8:1 The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! 1 Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! 2 See, I am handing over to you 3 the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land. 8:2 Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho 4 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. 5 Joshua selected thirty thousand brave warriors and sent them out at night. 8:4 He told 6 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 7 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 8 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 9 and seize 10 the city. The Lord your God will hand it over to you.
1 tn Or perhaps “and don’t get discouraged!”
2 tn Heb “Take with you all the people of war and arise, go up against Ai!”
3 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.
4 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
5 tn “And Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up [against] Ai.”
6 tn Or “commanded, ordered.”
7 tn Heb “the people.”
8 tn Heb “come out after.”
9 tn Heb “from the ambush.”
10 tn Heb “take possession of.”