18. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold your spear toward the city of Ai, because I will give you that city.” So Joshua held his spear toward the city of Ai.
19. When the Israelites who were hiding saw this, they quickly came out from their hiding place and hurried toward the city. They entered the city and took control of it. Then the soldiers started fires to burn the city.
20. The men from Ai looked back and saw their city burning. When they saw the smoke rising into the sky, they lost their strength and courage. They stopped chasing the men of Israel. The Israelites stopped running away. They turned and went to fight the men from Ai. There was no safe place for the men from Ai to run to.
21. When Joshua and his men saw that his army had taken control of the city and that smoke was rising from it, they stopped running away and turned to fight the men of Ai.
22. Then the men who were hiding came out of the city to help with the fight. The army of Israel was on both sides of the men of Ai—the men of Ai were trapped. Israel defeated them. They fought until none of the men from Ai were left alive—none of the enemy escaped.
23. But the king of Ai was left alive. Joshua’s men brought him to Joshua.
24. During the fighting, the army of Israel chased the men from Ai into the fields and into the desert. So the army of Israel finished killing all the men from Ai in the fields and in the desert. Then the Israelites went back to Ai and killed all the people who were still alive in the city.
25. All the people of Ai died that day; there were 12,000 men and women.
26. Joshua had held his spear toward Ai as a sign to his people to destroy the city. And he did not stop until all the people of Ai were destroyed.
27. The Israelites kept the animals and other things from the city for themselves. This is what the Lord said they could do when he gave Joshua the commands.
28. Then Joshua burned the city of Ai. That city became an empty pile of rocks. It is still like that today.
29. Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree and left him hanging there until evening. At sunset Joshua told his men to take the king’s body down from the tree. They threw his body down at the city gate. Then they covered the body with many rocks. That pile of rocks is still there today.
30. Then Joshua built an altar for the Lord, the God of Israel. He built the altar on Mount Ebal.
31. The Lord’S servant Moses told the Israelites how to build altars. So Joshua built the altar the way it was explained in the Book of the Law of Moses. The altar was made from stones that were not cut. No tool had ever been used on those stones. They offered burnt offerings to the Lord on that altar. They also gave fellowship offerings.
32. There Joshua copied onto the stones the law Moses had written down. This was for all the people of Israel to see.
33. The elders, officers, judges, and all the Israelites were standing around the Box of the Lord’S Agreement. They were standing in front of the priests, the Levites who carried the Holy Box. The Israelites and the other people with them were all standing there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Ebal and the other half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim. The Lord’S servant Moses had told the people to do this. He told them to do this to be blessed.