Day 98 of 730

¹The Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land.

²You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except its spoil and its livestock, you shall take for a plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it."

³So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.

⁴He commanded them, saying, "Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.

⁵I, 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.

⁶They will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, 'They flee before us, like the first time.' So we will flee before them,

⁷and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for the Lord 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. You shall do this according to the word of the Lord. Behold, I have commanded you."

⁹Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night.

¹⁰Joshua rose up early in the morning, 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 army who was on the north of the city, and their ambush 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 did not 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. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

¹⁷There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.

¹⁸The Lord 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. They hurried and set the city on fire.

²⁰When 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. The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

²¹When 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 killed the men of Ai.

²²The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

²⁵All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

²⁶For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

²⁷Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of the Lord which he commanded Joshua.

²⁸So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.

²⁹He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at the sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,

³¹as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the scroll of the Law of Moses, "an altar of uncut stones, on which no man has touched with an iron tool." They offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.

³²He wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.

³³All Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, who carried the ark of the Lord's covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.

³⁴Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the scroll of the Law.

³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.

¹It happened, when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it

²that they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.

³But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

⁴they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins, old and torn and bound up,

⁵and old and patched shoes on their feet, and wore old garments. All the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.

⁶They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him, and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a far country. Now therefore make a covenant with us."

⁷The men of Israel said to the Hivites, "What if you live among us. How could we make a covenant with you?"

⁸They said to Joshua, "We are your servants." Joshua said to them, "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

⁹They said to him, "Your servants have come from a very far country because of the name of the Lord your God; for we have heard of his fame, all that he did in Egypt,

¹⁰and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth.

¹¹Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, 'Take provision in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them, and tell them, "We are your servants. Now make a covenant with us."'

¹²This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we went out to go to you; but now, behold, it is dry, and has become moldy.

¹³These wineskins, which we filled, were new; and behold, they are torn. These our garments and our shoes have become old because of the very long journey."

¹⁴The men sampled their provisions, and did not ask counsel from the mouth of the Lord.

¹⁵Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them.

¹⁶It happened at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them.

¹⁷The children of Israel traveled and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim.

¹⁸The children of Israel did not strike them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. All the congregation murmured against the princes.

¹⁹But all the princes said to all the congregation, "We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.

²⁰This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them."

²¹The princes said to them, "Let them live, so they became wood cutters and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the princes had spoken to them."

²²Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, "Why have you deceived us, saying, 'We are very far from you,' when you live among us?

²³Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you will never fail to be bondservants, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God."

²⁴They answered Joshua, and said, "Because your servants were certainly told how the Lord your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.

²⁵Now, behold, we are in your hand. Do to us as it seems good and right to you to do."

²⁶He did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they did not kill them.

²⁷That day Joshua made them wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place which he should choose.

¹Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand, and his holy arm, have worked salvation for him.

²The Lord has made known his salvation. He has openly shown his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

³He has remembered his loving kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Burst out and sing for joy, yes, sing praises!

⁵Sing praises to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the voice of melody.

⁶With trumpets and sound of the ram's horn, make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.

⁷Let the sea roar with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein.

⁸Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing for joy together.

⁹Let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

²that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.

⁷Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove your way far from her. Do not come near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house.

¹¹You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹²and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

¹³neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly."

¹⁵Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving doe and a graceful deer- let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

²⁰For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. He examines all his paths.

²²The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

²³He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.