6:1 Now Jericho 1 was shut tightly 2 because of the Israelites. No one was allowed to leave or enter. 3 6:2 The Lord told Joshua, “See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, 4 along with its king and its warriors. 6:3 Have all the warriors march around the city one time; 5 do this for six days. 6:4 Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns 6 in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns. 6:5 When you hear the signal from the ram’s horn, 7 have the whole army give a loud battle cry. 8 Then the city wall will collapse 9 and the warriors should charge straight ahead.” 10
6:6 So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and instructed them, “Pick up the ark of the covenant, and seven priests must carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.” 6:7 And he told 11 the army, 12 “Move ahead 13 and march around the city, with armed troops going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”
6:8 When Joshua gave the army its orders, 14 the seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the Lord moved ahead and blew the horns as the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed behind. 6:9 Armed troops marched ahead of the priests blowing the horns, while the rear guard followed along behind the ark blowing rams’ horns. 6:10 Now Joshua had instructed the army, 15 “Do not give a battle cry 16 or raise your voices; say nothing 17 until the day I tell you, ‘Give the battle cry.’ 18 Then give the battle cry!” 19 6:11 So Joshua made sure they marched the ark of the Lord around the city one time. 20 Then they went back to the camp and spent the night there. 21
6:12 Bright and early the next morning Joshua had the priests pick up the ark of the Lord. 22 6:13 The seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord marched along blowing their horns. Armed troops marched ahead of them, while the rear guard followed along behind the ark of the Lord blowing rams’ horns. 6:14 They marched around the city one time on the second day, then returned to the camp. They did this six days in all.
6:15 On the seventh day they were up at the crack of dawn 23 and marched around the city as before – only this time they marched around it seven times. 24 6:16 The seventh time around, the priests blew the rams’ horns and Joshua told the army, 25 “Give the battle cry, 26 for the Lord is handing the city over to you! 27 6:17 The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, 28 except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies 29 we sent. 6:18 But be careful when you are setting apart the riches for the Lord. If you take any of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster. 30 6:19 All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the Lord. 31 They must go into the Lord’s treasury.”
6:20 The rams’ horns sounded 32 and when the army 33 heard the signal, 34 they gave a loud battle cry. 35 The wall collapsed 36 and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. 37 6:21 They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, 38 including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys. 6:22 Joshua told the two men who had spied on the land, “Enter the prostitute’s house 39 and bring out the woman and all who belong to her as you promised her.” 40 6:23 So the young spies went and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and took them to a place outside 41 the Israelite camp. 6:24 But they burned 42 the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house. 43 6:25 Yet Joshua spared 44 Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, 45 and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel 46 to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. 47 6:26 At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration: 48 “The man who attempts to rebuild 49 this city of Jericho 50 will stand condemned before the Lord. 51 He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!” 52 6:27 The Lord was with Joshua and he became famous throughout the land. 53
8:1 The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! 54 Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! 55 See, I am handing over to you 56 the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land. 8:2 Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho 57 and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city!”
8:3 Joshua and the whole army marched against Ai. 58 Joshua selected thirty thousand brave warriors and sent them out at night. 8:4 He told 59 them, “Look, set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city; all of you be ready! 8:5 I and all the troops 60 who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them. 8:6 They will attack 61 us until we have lured them from the city, for they will say, ‘They are retreating from us like before.’ We will retreat from them. 8:7 Then you rise up from your hiding place 62 and seize 63 the city. The Lord your God will hand it over to you. 8:8 When you capture the city, set it 64 on fire. Do as the Lord says! See, I have given you orders.” 65 8:9 Joshua sent them away and they went to their hiding place 66 west of Ai, between Bethel 67 and Ai. 68 Joshua spent that night with the army. 69
8:10 Bright and early the next morning Joshua gathered 70 the army, 71 and he and the leaders 72 of Israel marched 73 at the head of it 74 to Ai. 8:11 All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city. 75 They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley. 76 8:12 He took five thousand men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel 77 and Ai. 8:13 The army was in position – the main army north of the city and the rear guard west of the city. That night Joshua went into 78 the middle of the valley.
8:14 When the king of Ai saw Israel, he and his whole army quickly got up the next day and went out to fight Israel at the meeting place near the Arabah. 79 But he did not realize 80 men were hiding behind the city. 81 8:15 Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them and they retreated along the way to the desert. 8:16 All the reinforcements 82 in Ai 83 were ordered 84 to chase them; they chased Joshua and were lured away from the city. 8:17 No men were left in Ai or Bethel; 85 they all went out after Israel. 86 They left the city wide open and chased Israel.
