So about three thousand men went up to Ai, but the men of Ai chased the men of Israel and killed about thirty-six Israelites. As a result, the people of Israel became terrified and discouraged.

When Joshua heard the news he tore his clothes, a sign of great mourning in those days, and bowed down on his face with the elders of Israel before the ark of the LORD until the sunset, and they put dust on their heads, another sign of great mourning and humility.

And Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord GOD, why have you brought the people over the Jordan river. Was it to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh if we had only been content to live on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say when Israel turns their backs on their enemies! The Canaanites and all the other inhabitants of the land will hear about it and surround us and kill us all. What great thing will You then do to honor Your great name?" Joshua was lapsing into the same lack of faith that the people had exhibited the whole time since they had left Egypt.

But God said to Joshua, "Get up; why are you lying there on your face? Your army could not stand up to the men of Ai because they have sinned. They have broken my agreement that I commanded them. They have taken of the accursed things; they have stolen, and lied. They have hidden it among their own stuff. That's why they couldn't stand before their enemies, they were cursed. I be not with you any more, unless you destroy the accursed things.

"Get up and say to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. The LORD God of Israel says there is an accursed thing in the your camp, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.'

"Tomorrow morning you will be brought before God according to your tribes. And the tribe the LORD indicates will come before God according to it's families. The family the LORD indicates will come by households and the household the LORD picks will come man by man. And he that is taken with the accursed thing will be burnt with fire, he and all that he has. He has broken the covenant of the LORD, and has brought foolishness into Israel."

Joshua got up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was Selected. And he brought the family of Judah, and then the family of the Zarhites, then the household of Zabdi. When the household of Zabdi appeared man by man, Achan, the son of Carmi was chosen.

Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel and make confession unto Him. Tell me what you have done; don't hide it from me."

Achan replied, "Yes I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel. When I saw a fine Babylonish garment among the spoils, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight I desired to have them. I took them and hid them in the ground under my tent."

So Joshua sent messengers and they found it just as Achan said, and they brought the garment and silver and gold to Joshua and laid them out before the LORD.

Joshua and all the people of Israel took Achan, the silver, the garment and the wedge of gold, his sons and daughters and all that he had into the valley of Achor. Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day." And all Israel stoned them until they were dead and then burned their bodies with fire. They raised a great heap of stones over them.

It may seem unfair to have killed Achan's sons and daughters too, but they probably knew about the stolen things and were accomplices. Even if they weren't, we can be happy that they will all be returned to life together as a family in the resurrection in the future. They will have learned the hard way what trouble direct disobedience to God can bring and may well become leaders in teaching others to keep God's laws.

So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger and the name of that valley was called, The Valley of Achor, after Achan. The name Achor means "trouble" in Hebrew.

And God said to Joshua, "Now you don't need to have any fear, take all the warriors and go up again to Ai. I have given the king of Ai into your hand with his people, and his city, and his land just as I did Jericho. But this time you may take the livestock for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city from the west side of it."

So Joshua lead the army against Ai. He chose thirty thousand mighty men and sent them away by night. He commanded them, "Lie in wait near the city, on the west side. Don't go very far away from the city and be ready. I and the rest of the army will approach from the north and when they come out against us as they did before we will flee from them.

"They will think the same thing is happening as before and when we have drawn them away from the city, rise up from you ambush and seize the city which the LORD your God will deliver into your hands."

In the morning, Joshua and all the soldiers that remained with him marched up and assembled across the valley on the north side of the city. He ordered about five thousand men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city.

When they had positioned the troops, thirty thousand men hidden on the west side of the city, five thousand more on the west but between Ai and Bethel, and all the rest on the north of the city, Joshua and his troops went that night down into the valley.

And in the morning when the king of Ai saw Joshua and his troops, the king and the men of the city poured out of the gate against Israel to do battle. But he didn't know that there was an ambush waiting to the west of the city.

Joshua and all his troops acted as if they were terrified and beaten and fled away. All the fighting men that were in Ai were called together to pursue them and all of them went far away from the city. So did the men of Bethel who had heard of the retreat of Israel in the first attack and wanted to get in on this attack. They left their cities open, and pursued after Israel.

And the LORD said to Joshua, "Stretch out your spear toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." And Joshua stretched out the spear toward the city.

The ambush rose quickly out of their hiding place and they ran and entered the city, and took it, and quickly set the city on fire.

When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of its burning ascended, they turned back and killed the warriors of Ai. And the men of the ambush also came out of the city against them. They were trapped between the armies of Israel who assaulted them so that none of them remain or escaped.

They took the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua. When Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field and wherever they had chased them, all the Israelites returned unto Ai and finished destroying it with the sword. Twelve thousand fell that day, both of men and women, for Joshua did not draw back his hand that held the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

Only the cattle and the riches of that city the people of Israel kept for themselves according unto the word of the LORD that He commanded Joshua. Joshua burnt Ai and made it a heap of rubble. He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. As soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree, and they cast it at the gate of the city, and raised over him a great heap of stones

Then Joshua went north of Ai and Bethel and built an altar to the LORD God of Israel at mount Ebal. As Moses, the servant of the LORD, commanded the children of Israel and wrote in the book of the law of Moses, it was an altar of whole stones which had not been shaped by iron tools. They offered burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings on the altar. Joshua wrote a copy of the law of Moses on the stones of the altar in the presence of the children of Israel.

Afterward Joshua read all the words of the law, including the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. Joshua read every word before all the congregation of Israel, including the women, and the little ones, and the non-Israelites that were among them.