool.[at] On it they offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord and sacrificed tokens of peace.[au] 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a duplicate of the law written by Moses.[av] 33 All the people,[aw] rulers,[ax] leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there.[ay] Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the Lord’s servant had previously instructed them to do for the formal blessing ceremony.[az] 34 Then[ba] Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the law scroll. 35 Joshua read aloud every commandment Moses had given[bb] before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and resident foreigners who lived among them.[bc]

Footnotes

  1. Joshua 8:1 tn Or perhaps “and don’t get discouraged!”
  2. Joshua 8:1 tn Heb “Take with you all the people of war and arise, go up against Ai!”
  3. Joshua 8:1 tn Heb “I have given into our hand.” The verbal form, a perfect, is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action.
  4. Joshua 8:3 tn “And Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up [against] Ai.”
  5. Joshua 8:5 tn Heb “the people.”
  6. Joshua 8:6 tn Heb “come out after.”
  7. Joshua 8:7 tn Heb “from the ambush.”
  8. Joshua 8:7 tn Heb “take possession of.”
  9. Joshua 8:8 tn Heb “the city.”
  10. Joshua 8:8 tn Heb “I have commanded you.”
  11. Joshua 8:9 tn Or “the place of ambush.”
  12. Joshua 8:9 tn Heb “and they stayed between Bethel and Ai, west of Ai.”
  13. Joshua 8:9 tn Heb “in the midst of the people.”
  14. Joshua 8:10 tn Or “summoned, mustered.”
  15. Joshua 8:10 tn Heb “the people.”
  16. Joshua 8:10 tn Or “elders.”
  17. Joshua 8:10 tn Heb “went up.”
  18. Joshua 8:10 tn Heb “them” (referring to “the people” in the previous clause, which requires a plural pronoun). Since the translation used “army” in the previous clause, a singular pronoun (“it”) is required in English.
  19. Joshua 8:11 tn Heb “All the people of war who were with him went up and approached and came opposite the city.”
  20. Joshua 8:11 tn Heb “and the valley [was] between them and Ai.”
  21. Joshua 8:13 tn Some Hebrew mss read, “spent the night in.”
  22. Joshua 8:14 sn This probably refers to the hill country at the edge of the rift valley between Ai and Jericho. This part of the battle was probably engaged where Israel would have come up to the hill country out of the rift valley from Jericho, an ascent of about 4000 feet (with ups and downs) over ten miles.
  23. Joshua 8:14 tn Heb “did not know that an ambush for him was behind the city.”
  24. Joshua 8:16 tn Heb “All the people.”
  25. Joshua 8:16 tc Some textual witnesses read “the city.”
  26. Joshua 8:16 tn Or “were summoned”; or “were mustered.”
  27. Joshua 8:17 tc The LXX omits the words “or Bethel.”
  28. Joshua 8:17 tn Heb “who did not go out after Israel.”
  29. Joshua 8:18 tn Traditionally “spear,” but see HALOT 472 s.v. כִּידוֹן, which argues based upon evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls that this term refers to a curved sword of some type; note the definition “scimitar” given there.
  30. Joshua 8:18 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the city of Ai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  31. Joshua 8:19 tn Heb “and ran.”
  32. Joshua 8:20 tn Heb “and they saw, and look.” The Hebrew term הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) draws attention to the scene and invites the audience to view the events from the perspective of the men of Ai.
  33. Joshua 8:20 tn Heb “and there was not in them hands to flee here or there.” The Hebrew term יָדַיִם (yadayim, “hands”) is idiomatic for “strength.”
  34. Joshua 8:21 tn Heb “and that the smoke of the city ascended.”
  35. Joshua 8:22 tn Heb “and these went out from the city to meet them and they were for Israel in the middle, some on this side, and others on the other side.”
  36. Joshua 8:24 tn Heb “residents.”
  37. Joshua 8:24 tn Heb “in the field, in the wilderness in which they chased them.”
  38. Joshua 8:24 tc Heb “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed.” The LXX omits the words, “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword.” They may represent a later scribal addition.
  39. Joshua 8:25 tn Heb “fell.”
  40. Joshua 8:26 tn Heb “Joshua did not draw back his hand which held out the curved sword until he had annihilated all the residents of Ai.”
  41. Joshua 8:27 tn Heb “message, word.”
  42. Joshua 8:28 tn Heb “and made it a permanent mound, a desolation, to this day.”
  43. Joshua 8:29 tn Heb “on a tree until evening.” The words “leaving him exposed” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
  44. Joshua 8:29 sn For the legal background of this action, see Deut 21:22-23.
  45. Joshua 8:29 tn Heb “to this day.”
  46. Joshua 8:31 tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones on which no one had wielded iron.” The expression “whole stones” refers to stones in their natural condition, i.e., not carved or shaped artificially with tools (“wielded iron”).
  47. Joshua 8:31 tn Or “peace offerings.”
  48. Joshua 8:32 tn Heb “and he wrote there on the stones a duplicate of the law of Moses which he wrote before the sons of Israel.”
  49. Joshua 8:33 tn Heb “All Israel.”
  50. Joshua 8:33 tn Or “elders.”
  51. Joshua 8:33 tn Heb “like the resident foreigner, like the citizen.” The language is idiomatic, meaning that both groups were treated the same, at least in this instance.
  52. Joshua 8:33 tn Heb “as Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded to bless the people, Israel, formerly.”sn Moses’ earlier instructions are found in Deut 11:29.
  53. Joshua 8:34 tn Or “afterward.”
  54. Joshua 8:35 tn Heb “There was not a word from all which Moses commanded that Joshua did not read aloud.”
  55. Joshua 8:35 tn Heb “walked in their midst.”
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约书亚记 8
Chinese New Version (Simplified)

