some evil people have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before).

When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses,

However, suppose a person hates someone else and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, and then flees to one of these cities.

As for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is going to give you as an inheritance, you must not allow a single living thing to survive.

and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.

They must declare to the elders of his city, “Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say – he is a glutton and drunkard.”

Then all the men of his city must stone him to death. In this way you will purge out wickedness from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

Then the father and mother of the young woman must produce the evidence of virginity for the elders of the city at the gate.

Moreover, he has raised accusations of impropriety by saying, ‘I discovered your daughter was not a virgin,’ but this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” The cloth must then be spread out before the city’s elders.

Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns.

They marched around the city one time on the second day, then returned to the camp. They did this six days in all.

The seventh time around, the priests blew the rams’ horns and Joshua told the army, “Give the battle cry, for the Lord is handing the city over to you!

They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.

But they burned 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.

Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city!”

I and all the troops who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them.

They will attack 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.

All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city. They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley.

He took five thousand men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel and Ai.

No men were left in Ai or Bethel; they all went out after Israel. They left the city wide open and chased Israel.