11. All the fighting men who were with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the town.
12. That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town.
13. So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.
14. When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town.
15. Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten.
16. Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town.
17. There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open.