Joshua 7 - 9 — Legacy Standard Bible

Israel Struck Down at Ai

7^aBut the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things devoted to destruction. Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things; therefore the anger of Yahweh burned against the sons of Israel.

²Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near ^aBeth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “¹Go up and spy out the land.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. ³Then they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not have all the people go up; only about two or three thousand men need go up to strike down Ai; do not have all the people toil up there, for they are few.” ⁴So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but ^athey fled ¹from the men of Ai. ⁵And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of their men and pursued them ¹from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the descent, so the ^ahearts of the people melted and became as water.

⁶Then Joshua ^atore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and ^bthey put dust on their heads. ⁷Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord Yahweh, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to make us perish? If only we had been willing ¹to live beyond the Jordan! ⁸“O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their ¹back before their enemies? ⁹“^aAnd the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?”

¹⁰So Yahweh said to Joshua, “Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? ¹¹“Israel has sinned, and ^athey have also trespassed against My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things devoted to destruction and have both stolen and dealt falsely. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. ¹²“Therefore the ^asons of Israel cannot rise before their enemies; they turn their ¹backs before their enemies, for they have become devoted to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things devoted to destruction from your midst. ¹³“Rise up! ^aSet the people apart as holy and say, ‘Set yourselves apart as holy for tomorrow, for thus Yahweh, the God of Israel, has said, “^bThere are things devoted to destruction in your midst, O Israel. You cannot rise before your enemies until you have removed the things devoted to destruction from your midst.” ¹⁴‘In the morning then you shall come near by your tribes. And it will be that the tribe which ^aYahweh takes by lot shall come near by families, and the family which Yahweh takes shall come near by households, and the household which Yahweh takes shall come near man by man. ¹⁵‘^aAnd it will be that the one who is taken with the things devoted to destruction shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has trespassed against the covenant of Yahweh, and because he ^bhas committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”

The Sin of Achan

¹⁶So Joshua arose early in the morning and brought Israel near by ¹tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. ¹⁷And he brought the family of Judah near, and he took the family of the Zerahites; and he brought the family of the Zerahites near man by man, and Zabdi was taken. ¹⁸And he brought his household near man by man; and ^aAchan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was taken. ¹⁹Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, ^agive glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and declare to me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” ²⁰So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and ¹this is what I did: ²¹I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred ¹shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight; then I ²^,^acoveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.”

²²So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath it. ²³And they took them from inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the sons of Israel, and they poured them out before Yahweh. ²⁴Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his ¹oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to ^athe valley of ²Achor. ²⁵And Joshua said, “Why have you ^atroubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day.” And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire ¹after they had stoned them with stones. ²⁶Then they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and Yahweh turned from His burning anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called ^athe valley of ¹Achor to this day.

Ai Given to Israel

8Now Yahweh said to Joshua, “^aDo not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, ^bI have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. ²“So you shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall ^atake only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. ¹Set an ambush for the city behind it.”

³So Joshua rose with all the people of war to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them out at night. ⁴And he commanded them, saying, “See, you are ^agoing to ambush the city from behind ¹it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. ⁵“Then I and all the people who are with me will come near the city. And it will be that when they come out to meet us as at the first, ^awe will flee before them. ⁶“And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ So we will flee before them. ⁷“And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for Yahweh your God will give it into your hand. ⁸“Then it will be that when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it ^aaccording to the word of Yahweh. See, I have commanded you.” ⁹So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people.

¹⁰Now Joshua ^arose early in the morning and mustered the people, and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai. ¹¹Then all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and arrived in front of the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai. ¹²And he took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between ^aBethel and Ai, on the west side of the ¹city. ¹³So they set the people, all the army that was on the north side of the city, and its rear guard on the west side of the city, and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. ¹⁴Now it happened that when the king of Ai saw it, the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place before the desert plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. ¹⁵And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled ^aby the way of the wilderness. ¹⁶And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and ^awere drawn away from the city. ¹⁷So not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel, and they forsook the city, leaving it open, and pursued Israel.