8:18 The Lord told Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the curved sword in your hand, for I am handing the city 87 over to you.” So Joshua held out toward Ai the curved sword in his hand. 8:19 When he held out his hand, the men waiting in ambush rose up quickly from their place and attacked. 88 They entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire. 8:20 When the men of Ai turned around, they saw 89 the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction. 90 In the meantime the men who were retreating to the desert turned against their pursuers. 8:21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the city was going up in smoke, 91 they turned around and struck down the men of Ai. 8:22 At the same time the men who had taken the city came out to fight, and the men of Ai were trapped in the middle. 92 The Israelites struck them down, leaving no survivors or refugees. 8:23 But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
8:24 When Israel had finished killing all the men 93 of Ai who had chased them toward the desert 94 (they all fell by the sword), 95 all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it. 8:25 Twelve thousand men and women died 96 that day, including all the men of Ai. 8:26 Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai. 97 8:27 But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in accordance with the Lord’s orders to Joshua. 98 8:28 Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day). 99 8:29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening. 100 At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree. 101 They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day). 102
8:30 Then Joshua built an altar for the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, 8:31 just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. As described in the law scroll of Moses, it was made with uncut stones untouched by an iron tool. 103 They offered burnt sacrifices on it and sacrificed tokens of peace. 104 8:32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a duplicate of the law written by Moses. 105 8:33 All the people, 106 rulers, 107 leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there. 108 Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the Lord’s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony. 109 8:34 Then 110 Joshua read aloud all the words of the law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the law scroll. 8:35 Joshua read aloud every commandment Moses had given 111 before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and resident foreigners who lived among them. 112
1 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
2 tn Heb “was shutting and shut up.” HALOT 2:743 paraphrases, “blocking [any way of access] and blocked [against any who would leave].”
3 tn Heb “there was no one going out and there was no one coming in.”
4 tn Heb “I have given into your hand Jericho.” The Hebrew verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, “I have given”) is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action. The Hebrew pronominal suffix “your” is singular, being addressed to Joshua as the leader and representative of the nation. To convey to the modern reader what is about to happen and who is doing it, the translation “I am about to defeat Jericho for you” has been used.
5 tn Heb “and go around the city, all [you] men of war, encircling the city one time.” The Hebrew verb וְסַבֹּתֶם (vÿsabbotem, “and go around”) is plural, being addressed to the whole army.
6 tn Heb “rams’ horns, trumpets.”
7 tn Heb “and it will be at the sounding of the horn, the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn.” The text of Josh 6:5 seems to be unduly repetitive, so for the sake of English style and readability, it is best to streamline the text here. The reading in the Hebrew looks like a conflation of variant readings, with the second (“when you hear the sound of the ram’s horn”) being an interpolation that assimilates the text to verse 20 (“when the army heard the sound of the horn”). Note that the words “when you hear the sound of the ram's horn” do not appear in the LXX of verse 5.
8 tn Heb “all the people will shout with a loud shout.”
9 tn Heb “fall in its place.”
10 tn Heb “and the people will go up, each man straight ahead.”
11 tn An alternative reading is “and they said.” In this case the subject is indefinite and the verb should be translated as passive, “[the army] was told.”
12 tn Heb “the people.”
13 tn Heb “pass by.”
14 tn Heb “when Joshua spoke to the people.”
15 tn Heb “the people.”
16 tn Or “the shout.”
17 tn Heb “do not let a word come out of your mouths.”
18 tn Or “the shout.”
19 tn Or “the shout.”
20 tn Heb “and he made the ark of the
21 tn Heb “and they entered the camp and spent the night in the camp.”
22 tn Heb “Joshua rose early in the morning and the priests picked up the ark of the
23 tn Heb “On the seventh day they rose early, when the dawn ascended.”
24 tn Heb “and they went around the city according to this manner seven times, only on that day they went around the city seven times.”
25 tn Heb “the people.”
26 tn Or “the shout.”
27 tn Heb “for the
28 tn Or “dedicated to the
29 tn Heb “messengers.”
30 tn Heb “Only you keep [away] from what is set apart [to the
31 tn Heb “it is holy to the
32 tc Heb “and the people shouted and they blew the rams’ horns.” The initial statement (“and the people shouted”) seems premature, since the verse goes on to explain that the battle cry followed the blowing of the horns. The statement has probably been accidentally duplicated from what follows. It is omitted in the LXX.
33 tn Heb “the people.”
34 tn Heb “the sound of the horn.”
35 tn Heb “they shouted with a loud shout.”
36 tn Heb “fell in its place.”
37 tn Heb “and the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead, and they captured the city.”
38 tn Heb “all which was in the city.”
39 tn Heb “the house of the woman, the prostitute.”
40 tn Heb “and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore on oath to her.”
41 tn Or “placed them outside.”
42 tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”
43 tn Heb “the treasury of the house of the
44 tn Heb “kept alive.”
45 tn Heb the house of her father.”
46 tn Or “among the Israelites”; Heb “in the midst of Israel.”
