When the Holocaust was for others
The Holocaust for others
The inhabitants of Ai exterminated to the last one by the Jews
January 27, 2009
In the series: Conquest of the Promised Land, one of the genocides
Book of Joshua, 8 8:1 The Lord said to Joshua: "Do not fear, and do not be dismayed! Take with you all the warriors, rise up, go up against Ai. See, I deliver into your hands the king of Ai and his people, his city and his land."
8:2 You shall treat Ai and its king as you treated Jericho and its king; only you shall keep for yourselves the plunder and the livestock. Set an ambush behind the city.
8:3 Joshua rose with all the warriors to go up against Ai. He selected thirty thousand valiant men, and sent them out at night, 8:4 and gave them this order: "Listen, you will set an ambush behind the city; do not go far from the city, and be all ready."
8:5 But I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us, as the first time, we will flee before them.
8:6 They will pursue us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say: "They are fleeing from us, as the first time!" And we will flee before them.
8:7 Then you will come out of the ambush, and you will take the city, and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands.
8:8 When you have taken the city, you will set it on fire, you will act as the Lord has said: this is the order I give you.
8:9 Joshua sent them off, and they went and took their position as an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.
8:10 Joshua rose early in the morning, reviewed the people, and marched against Ai, at the head of the people, he and the elders of Israel.
8:11 All the warriors who were with him went up and approached; when they arrived in front of the city, they camped to the north of Ai, separated from it by the valley.
8:12 Joshua took about five thousand men, and placed them as an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
8:13 After the entire camp had taken position to the north of the city, and the ambush to the west of the city, Joshua advanced that night into the valley.
8:14 When the king of Ai saw this, the people of Ai rose in haste early in the morning, and went out to meet Israel to fight. The king headed, with all his people, toward a fixed place, on the plain side, and he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
8:15 Joshua and all Israel feigned defeat before them, and they fled by the way of the desert.
8:16 Then all the people who were in the city gathered to pursue them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
8:17 There was not a man in Ai and in Bethel who did not go out against Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.
8:18 The Lord said to Joshua: "Stretch out the spear that you have in your hand toward Ai, for I am going to deliver it into your power." And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.
8:19 As soon as he had stretched out his hand, the men in ambush quickly came out from the place where they were; they entered the city, took it, and hurried to set it on fire.
8:20 The people of Ai, looking behind them, saw the smoke of the city rising toward the sky, and they could not escape in any direction. The people who were fleeing toward the desert turned back against those who pursued them; 8:21 for Joshua and all Israel, seeing the city taken by the men of the ambush, and the smoke of the city rising, turned back and attacked the people of Ai.
8:22 The others came out of the city to meet them, and the people of Ai were surrounded by Israel on all sides. Israel defeated them, without leaving any survivors or fugitives; 8:23 they took the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
8:24 When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the desert, where they had pursued them, and when all had been completely cut down by the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
8:25 There were twelve thousand people killed that day, men and women, all the people of Ai.
8:26 Joshua did not withdraw his hand that he had stretched out with the spear until all the inhabitants had been devoted to destruction.
8:27 Only Israel kept the livestock and the plunder of this city, according to the command that the Lord had given to Joshua.
8:28 Joshua burned Ai, and made it forever a heap of ruins, which still exists today.
8:29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree, and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered that his body be taken down from the tree; it was thrown at the entrance of the city gate, and a great heap of stones was raised over it, which still exists today.
8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 8:31 as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had ordered the children of Israel, and as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: it was an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. They offered on this altar burnt offerings to the Lord, and they presented sacrifices of thanksgiving.
8:32 And there Joshua wrote a copy of the law that Moses had written before the children of Israel.
8:33 All Israel, its elders, its officers and its judges, stood on both sides of the ark, before the priests, the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord; the foreigners as well as the children of Israel were there, half on the side of Mount Gerizim, half on the side of Mount Ebal, according to the order that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had previously given to bless the people of Israel.
8:34 Then Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, as they are written in the book of the law.
8:35 There was nothing of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read in the presence of the entire assembly of Israel, of the women and the children, and of the foreigners who were walking among them.
Book of Joshua, 8 8:1 The Lord said to Joshua: "Do not fear, and do not be dismayed! Take with you all the warriors, rise up, go up against Ai. See, I deliver into your hands the king of Ai and his people, his city and his land."
8:2 You shall treat Ai and its king as you treated Jericho and its king; only you shall keep for yourselves the plunder and the livestock. Set an ambush behind the city.
8:3 Joshua rose with all the warriors to go up against Ai. He selected thirty thousand valiant men, and sent them out at night, 8:4 and gave them this order: "Listen, you will set an ambush behind the city; do not go far from the city, and be all ready."
8:5 But I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us, as the first time, we will flee before them.
8:6 They will pursue us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say: "They are fleeing from us, as the first time!" And we will flee before them.
8:7 Then you will come out of the ambush, and you will take the city, and the...