CHAPTER 8

1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Fear not, dread not; take with thee all the men of war, and arise, go up to Hai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Hai, and his people, his city, and his land.

2 And thou shall do to Hai and its king, as thou has done to Jericho and its king; yet its spoil and animals you shall take to yourselves as booty. But place an ambuscade for the city in its rear.

3 Joshua accordingly arose, and all the people of war, that they might go up against Hai; and Joshua selected thirty thousand men of strength and valor, and sent them by night.

4 And he commanded them, saying, Give heed, you shall lay an ambuscade for the city in its rear; do not remove far from it, but be all of you ready.

5 And I, and all the people who are with me, will draw near the city; and when they will come out to encounter us as formerly, we will flee before them.

6 Then they will come out after us, until we draw them away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us as before; and we will flee before them.

7 But you will rise from the ambush, and will drive out the inhabitants of the city, and Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand.

8 When you shall have taken the city, you shall set it on fire; according to the word of Jehovah shall you do. See, I have commanded you.

9 Joshua accordingly sent them, and they proceeded to the ambush, and remained between Bethel and Hai, on the west of Hai. But Joshua remained that night in the midst of the people.

10 Afterwards Joshua rose up very early, and reviewed the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people toward Hai.

11 And all the men of war who were with him, went up and drew near, and came opposite to the city, and encamped on the north of Hai. And there was a valley between them and Hai.

12 And he brought besides about five thousand men, whom he placed in ambush between Bethel and Hai, on the west of the city.

13 And the people approached nearer to the whole camp which was on the north of the city, and their ambuscade was on the west of the city itself; and Joshua proceeded that night into the midst of the valley.

14 Moreover, when the king of Hai saw, the men of the city hastened, and rose up early, and came out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people, at the appointed time before the plains; but he knew not that there was an ambuscade for him behind the city.

15 And they routed Joshua and all Israel before them, who fled by the way of the desert.

16 And the whole people who were in the city mustered to pursue them. And they pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

17 Nor did any one remain of Bethel and Hai who did not go out after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued Israel.

18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Lift up the spear which is in thy hand against Hai, for I will give it into thy hand. And Joshua lifted up the spear which was in his hand against the city.

19 Then those in ambush rose suddenly from their place, and ran when he had lifted up his hand, and they came to the city, and took it, and hastened to set fire to the city.

20 And the men of Hai turning, saw, and lo, the smoke of the city was rising up to heaven, and they had no room to flee this way or that. And the people who had fled turned against their pursuers.

21 Joshua, therefore, and all Israel, when they saw that the ambuscade had taken the city, and the smoke of the city had ascended, returned and smote the men of Hai.

22 Those besides came out of the city to encounter them, and they were in the middle between Israel, part of whom were on this side and part on that. And they smote them, till not one remained who had survived and escaped.

23 They also took the king of Hai alive, and placed him before Joshua.

24 And when the men of Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Hai in the desert whither they had pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword till they were consumed, all Israel returned to Hai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

25 And the number of all who fell on that day, male and female, was about twelve thousand, all people of Hai.

26 Moreover, Joshua did not draw back his hand which he had raised to the spear, until he slew all the inhabitants of Hai.

27 Only the animals and the spoils of that city the children of Israel took to themselves for booty, according to the word of Jehovah, which Joshua had commanded them.

28 Joshua therefore burnt Hai, and made it an eternal heap, a devastation even to this day.

29 And he hung the king of Hai on a gibbet even until the time of evening; and when the sun had gone down, Joshua commanded, and they took down his corpse from the gibbet, and cast it forth at the entrance of the gate of the city, and placed over it a great heap of stones, even to this day.

30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah the God of Israel in mount Ebal,

31 According as Moses, the servant of Jehovah, had commanded the children of Israel; as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of entire stones, on which they had lifted an iron, and they sacrificed upon it holocausts to Jehovah, and they sacrificed victims of prosperity.

32 He also wrote there on stones a duplicate law of Moses, which he wrote in presence of the children of Israel.

33 And the whole of Israel, and their elders and prefects, and their judges, stood on this side and on that at the ark before the priests the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the stranger as the native, half of them against mount Garizin, and half of them against mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of Jehovah, had commanded, that he might first bless the people.

34 And after these things he read all the words of the law, blessing and cursing according to all that which is written in the book of the law.