¹⁸Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “^aStretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹Then the men in ambush rose quickly from their place, and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they quickly set the city on fire. ²⁰Then the men of Ai turned ¹back and looked, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to the sky, and they had no place to flee this way or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against the pursuers. ²¹But Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended. So they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. ²²¹And the others came out from the city to meet them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, ²some on this side and some on that side; and they struck them down until ³there was ^ano one remaining for him who survived or escaped. ²³But they seized the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴Now it happened that when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them fell by the edge of the sword until they were completely destroyed, then all Israel turned back to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. ²⁵^aSo all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000—all the ¹people of Ai. ²⁶For Joshua ^adid not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted to destruction all the inhabitants of Ai. ²⁷^aIsrael took only the cattle and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of Yahweh which He had commanded Joshua. ²⁸So Joshua burned Ai and made it ^aa heap forever, a desolation until this day. ²⁹^aAnd he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; and at sunset Joshua gave a command, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate and raised over it a great heap of stones that stands to this day.

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on ^aMount Ebal, ³¹just as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, ^aan altar of uncut stones on which no man had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings. ³²And he ^awrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which ¹he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel. ³³^aAnd all Israel with their elders and officers and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, the sojourner as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of ^bMount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of Yahweh had given a command at first to bless the people of Israel. ³⁴Then afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in ^athe book of the law. ³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel ^awith the women and the little ones and the sojourners who were ¹going among them.

The Gibeonites Act Craftily

9Now it happened when ^aall the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the ¹Shephelah and on all the ^bcoast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, ^cthe Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, heard of it, ²that they gathered themselves together with ¹^,^aone accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel.

³Now the inhabitants of ^aGibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai. ⁴So they also acted craftily and went and traveled as envoys and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and ¹mended, ⁵and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and was crumbled. ⁶And they went to Joshua to the ^acamp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; so now, cut a covenant with us.” ⁷Then the men of Israel said to the ^aHivites, “Perhaps you are living ¹within our land; ^bhow then shall we cut a covenant with you?” ⁸But they said to Joshua, “^aWe are your servants.” Then Joshua said to them, “Who are you and where do you come from?” ⁹They said to him, “Your servants have come from ^aa very far country because of the ¹fame of Yahweh your God; for ^bwe have heard the report of Him and 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. ¹¹“So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them and say to them, “^aWe are your servants; now then, cut a covenant with us.”’ ¹²“This bread of ours was warm when we took it for our provisions out of our houses on the day that we left to come to you; but now behold, it is dry and has become crumbled. ¹³“And these wineskins which we filled were new, and behold, they are torn; and these clothes of ours and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey.” ¹⁴So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but ^athey did not ask for the ¹command of Yahweh. ¹⁵^aAnd Joshua made peace with them and cut a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

¹⁶Now it happened at the end of three days after they had cut a covenant with them, that they heard that they were near them and that they were living ¹nearly among them. ¹⁷Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were ^aGibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim. ¹⁸But the sons of Israel did not strike them down because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh the God of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. ¹⁹Then all the leaders said to the whole congregation, “We have sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel, so now we cannot touch them. ²⁰“This we will do to them, even let them live, so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore to them.” ²¹So the leaders said to them, “Let them live.” Thus they became ^ahewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation, just as the leaders had spoken to them.

²²Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ ^awhen you are living nearly in the midst of us? ²³“So now, you are ^acursed, and ¹you shall never be cut loose from being slaves, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.” ²⁴So they answered Joshua and said, “^aBecause it was certainly told to your slaves that Yahweh your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you; therefore we feared greatly for our lives because of you and have done this thing. ²⁵“So now, behold, ^awe are in your hands; do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.” ²⁶Thus he did to them and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them. ²⁷But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of Yahweh, to this day, ^ain the place which He would choose.