1Kemudian TUHAN berkata kepada Yosua, “Jangan takut dan jangan berkecil hati. Bawalah semua laki-laki yang bisa berperang dan seranglah kota Ai. Ketahuilah, Aku sudah menyerahkan raja Ai, seluruh rakyatnya, kotanya, dan negerinya kepadamu.2Musnahkanlah kota Ai dan rajanya sama seperti kalian memusnahkan kota Yeriko dan rajanya. Tetapi kali ini kalian boleh mengambil barang-barang jarahan dan ternak menjadi milikmu. Suruhlah sebagian pasukan untuk bersembunyi di belakang kota itu untuk bersiap-siap menyergap.”3Maka Yosua dan seluruh pasukannya bersiap-siap mendaki ke kota Ai. Yosua memilih tiga puluh ribu orang pejuang terbaik dan mengutus mereka pergi pada malam hari.4Dia memerintahkan mereka, “Perhatikan! Bersembunyilah dan bersiaplah untuk menyerbu kota itu dari belakang. Jangan terlalu jauh dari kota itu. Kalian semua harus tetap siaga.5Saya dan seluruh pasukan yang bersama saya akan maju menyerang kota itu. Waktu mereka keluar melawan kami seperti sebelumnya, kami akan berbalik dan lari dari mereka.6Kami akan memancing mereka untuk mengejar kami sampai jauh dari kota, supaya mereka mengira bahwa kami melarikan diri seperti sebelumnya. Sementara kami lari,7kalian harus keluar dari persembunyian dan menyerbu kota itu, karena TUHAN Allahmu akan menyerahkannya kepada kalian.8Sesudah menguasai kota itu, kalian harus membakarnya sesuai dengan perkataan TUHAN. Ingatlah perintahku ini.”9Maka mereka pergi ke tempat persembunyian di antara kota Betel dan kota Ai, di sebelah barat kota Ai. Mereka menunggu di sana, sementara Yosua bermalam di perkemahan Israel malam itu.10Besoknya, Yosua bangun pagi-pagi sekali dan menyiapkan pasukannya. Dia bersama para tua-tua Israel memimpin pasukan itu mendaki ke kota Ai.11Semua pasukan bersamanya mendaki menuju kota itu dan berkemah di sebelah utara kota Ai. Ada sebuah lembah yang memisahkan mereka dengan kota itu.12Lalu Yosua memilih sekitar lima ribu orang dan menyuruh mereka bersembunyi di antara kota Betel dan Ai, di sebelah barat kota itu.13Jadi, sebagian pasukan ditempatkan di markas utama di sebelah utara kota, sedangkan sebagian lain bersembunyi di sebelah barat kota itu. Yosua turun ke lembah dan bermalam di sana.14Begitu raja Ai melihat pasukan Israel di seberang lembah, dia mengumpulkan orang-orang kota itu dan mereka segera keluar pagi-pagi benar ke arah lembah Yordan untuk berperang melawan Israel. Dia tidak tahu bahwa sebagian pasukan Israel sedang bersembunyi di belakang kota untuk menyerbu.15Yosua dan pasukan yang bersamanya berpura-pura kalah. Mereka melarikan diri ke arah daerah belantara.16Semua laki-laki di kota itu dikerahkan untuk mengejar Yosua dan pasukannya. Karena mengejar Yosua, mereka pun terpancing keluar dari kota.17Tidak ada seorang lelaki pun yang tertinggal di kota Ai maupun Betel. Mereka semua mengejar orang Israel sehingga kota mereka dibiarkan terbuka begitu saja.18Lalu TUHAN berkata kepada Yosua, “Acungkanlah tombakmu ke arah kota Ai, karena Aku akan menyerahkan kota itu kepadamu.” Dan Yosua mengacungkan tombak di tangannya ke arah kota itu.19Begitu Yosua mengacungkan tombaknya, pasukan yang bersembunyi langsung keluar dan lari menyerang kota Ai. Mereka merebut kota itu dan segera membakarnya.20Setelah Yosua dan seluruh Israel yang berada di daerah belantara melihat bahwa pasukan mereka yang lain sudah berhasil merebut kota dan asap mengepul dari kota itu ke langit, mereka pun berbalik menyerang pasukan Ai. Ketika orang Ai menoleh ke belakang dan melihat asap dari kota, mereka tidak bisa lari ke mana-mana.22Sementara itu, pasukan Israel di kota Ai keluar menyerang mereka dari belakang sehingga orang Ai terperangkap di antara pasukan-pasukan Israel. Pasukan Israel menghabisi mereka. Tidak ada satu pun yang selamat atau berhasil melarikan diri23kecuali raja Ai. Mereka menangkap dia hidup-hidup lalu membawanya kepada Yosua.24Setelah pasukan Israel menghabisi semua orang Ai di ladang-ladang dan daerah belantara, mereka semua kembali ke Ai dan membunuh sisa penduduknya.25Pada hari itu seluruh penduduk kota Ai mati, baik laki-laki maupun perempuan. Semuanya dua belas ribu orang.26Yosua terus mengacungkan tombaknya dan tidak menurunkan tangan sampai seluruh penduduk Ai dibunuh.27Hanya hewan ternak dan barang-barang jarahan yang diambil orang Israel, sesuai dengan perintah TUHAN kepada Yosua.28Yosua membakar habis kota Ai sehingga tempat itu menjadi timbunan reruntuhan selamanya, telantar sampai saat kitab ini ditulis.29Lalu Yosua menggantung raja Ai di atas tiang dan membiarkannya sampai sore. Ketika matahari terbenam, mayatnya diturunkan dan dibuang di gerbang pintu masuk kota, atas perintah Yosua. Lalu mayat itu ditimbun dengan banyak batu, dan tumpukan batu itu masih ada sampai saat kitab ini ditulis.
