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Joshua 10:2
that he feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
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Joshua 9:17
Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath jearim.
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2 Samuel 21 1-2 Samuel 21 2
Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said,“ It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them( now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel had made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).
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Joshua 8:1-35
Now the Lord said to Joshua,“ Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you. Arise, go up to Ai; see, I have handed over to you the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoils and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”So Joshua rose up with all the people of war to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand men, valiant warriors, and sent them out at night.He commanded them, saying,“ See, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as they did the first time, we will flee before them.They will come out after us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say,‘ They are fleeing before us just as they did the first time.’ So we will flee before them.Then you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the Lord your God will hand it over to you.Then it will be when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it in accordance with the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.”So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people.Now Joshua got up early in the morning and mustered the people, and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai.Then all the people of war who were with him went up and approached, and arrived in front of the city; and they camped on the north side of Ai. And there was a valley between him and Ai.Then he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.So they stationed the people, all the army that was on the north side of the city, and its rear guard on the west side of the city, and Joshua spent that night in the midst of the valley.And it came about, when the king of Ai saw them, that the men of the city hurried and got up early, and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place before the desert plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.Then Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city.So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel, but they had all gone out after Israel, and they left the city unguarded and pursued Israel.Then the Lord said to Joshua,“ Reach out with the sword that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand it over to you.” So Joshua reached out with the sword that was in his hand toward the city.Then the men in ambush rose quickly from their place, and when he had reached out with his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they quickly set the city on fire.When the men of Ai turned back and looked, behold, the smoke of the city ascended to the sky, and they had no place to flee this way or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against the pursuers.When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and killed the men of Ai.The others came out from the city to confront them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side; and they killed them until there was not one left who escaped or survived.But they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.Now when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.So all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand— all the people of Ai.For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he reached out with the sword until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.Israel took only the cattle and the spoils of that city as plunder for themselves, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua.So Joshua burned Ai and made it a refuse heap forever, a desolation until this day.And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; but at sunset Joshua gave the command and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and erected over it a large heap of stones that stands to this day.Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no one had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel.And all Israel with their elders, officers, and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at first to bless the people of Israel.Then afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessing and the curse, according to everything that is written in the Book of the Law.There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.
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Joshua 6:1-27
Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in.But the Lord said to Joshua,“ See, I have handed Jericho over to you, with its king and the valiant warriors.And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days.Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight ahead.”So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them,“ Take up the ark of the covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.”Then he said to the people,“ Go forward and march around the city, and the armed men shall go on ahead of the ark of the Lord.”And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.And the armed men went ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while they continued to blow the trumpets.But Joshua commanded the people, saying,“ You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word proceed from your mouth, until the day I tell you,‘ Shout!’ Then you shall shout!”So he had the ark of the Lord taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.Now Joshua got up early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord.Then the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went ahead of them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while they continued to blow the trumpets.So the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp; they did the same for six days.Then on the seventh day they got up early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same way seven times; only on that day did they march around the city seven times.And at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people,“ Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.But the city shall be designated for destruction, it and everything that is in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things designated for destruction, so that you do not covet them and take some of the designated things, and turn the camp of Israel into something designated for destruction and bring disaster on it.But all the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, everyone straight ahead, and they took the city.They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land,“ Go into the prostitute’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, just as you have sworn to her.”So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives, and placed them outside the camp of Israel.Then they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and the articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.However, Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying,“ Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.”So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
