Day 71 of 364

^7:1But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against the children of Israel. ^7:2Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai. ^7:3They returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don’t make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them.” ^7:4So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. ^7:5The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water. ^7:6Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the LORD’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. ^7:7Joshua said, “Alas, Lord GOD, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan! ^7:8Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? ^7:9For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?” ^7:10The LORD said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? ^7:11Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. ^7:12Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. ^7:13Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for the LORD, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.” ^7:14In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which the LORD selects shall come near by families. The family which the LORD selects shall come near by households. The household which the LORD selects shall come near man by man. ^7:15It shall be, that he who is taken with the devoted thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the LORD’s covenant, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’” ^7:16So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel near by their tribes. The tribe of Judah was selected. ^7:17He brought near the family of Judah, and he selected the family of the Zerahites. He brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was selected. ^7:18He brought near his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected. ^7:19Joshua said to Achan, “My son, please give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done! Don’t hide it from me!” ^7:20Achan answered Joshua, and said, “I have truly sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done. ^7:21When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.” ^7:22So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent. Behold, it was hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. ^7:23They took them from the middle of the tent, and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel. They laid them down before the LORD. ^7:24Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. ^7:25Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you today.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. ^7:26They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. The LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called “The valley of Achor” to this day. ^8:1The LORD 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. ^8:2You 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.” ^8:3So 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. ^8:4He 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. ^8:5I 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. ^8:6They 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, ^8:7and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. ^8:8It shall be, when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to the LORD’s word. Behold, I have commanded you.” ^8:9Joshua 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. ^8:10Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. ^8:11All 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. ^8:12He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. ^8:13So 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. ^8:14When 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. ^8:15Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. ^8:16All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. ^8:17There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who didn’t go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel. ^8:18The LORD 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. ^8:19The 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. ^8:20When 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. ^8:21When 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. ^8:22The 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. ^8:23They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua. ^8:24When 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. ^8:25All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the people of Ai. ^8:26For Joshua didn’t draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. ^8:27Israel took for themselves only the livestock and the goods of that city, according to the LORD’s word which he commanded Joshua. ^8:28So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day. ^8:29He 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. ^8:30Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, ^8:31as Moses the servant of the LORD 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 the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings. ^8:32He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. ^8:33All Israel, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the LORD’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 the LORD had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. ^8:34Afterward 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. ^8:35There 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. ^9:1When all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it ^9:2they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord. ^9:3But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, ^9:4they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and old, torn-up and bound up wineskins, ^9:5and old and patched sandals on their feet, and wore old garments. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. ^9:6They went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country. Now therefore make a covenant with us.” ^9:7The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “What if you live among us? How could we make a covenant with you?” ^9:8They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” Joshua said to them, “Who are you? Where do you come from?” ^9:9They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard of his fame, all that he did in Egypt, ^9:10and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. ^9:11Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take supplies in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them. Tell them, “We are your servants. Now make a covenant with us.”’ ^9:12This our bread we took hot for our supplies out of our houses on the day we went out to go to you; but now, behold, it is dry, and has become moldy. ^9:13These wineskins, which we filled, were new; and behold, they are torn. These our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.” ^9:14The men sampled their provisions, and didn’t ask counsel from the LORD’s mouth. ^9:15Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them. ^9:16At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them. ^9:17The children of Israel traveled and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim. ^9:18The children of Israel didn’t strike them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. All the congregation murmured against the princes. ^9:19But all the princes said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Now therefore we may not touch them. ^9:20We will do this to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.” ^9:21The princes said to them, “Let them live.” So they became wood cutters and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the princes had spoken to them. ^9:22Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you live among us? ^9:23Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you will never fail to be slaves, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.” ^9:24They answered Joshua, and said, “Because your servants were certainly told how the LORD your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. ^9:25Now, behold, we are in your hand. Do to us as it seems good and right to you to do.” ^9:26He did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they didn’t kill them. ^9:27That day Joshua made them wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for the LORD’s altar to this day, in the place which he should choose.