1. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you. Arise, and go up to Ai. See, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land into your hand.
2. Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, except you may plunder its spoils and its livestock. Now set an ambush for the city behind it.”
3. So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty men of valor, and sent them out at night.
4. He commanded them, “You shall ambush the city from behind. Do not go very far from the city. All of you be ready.
5. I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to engage us as before, we will flee from them.
6. They will come after us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will think, ‘They are fleeing from us as before!’ So we will flee from them.