22. Since those in the city came out to intercept them, Ai’s army was hemmed in by Israelites on both sides, who cut them down without any fugitives or survivors
23. except the king, whom they took alive and brought to Joshua.
24. When Israel finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open, who had pursued them into the wilderness, and all of them to the last man fell by the sword, then all Israel returned and put to the sword those inside the city.
25. There fell that day a total of twelve thousand men and women, the entire population of Ai.
26. Joshua kept the javelin in his hand stretched out until he had carried out the ban on all the inhabitants of Ai.
27. However, the Israelites took for themselves as plunder the livestock and the spoil of that city, according to the command of the Lord issued to Joshua.
28. Then Joshua destroyed Ai by fire, reducing it to an everlasting mound of ruins, as it remains today.
29. He had the king of Ai hanged on a tree until evening; then at sunset Joshua ordered the body removed from the tree and cast at the entrance of the city gate, where a great heap of stones was piled up over it, which remains to the present day.
30. Later, on Mount Ebal, Joshua built to the Lord, the God of Israel, an altar
31. of unhewn stones on which no iron tool had been used, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the Israelites, as recorded in the book of the law. On this altar they sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord and made communion sacrifices.
32. There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed upon the stones a copy of the law written by Moses.