47 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
48 tn Normally the Hiphil of שָׁבַע (shava’) has a causative sense (“make [someone] take an oath”; see Josh 2:17, 20), but here (see also Josh 23:7) no object is stated or implied. If Joshua is calling divine judgment down upon the one who attempts to rebuild Jericho, then “make a solemn appeal [to God as judge]” or “pronounce a curse” would be an appropriate translation. However, the tone seems stronger. Joshua appears to be announcing the certain punishment of the violator. 1 Kgs 16:34, which records the fulfillment of Joshua’s prediction, supports this. Casting Joshua in a prophetic role, it refers to Joshua’s statement as the “word of the
49 tn Heb “rises up and builds.”
50 tc The LXX omits “Jericho.” It is probably a scribal addition.
51 tn The Hebrew phrase אָרוּר לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (’arur lifney yÿhvah, “cursed [i.e., condemned] before the
52 tn Heb “With his firstborn he will lay its foundations and with his youngest he will erect its gates.” The Hebrew verb יַצִּיב (yatsiv, “he will erect”) is imperfect, not jussive, suggesting Joshua’s statement is a prediction, not an imprecation.
53 tn Heb “and the report about him was in all the land.” The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets, “land”) may also be translated “earth.”
54 tn Or perhaps “and don’t get discouraged!”
55 tn Heb “Take with you all the people of war and arise, go up against Ai!”
56 tn Heb “I have given into our hand.” The verbal form, a perfect, is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action.
57 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
58 tn “And Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up [against] Ai.”
59 tn Or “commanded, ordered.”
60 tn Heb “the people.”
61 tn Heb “come out after.”
62 tn Heb “from the ambush.”
63 tn Heb “take possession of.”
64 tn Heb “the city.”
65 tn Heb “I have commanded you.”
66 tn Or “the place of ambush.”
67 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
68 tn Heb “and they stayed between Bethel and Ai, west of Ai.”
69 tn Heb “in the midst of the people.”
70 tn Or “summoned, mustered.”
71 tn Heb “the people.”
72 tn Or “elders.”
73 tn Heb “went up.”
74 tn Heb “them” (referring to “the people” in the previous clause, which requires a plural pronoun). Since the translation used “army” in the previous clause, a singular pronoun (“it”) is required in English.
75 tn Heb “All the people of war who were with him went up and approached and came opposite the city.”
76 tn Heb “and the valley [was] between them and Ai.”
77 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
78 tn Some Hebrew
79 tn Heb “When the king of Ai saw, the men of Ai hurried and rose early and went out to meet Israel for battle, he and all his people at the meeting place before the Arabah.”
80 tn Or “know.”
81 tn Heb “that (there was) an ambush for him behind the city.”
82 tn Heb “All the people.”
83 tc Some textual witnesses read “the city.”
84 tn Or “were summoned”; or “were mustered.”
85 tc The LXX omits the words “or Bethel.”
86 tn Heb “who did not go out after Israel.”
87 tn Heb “it”; the referent (the city of Ai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
88 tn Heb “and ran.”
89 tn Heb “and they saw, and look.” The Hebrew term הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) draws attention to the scene and invites the audience to view the events from the perspective of the men of Ai.
90 tn Heb “and there was not in them hands to flee here or there.” The Hebrew term יָדַיִם (yadayim, “hands”) is idiomatic for “strength.”
91 tn Heb “and that the smoke of the city ascended.”
92 tn Heb “and these went out from the city to meet them and they were for Israel in the middle, some on this side, and others on the other side.”
93 tn Heb “residents.”
94 tn Heb “in the field, in the desert in which they chased them.”
95 tc Heb “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed.” The LXX omits the words, “and all of them fell by the edge of the sword.” They may represent a later scribal addition.
96 tn Heb “fell.”
97 tn Heb “Joshua did not draw back his hand which held out the curved sword until he had annihilated all the residents of Ai.”
98 tn Heb “according to the word of the
99 tn Heb “and made it a permanent mound, a desolation, to this day.”
100 tn Heb “on a tree until evening.” The words “leaving him exposed” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
101 sn For the legal background of this action, see Deut 21:22-23.
102 tn Heb “to this day.”
103 tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones on which no one had wielded iron.” The expression “whole stones” refers to stones in their natural condition, i.e., not carved or shaped artificially with tools (“wielded iron”).
104 tn Or “peace offerings.”
105 tn Heb “and he wrote there on the stones a duplicate of the law of Moses which he wrote before the sons of Israel.”
106 tn Heb “All Israel.”
107 tn Or “elders.”
108 tn Heb “like the resident alien, like the citizen.” The language is idiomatic, meaning that both groups were treated the same, at least in this instance.
109 tn Heb “as Moses, the
110 tn Or “afterward.”
111 tn Heb “There was not a word from all which Moses commanded that Joshua did not read aloud.”
112 tn Heb “walked in their midst.”