17. Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city wide open, and they pursued Israel.
18. The Lord said to Joshua, “Point toward Ai with the sword that is in your hand, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua pointed toward the city with the sword in his hand.
19. When his hand pointed, the men in ambush got up quickly from their place and ran. They came into the city, captured it, and quickly set the city on fire.
20. The men of Ai turned around and looked, and there from the city came smoke rising to the sky! They could not flee in any direction, and the people who had fled into the wilderness had turned back toward their pursuers.
21. When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that smoke rose from it, they turned and struck down the men of Ai.
22. Then the men in the city came out to engage them in battle, so they were now in the middle, with Israel on each side. Israel struck them down until neither survivors nor escapees were left.
23. They took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24. When Israel completed killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they had pursued them, and when all of them had finally fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
25. All who had fallen that day, men and women, numbered twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
26. Joshua did not draw back his hand with the stretched-out sword until he destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27. Israel plundered only the livestock and the spoil of that city for themselves, according to the word of the Lord that He had commanded Joshua.
28. Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.
29. The king of Ai hanged on a tree until evening. At sunset, Joshua commanded that the people take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the city gate. They erected a large heap of stones over it that remains to this day.
30. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal,