Joshua 8 NKJV NLT Parallel

◄ Joshua 8 ►

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1Now the LORD said to Joshua: “Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

1Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land.

2And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it.”

2You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.”

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

3So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night

4And he 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.

4with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action.

5Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first, that we shall flee before them.

5When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them.

6For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ Therefore we will flee before them.

6We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running from them,

7Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.

7you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the LORD your God will give it to you.

8And it will be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the LORD you shall do. See, I have commanded you.”

8Set the town on fire, as the LORD has commanded. You have your orders.”

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

9So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night.

10Then 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.

10Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel.

11And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near; and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now a valley lay between them and Ai.

11All the fighting men who were with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the town.

12So he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

12That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town.

13And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

13So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.

14Now it happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before the plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

14When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town.

15And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

15Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten.

16So all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them. And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.

16Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town.

17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. So they left the city open and pursued Israel.

17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open.

18Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city.

18Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Point the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded.

19So those in ambush arose quickly out of their place; they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and took it, and hurried to set the city on fire.

19As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.

20And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way, and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

20When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers.

21Now when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.

21When Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai.

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

22Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides. Israel attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped.

23But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

23Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

24And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when they all had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

24When the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside.

25So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand—all the people of Ai.

25So the entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that day—12,000 in all.

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

26For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.

27Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of the LORD which He had commanded Joshua.

27Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these as plunder for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.

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

28So Joshua burned the town of Ai, and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.

29And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raise over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.

29Joshua impaled the king of Ai on a sharpened pole and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body, as Joshua commanded, and threw it in front of the town gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today. The LORD’s Covenant Renewed

30Now Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal,

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

31as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

31He followed the commands that Moses the LORD’s servant had written in the Book of Instruction: “Make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools.” Then on the altar they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.

32And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.

32And as the Israelites watched, Joshua copied onto the stones of the altar the instructions Moses had given them.

33Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.

33Then all the Israelites—foreigners and native-born alike—along with the elders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood in front of Mount Gerizim, the other in front of Mount Ebal. Each group faced the other, and between them stood the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. This was all done according to the commands that Moses, the servant of the LORD, had previously given for blessing the people of Israel.

34And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.

34Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction.

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

35Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them.

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