up to Ai: and Joshua
chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them
forth by night. And he commanded them, saying, "Behold, ye shall lie
in ambush against the city, behind the city: go not very far from the
city, but be ye all ready: and I, and all the people that are with me,
will approach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come
out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them; and
they will come out after us, till we have drawn them away from the
city; for they will say, 'They flee before us, as at the first'; so we
will {298} flee before them: and ye shall rise up from the ambush, and
take possession of the city: for the Lord your God will deliver it
into your hand. And it shall be, when ye have seized upon the city,
that ye shall set the city on fire; according to the word of the Lord
shall ye do: see, I have commanded you."

And Joshua sent them forth: and they went to the ambushment, and took
their place between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua
camped that night among the people.

And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and
went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And all
the people, even the men of war that were with him, went up, and drew
nigh, and came before the city, to the north side of Ai: now there was
a valley between him and Ai. And he took about five thousand men, and
set them in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of the
city. So they set the people, even all the host that was on the north
of the city, and their liers in wait that were on the west of the
city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the vale. And it
came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted 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 valley; but he
knew not that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

And Joshua and all Israel pretended that they were beaten before them,
and fled by the way of the {299} wilderness. And all the people that
were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they
pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. And there was
not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, that went not out after Israel: and
they left the city open, and pursued after Israel. And the Lord said
unto Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai;
fo