Joshua 8 - 9

Joshua 8

Ai Destroyed

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night, and he commanded them, saying “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. I, and all those with me, will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. For the LORD your God will give it into your hand. When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do all according to the commandment of the LORD, see to it, I have commanded you.”

Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to lie in ambush, and lay in wait between Beth-el and Ai, to the west of Ai: but Joshua spent that night with the people.

Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. All the people, even the men of war, went up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. Joshua took about five thousand men and took them to lie in ambush between Beth-el and Ai, to the west of the city. So the people and the army took their positions, with the main camp to the north of the city, and the ambush was set to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city.

Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. Not a man remained in Ai or Beth-el who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.

When the men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, they had no chance to escape in any direction; then Israel who had been fleeing toward the wilderness turned back against their pursuers.

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israel on both sides; Israel killed them all, none remained or escaped. But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day, all the people of Ai.

For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out the spear, until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of the city, as the word of the LORD had commanded Joshua.

So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. The king of Ai he hung from a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the tree, and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.

Joshua Renews the Covenant

Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel, in mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

There, in the presence of the children of Israel, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the Law of Moses. And all of Israel, their elders, officers and judges, were standing on both sides of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, facing the priests the Levites, who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of mount Gerizim and half of them in front of mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to all the congregation of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.

Joshua 9

The Gibeonites Deceive Israel

And it came to pass that when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things, the kings in the hill country, and in the valleys, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea as far as Lebanon, (the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites), that they came together to wage war as one against Joshua and Israel.

However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. They put worn and patched shoes on their feet and wore old clothes, and all their bread and food was dry and moldy.

Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a country far away, therefore make a treaty with us.”

And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live near us, how can we make a treaty with you?”

“We are your servants,” they said to Joshua. But Joshua asked, “Who are you and where do you come from?”

They answered: “Your servants have come from a country very far away, because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard reports of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth.”

“Therefore, the elders, and all those living in our country said to us, ‘Take provisions for your journey; go and meet them and say to them, “We are your servants, therefore make a treaty with us.”’

“This bread of ours was hot from the oven when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and shoes are worn out by the very long journey.”

And Israel sampled their provisions, but did not inquire of the Lord. And Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the princes of the congregation swore by an oath to them.

And it came to pass, three days after they made the treaty with the Gibeonites, that the children of Israel heard that they were neighbors, living near them. So the children of Israel set out and on the third day came to their cities: Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath Jearim. But they did not attack them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn an oath to them by the LORD God of Israel.

And the entire congregation grumbled against the princes, but all the princes said to them, “We have given them our oath by the LORD God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that God’s wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them.” They continued, “Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers in the service to all the congregation.” So the princes’ promise to them was kept.

Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, “Why did you deceive us by saying, ‘We live a long way from you,’ while actually you live near us? You are now under a curse: You will never be released from service as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

They answered Joshua, “Your servants were clearly told how the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you.”

So Joshua saved them from the children of Israel, and they did not kill them. And that very day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation, to provide for the needs of the altar of the LORD, at the place the LORD would choose. And that is what they are to this day.

Though the Gibeonites were enemies of the children of Israel, they serve as an important lesson for readers today. Their deception was effective because Joshua and his people did not first consult God for wisdom. As a result, this group of people was spared and continued as enemies of Israel for hundreds of years, causing much harm in the process.

This lesson certainly reveals the need for Christians today to pray concerning all major decisions and to seek God’s will before moving forward. Making a few bad choices today can cause many future problems.