All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city. ¹  They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley. ² 

He took five thousand men and set an ambush west of the city between Bethel ¹  and Ai.

The first lot belonged to the tribe of Benjamin ¹  by its clans. Their allotted territory was between Judah and Joseph. ² 

but as a reminder to us and you, ¹  and to our descendants who follow us, that we will honor the Lord in his very presence ²  with burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace. ³  Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no right to worship the Lord.’ ⁴ 

But stay about three thousand feet behind it. ¹  Keep your distance ²  so you can see ³  which way you should go, for you have not traveled this way before.”

Joshua sent them away and they went to their hiding place ¹  west of Ai, between Bethel ²  and Ai. ³  Joshua spent that night with the army. ⁴ 

The Lord made the Jordan a boundary between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no right to worship the Lord.’ ¹  In this way your descendants might cause our descendants to stop obeying ²  the Lord.

We said, ‘If in the future they say such a thing ¹  to us or to our descendants, we will reply, “See the model of the Lord’s altar that our ancestors ²  made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a reminder to us and you.”’ ³ 

Your fathers ¹  cried out for help to the Lord; he made the area between you and the Egyptians dark, ²  and then drowned them in the sea. ³  You witnessed with your very own eyes ⁴  what I did in Egypt. You lived in the wilderness for a long time. ⁵ 

The Reubenites and Gadites named the altar, “Surely it is a Reminder to us ¹  that the Lord is God.”