约书亚再攻艾城

8 耶和华对约书亚说：“你不要惧怕，也不要惊慌，你只管带领所有能作战的人，起来上艾城去；你看，我已经把艾城的王和他的人民、城市、土地都交在你手里了。 2 你怎样对待耶利哥和耶利哥的王，也要照样对待艾城和艾城的王；只是城中的战利品和牲畜，你们可以据为己有；你要在城后面设下攻城的伏兵。”

3 于是，约书亚和所有能作战的人都起来上艾城去；约书亚选了三万英勇的战士，趁夜派他们出去， 4 吩咐他们说：“你们注意，要在城后面埋伏攻城；不可离城太远，人人都要作好准备。 5 我和所有与我一起的人，要向城推进。城里的人像前一次出来攻击我们的时候，我们就在他们面前逃跑； 6 他们必定出来追赶我们，我们就把他们引出城来，因为他们必定说：‘这些人像前一次一样在我们面前逃跑了。’所以我们要在他们面前逃跑。 7 那时你们就要从埋伏的地方起来，占领那城，因为耶和华你们的　神必把城交在你们的手里。 8 你们占领了城以后，就要放火烧城；要照着耶和华的话行事；你们要谨慎，我已经吩咐你们了。” 9 约书亚差派他们去了，他们就上到埋伏的地方去，住在伯特利和艾城的中间，就是在艾城的西边。那一夜，约书亚却在人民中间住宿。

10 约书亚清早起来，召集人民上艾城去，他和以色列的长老走在人民的前面。 11 所有与他在一起的战士都上去，迫近艾城，在城的北面安营；在约书亚和艾城中间有一个山谷， 12 约书亚挑了大约五千人，要他们埋伏在伯特利和艾城中间，就是艾城的西面。 13 于是他们把众民，就是在城北的全军和在城西的伏兵都布置好了。那一夜，约书亚走进了山谷之中。 14 艾城的王看见了这情形，就和艾城的人急忙在清早起来，按着亚拉巴前面所约定之处出到亚拉巴，要与以色列人交战；王却不知道在城后面有伏兵要攻击他。 15 约书亚和以色列人在他们面前装败，沿着通往旷野的路逃跑。 16 城里的众民都被召集，去追赶他们；艾城的人追赶约书亚的时候，就都被诱离城。 17 艾城和伯特利城没有留下一个人不出来追赶以色列人；他们撇下了敞开的城门，去追赶以色列人。

攻陷艾城

18 耶和华对约书亚说：“你向着艾城伸出你手中的短枪，因为我要把城交在你手里。”约书亚就向着艾城伸出他手里的短枪。 19 他一伸手，伏兵就从埋伏的地方急忙起来，冲进城去，把城夺取，并连忙放火烧城。 20 艾城的人转身观看，看见城里浓烟冲天，就全身乏力，不能逃跑；往旷野逃跑的以色列人就转过来攻击追赶他们的人。 21 约书亚和以色列人看见伏兵已经夺取了城，又看见城中浓烟上升，就转回，击杀艾城的人。 22 伏兵也出城攻击艾城的人；艾城的人就被困在以色列人中间，前后受敌；于是以色列人把他们击杀，没有留下一个，也没有一个逃脱。 23 他们活捉了艾城的王，把他解到约书亚那里。

24 以色列人在田间、在旷野，杀尽了所有追赶他们的艾城的居民，艾城的人全部倒在刀下，直到完全消灭；接着，以色列众人回到艾城，用刀击杀了城中的人。 25 那一天被杀的人，连男带女，共有一万二千人，就是艾城所有的人。 26 约书亚没有收回伸出短枪的手，直到把艾城的居民都消灭为止。 27 只有那城里的牲畜和战利品，以色列人照着耶和华吩咐约书亚的话，都据为己有。 28 约书亚烧了艾城，使城永远成为废堆，一片荒凉，直到今日。 29 他又把艾城的王悬在树上，直到黄昏的时候；日落的时候，约书亚吩咐人把尸体从树上拿下来，丢在城门口那里，又在尸体上堆起了一大堆石头，这堆石头一直存到今日。

以巴路山上筑坛宣读律法

30 那时，约书亚在以巴路山上，为耶和华以色列的　神筑了一座祭坛， 31 是照着耶和华的仆人摩西吩咐以色列人的，照着摩西律法书上所写的，用未经过铁器打凿的整块石块筑成的一座祭坛；在这祭坛之上，众人向耶和华献燔祭，也献平安祭。 32 约书亚在那里，当着以色列人面前，把摩西所写的摩西律法抄写在石头上。 33 全体以色列人和他们的长老、官长，以及审判官，都站在约柜的两旁，在抬耶和华约柜的利未支派的祭司前面；无论是寄居的，或是本地人，一半对着基利心山，一半对着以巴路山；正如耶和华的仆人摩西以前所吩咐的，好为以色列民祝福。 34 然后，约书亚宣读律法上一切祝福和咒诅的话，全都照着律法书上所写的一切。 35 摩西吩咐的一切话，约书亚在以色列全体会众和妇女、小孩，以及在他们中间来往的寄居者面前，没有一句不向他们宣读出来的。

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