Today the people of Israel were ready to take on Ai again, since yesterday they figured out why the Lord let them get defeated. With that mess taken care of, they were ready to go to battle.
They took all the fighting men with them when they went up to Ai, and they were going to ambush the city. There were 30,000 men that went, but most of them lay and wait to ambush a little ways outside the city.
Joshua and about 5,000 men went into the city to lure them out by “fleeing” from them, because they had already fled from them once. All the people of the city came out after them and chased them…right into the Israelite army where they were ambushed.
The rest of them hurried to set the city on fire. When the others saw the smoke, they stopped running and turned around to fight them. Israel struck them down until there was none left. They took the king of Ai alive to Joshua.
All who fell that day was 12,000, all the people of Ai. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word that the Lord commanded Joshua.
They burned Ai and made it into a heap of ruins. They hung the king on a tree until evening, then took him down and threw his body at the entrance of the gate of the city; and raised a great heap of stones, which could still be there today.
Then Joshua renewed the covenant by building an altar to the Lord as was commanded in the Book of the Law of Moses. Then all the people of Israel gathered around, and Joshua blessed the people and read all the words of the law.
Now all of the kings had heard about what Israel was capable of, so they all got together to fight against them. All except the inhabitants of Gibeon. They acted cunningly and made provisions with worn out sacks for their donkeys, worn out, torn, and mended wineskins, patched sandals on their feet, and worn out clothes.
They went to Joshua and said that they had come from a distant country and wanted to make a covenant with him. They offered to be their servants, and said that they came because of the Lord and had heard stories of all he had done.
They said that all they had with them was new when they left, that’s how far they had to travel. The men started to believe them, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.
After three days, it came out that they were indeed neighbors with them and that they had lived among them in that land. They set out and encountered their cities, but they did not attack them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them. They let them live and they became wood cutters and would draw water.
Joshua asked them why they had deceived him, and said they were cursed. They would never be anything more than servants for the house of God. They tried to explain that they had heard how Moses was commanded to give all the land to Israel and to destroy its inhabitants. They were afraid for their lives.
Joshua allowed them to live, but made them forever wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, in whatever place he would choose.