8. It shall be, when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to the Lord’s word. Behold, I have commanded you.”
9. Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night.
10. Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11. All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and came near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai.
12. He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13. So they set the people, even all the army who was on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley.
14. When the king of Ai saw it, they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn’t know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.