24. Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the fields and in the desert where they had been pursued. They put them all to death; not one person survived. Then the Israelites went back to Ai and killed everyone left there.
25. Twelve thousand men and women from Ai died that day.
26. Joshua did not lower his hand holding the spear until he had completely destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27. Israel took the loot and the livestock of that city for themselves, as the Lord had commanded Joshua.
28. So Joshua burned Ai and made it a deserted mound of ruins. It is still in ruins today.
29. Joshua hung the king of Ai’s ⌊dead body⌋ on a pole and left him there until evening. When the sun went down, Joshua gave the order to take his body down. They threw it in the entrance of the city and made a large pile of stones over it. That pile is still there today.
30. At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord God of Israel.
31. He built an altar with uncut stones on which no iron chisels had been used. This was as the Lord’s servant Moses had commanded the people of Israel in the Book of Moses’ Teachings. They made burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on the altar.