Bagian: Yosua membacakan kitab Taurat kepada bangsa Israel
30Pada waktu itu, Yosua mendirikan mezbah kurban bagi TUHAN, Allah Israel, di gunung Ebal.31Hal ini sesuai dengan perintah Musa kepada umat Israel, yang tertulis di dalam kitab Taurat, “Sebuah mezbah kurban yang dibuat dari batu-batu yang belum pernah dipahat dan belum tersentuh alat-alat besi.” Di mezbah itu mereka mempersembahkan kurban yang dibakar habis dan kurban tanda damai kepada TUHAN.32Di sana, di hadapan orang-orang Israel, Yosua menyalin hukum yang disampaikan oleh Musa ke atas lempengan batu.33Seluruh bangsa Israel, baik pendatang maupun orang Israel asli, bersama para tua-tua, para pemimpin, dan hakim-hakim mereka, dibagi menjadi dua kelompok. Setengah dari bangsa Israel berdiri di lereng gunung Gerizim, dan setengah yang lain berdiri di lereng gunung Ebal. Kedua kelompok ini saling berhadapan. Di antara mereka berdiri imam-imam Lewi yang memikul peti perjanjian TUHAN. Semua itu dilakukan sesuai dengan perintah yang Musa berikan tentang memberkati bangsa Israel.34Sesudah itu, Yosua membacakan semua hukum yang ditulis Musa di dalam kitab Taurat, termasuk janji TUHAN untuk memberkati umat-Nya apabila mereka taat, dan kutukan apabila mereka tidak taat.35Yosua membacakan seluruh isi kitab itu kepada seluruh umat Israel, termasuk semua perempuan, anak-anak, serta para pendatang yang tinggal di antara mereka.
World English Bible (dengan Deuterokanonika)
1Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed. Take all the warriors with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land.2You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”3So Joshua arose, with all the warriors, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.4He commanded them, saying, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.5I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them.6They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, ‘They flee before us, like the first time.’ So we will flee before them,7and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand.8It shall be, when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to Yahweh’s word. Behold, I have commanded you.”9Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night.10Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.11All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up and came near, and came before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.12He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.13So they set the people, even all the army who was on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley.14When the king of Ai saw it, they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn’t know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.15Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.16All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who didn’t go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.18Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.19The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand and entered into the city and took it. They hurried and set the city on fire.20When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.21When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned back and killed the men of Ai.22The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.23They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.24When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.25All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the people of Ai.26For Joshua didn’t draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.27Israel took for themselves only the livestock and the goods of that city, according to Yahweh’s word which he commanded Joshua.28So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.29He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening. At sundown, Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.30Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,31as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones, on which no one had lifted up any iron. They offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings.32He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.33All Israel, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.34Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.35There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua didn’t read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.