Joshua 8 (NET)

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Joshua 8:1¹The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! See, I am handing over to you the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 1:9 Deut 1:21 Deut 7:18 Deut 31:8 Josh 6:2 Dan 2:37-38 Isa 43:2 Dan 4:35 Matt 8:26 Dan 2:21

Joshua 8:2²Do 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.”Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 20:14 2 Chr 20:22 Josh 6:21 Prov 13:22 2 Chr 13:13 Deut 3:2 Jer 17:11 Jer 51:12 Job 27:16-17 Josh 10:1

Joshua 8:3³Joshua and the whole army marched against Ai. Joshua selected 30,000 brave warriors and sent them out at night.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:1 Thess 5:2 Matt 24:39 Matt 24:50 Matt 25:6 2 Pet 3:10

Joshua 8:4⁴He ordered them, “Look, set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city; all of you be ready!Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Judg 20:29 1 Sam 15:2 1 Sam 15:5 Acts 23:21 Eccl 7:19 Eccl 9:16 Josh 8:16 Judg 20:33 Judg 20:36 Judg 9:25

Joshua 8:5⁵I and all the troops who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 7:5 Judg 20:31-33 Matt 10:16

Joshua 8:6⁶They will attack 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.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Eccl 8:11 Eccl 9:12 Exod 14:3 Exod 15:9 Judg 20:32

Joshua 8:7⁷Then you rise up from your hiding place and seize the city. The Lord your God will hand it over to you.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Prov 21:30-31 2 Kgs 5:1 Josh 8:1

Joshua 8:8⁸When you capture the city, set it on fire in keeping with the Lord’s message. See, I have given you orders.”Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:2 Sam 13:28 Josh 1:16 Josh 1:9 Josh 6:24 Josh 8:28 Judg 4:6

Joshua 8:9⁹Joshua sent them away and they went to their hiding place west of Ai, between Bethel and Ai. Joshua spent that night with the army.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Ezra 2:28 Gen 12:8 Gen 32:21 Josh 7:2 Josh 8:12 Neh 7:32

Joshua 8:10¹⁰Bright and early the next morning Joshua gathered the army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched at the head of it to Ai.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Gen 22:3 Josh 3:1 Josh 6:12 Josh 7:16 Ps 119:60

Joshua 8:11¹¹All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city. They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AI

Joshua 8:12¹²He took 5,000 men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel and Ai.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 8:2-3

Joshua 8:13¹³The army was in position—the main army north of the city and the rear guard west of the city. That night Joshua went into the middle of the valley.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 8:12 Josh 8:8

Joshua 8:14¹⁴When 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. But he did not realize an ambush was waiting for him behind the city.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Matt 24:39 1 Thess 5:1-3 2 Pet 2:3 Dan 4:31 Deut 1:1 Eccl 9:12 Isa 19:11 Isa 19:13 Josh 8:16 Josh 8:5

Joshua 8:15¹⁵Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them, and they retreated along the way to the wilderness.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 18:12 Josh 15:61 Josh 16:1 Judg 20:36

Joshua 8:16¹⁶All the reinforcements in Ai were ordered to chase them; they chased Joshua and were lured away from the city.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Judg 20:31 Ezek 38:11-22 Josh 8:5-6 Judg 20:36-39 Ps 9:16 Rev 16:14 Rev 19:19-21

Joshua 8:17¹⁷No men were left in Ai or Bethel; they all went out after Israel. They left the city wide open and chased Israel.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 2:30 Isa 19:11-13 Job 5:13 Josh 11:20 Josh 8:24-25 Josh 8:3

Joshua 8:18¹⁸The Lord told Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the curved sword in your hand, for I am handing the city over to you.” So Joshua held out toward Ai the curved sword in his hand.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 8:26 Job 15:25 1 Sam 17:41 1 Sam 17:45 1 Sam 17:6 Exod 14:16 Exod 17:9-12 Exod 8:5 Josh 8:7 Job 39:23

Joshua 8:19¹⁹When he held out his hand, the men waiting in ambush rose up quickly from their place and attacked. They entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AI

Joshua 8:20²⁰When the men of Ai turned around, they saw the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction. In the meantime the men who were retreating to the wilderness turned against their pursuers.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Amos 2:14-16 Gen 19:28 Isa 34:10 Job 11:20 Ps 48:5-6 Ps 76:5 Rev 18:9 Rev 19:3 Rev 6:15-17

Joshua 8:21²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the city was going up in smoke, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AI

Joshua 8:22²²At the same time the men who had taken the city came out to fight, and the men of Ai were trapped in the middle. The Israelites struck them down, leaving no survivors or refugees.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 7:2 1 Thess 5:3 Job 20:5 Josh 10:28 Josh 11:11-12 Josh 6:21 Luke 17:26-30

Joshua 8:23²³But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:1 Sam 15:8 Josh 10:17 Josh 8:29 Rev 19:20

Joshua 8:24²⁴When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had chased them toward the wilderness (they all fell by the sword), all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 11:10-14 Josh 10:30-41 Num 21:24

Joshua 8:25²⁵So 12,000 men and women died that day, including all the men of Ai.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 20:16-18

Joshua 8:26²⁶Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Exod 17:11-12 Josh 8:18

Joshua 8:27²⁷But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in keeping with the Lord ’s orders to Joshua.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Josh 8:2 Josh 11:4 Matt 20:15 Num 31:22 Num 31:26 Ps 50:10

Joshua 8:28²⁸Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day).Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 13:16 2 Kgs 19:25 Isa 17:1 Isa 25:2 Jer 49:2 Jer 50:26 Jer 9:11 Josh 4:9 Mic 3:12

Joshua 8:29²⁹He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening. At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree. 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).Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:2 Sam 18:17 Deut 21:22-23 Josh 7:26 Acts 12:23 Esth 7:10 Josh 10:26-28 Josh 10:30 Josh 10:33 Ps 107:40 Ps 110:5

Joshua 8:30³⁰Then Joshua built an altar for the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal,Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 27:4-6 Exod 20:24 Gen 12:7-8 Gen 8:20

Joshua 8:31³¹just 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. On it they offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord and sacrificed tokens of peace.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 27:5-7 Exod 20:24-25 1 Kgs 18:31-32 Exod 18:12 Exod 24:5 Josh 1:8 Josh 8:34-35 2 Chr 25:4 2 Chr 35:12 2 Kgs 14:6

Joshua 8:32³²There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a duplicate of the law written by Moses.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 27:2-3 Deut 27:8

Joshua 8:33³³All the people, rulers, 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. 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.Copy Link KJV+Strong’s Many Bible Versions Ask AICross Refs:Deut 11:29 Deut 31:12 Deut 27:11-14 Deut 31:9 Deut 31:25 Exod 12:49 Josh 24:1 Josh 3:3 Josh 4:18 Josh 8:30-32