6. They will keep coming out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will think, ‘They are fleeing from us as they did the last time.’ When we flee,
7. then you rise from ambush and take possession of the city, which the Lord, your God, will deliver into your power.
8. When you have taken the city, set it on fire in obedience to the Lord’s command. These are my orders to you.”
9. Then Joshua sent them away. They went to the place of ambush, taking up their position to the west of Ai, toward Bethel. Joshua, however, spent that night with the army.
10. Early the next morning Joshua mustered the army and went up to Ai at its head, with the elders of Israel.
11. When all the troops he led were drawn up in position before the city, they pitched camp north of Ai, on the other side of the ravine.
12. He took about five thousand warriors and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city.
13. Thus the people took up their stations, with the main body north of the city and the ambush west of it, and Joshua waited overnight in the valley.
14. The king of Ai saw this, and he and all his army came out very early in the morning to engage Israel in battle at the place in front of the Arabah, not knowing that there was an ambush behind the city.
15. Joshua and the main body of the Israelites fled toward the wilderness, pretending defeat,
16. until the last of the soldiers in the city had been called out to pursue them. Since they were drawn away from the city, with everyone pursuing Joshua,