Bright and early the next morning Joshua had the priests pick up the ark of the Lord. ¹ 

But they said to Joshua, “We are willing to be your subjects.” ¹  So Joshua said to them, “Who are you and where do you come from?”

It crossed to the slope in front of the Arabah to the north and descended into the Arabah.

At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration: ¹  “The man who attempts to rebuild ²  this city of Jericho ³  will stand condemned before the Lord. ⁴  He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!” ⁵ 

Now, assign me this hill country which the Lord promised me at that time! No doubt you heard at that time that the Anakites live there in large, fortified cities. ¹  But, assuming the Lord is with me, I will conquer ²  them, as the Lord promised.”

So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: ¹  “Turn over ²  the men who came to you ³  – the ones who came to your house ⁴  – for they have come to spy on the whole land!”

But they burned ¹  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. ² 

Joshua said, “Why have you brought disaster ¹  on us? The Lord will bring disaster on you today!” All Israel stoned him to death. (They also stoned and burned the others.) ² 

When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the city was going up in smoke, ¹  they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.

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. ¹  The Israelites struck them down, leaving no survivors or refugees.

Joshua replied to them, “Since you have so many people, ¹  go up into the forest and clear out a place to live in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaites, for the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you.”

You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. ¹  The leaders ²  of Jericho, as well as the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, fought with you, but I handed them over to you.

the water coming downstream toward them stopped flowing. ¹  It piled up far upstream ²  at Adam (the city near Zarethan); there was no water at all flowing to the sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea). ³  The people crossed the river opposite Jericho. ⁴ 

I saw among the goods we seized a nice robe from Babylon, ¹  two hundred silver pieces, ²  and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I wanted them, so I took them. They are hidden in the ground right in the middle of my tent with the silver underneath.”

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.

From the tribe of Benjamin they assigned ¹  Gibeon, Geba,

But if your own land ¹  is impure, ²  cross over to the Lord’s own land, ³  where the Lord himself lives, ⁴  and settle down among us. ⁵  But don’t rebel against the Lord or us ⁶  by building for yourselves an altar aside from the altar of the Lord our God.

He told the Israelites, “When your children someday ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones represent?’ ¹ 

And he told ¹  the army, ²  “Move ahead ³  and march around the city, with armed troops going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”

I and all the troops ¹  who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them.