1. And Hashem said unto Yehoshua, Fear not, neither be thou discouraged; take kol Am HaMilchamah with thee, and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into thy yad the melech HaAi, and his people, and his city, and his land;
2. And thou shalt do to Ai and her melech just as thou didst unto Yericho and her melech; only the plunder thereof, and the livestock thereof, shall ye carry off for yourselves. Behind it set thee an ambush for the Ir (city [of Ai]).
3. So Yehoshua arose, and kol Am HaMilchamah, to go up against Ai; and Yehoshua chose out shloshim elef ish gibborei hachayil, and sent them out by lailah.
4. And he commanded them, saying, See, ye shall set an ambush against the Ir, even behind the Ir; go not very far from the Ir, but be ye all nekhonim (ready, on alert, set, prepared);
5. And I, and Kol HaAm that are with me, will approach unto the Ir; and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the rishonah, that we will flee before them,
6. (For they will come out after us) until we have drawn them from the Ir; for they will say, They flee before us, just as at the rishonah; therefore we will flee before them.
7. Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the Ir; for Hashem Eloheichem will deliver it into your yad.
8. And it shall be, when ye have taken the Ir, that ye shall set eish to the Ir; according to the Davar Hashem shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.
9. Yehoshua therefore sent them forth; and they went to the place of ambush, and waited between Beit-El and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Yehoshua spent that lailah among HaAm.
10. And Yehoshua rose up early in the boker, and mustered HaAm, and went up, he and the Ziknei Yisroel, before HaAm to Ai.
11. And Kol HaAm HaMilchamah that were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the Ir, and encamped on the north side of Ai; now there was the gey (valley) between them and Ai.
12. And he took about chameshet alafim ish, and set them to lie in ambush between Beit-El and Ai, on the west side of the Ir.
13. And when they had set HaAm, even Kol HaMachaneh that was on the north of the Ir, and the ambush to the west of the Ir, Yehoshua went that lailah into the midst of the emek (valley).