Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 25
8:22-35
J osh u a
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of Ai. Meanwhile, 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. Only the king of Ai was taken alive
and brought to Joshua.
When the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai
in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside. So the
entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that
day—12,000 in all. For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone
who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed. Only 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. So Joshua
burned the town of Ai, and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.
Joshua 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.
Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal.
He followed the commands that M
oses 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 pre
sented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. And as the Isra
elites watched, Joshua copied onto the stones of the altar the instructions
Moses had given them.
Then 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 carry
ing 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.
Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses M
oses had written
in the Book of Instruction. Every 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.