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Joshua 8
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Joshua 8:1 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou
dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai:
see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his
city, and his land:
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Now they are asking God before they go out to war. God is with them.
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God's going to give them the victory.
2 And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and
her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take
for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.
3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and
Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent them
away by night.
4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against
the city, even behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye
all ready:
5 And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the
city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at
the first, that we will flee before them,
6 (For they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from the
city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore
we will flee before them.
7 Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city: for
the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.
8 And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the
city on fire: according to the commandment of the Lord shall ye do. See,
I have commanded you.
9 Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and
abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged
that night among the people.
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Between Bethel and Ai, the place of Abraham's
altar.
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So that the place where the promise of the land
was made, this is the place where it began to be
fulfilled.
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Abraham had come down from Sichem: Joshua goes
up to Sichem, and builds his altar on the same
spot where Abraham had built his.
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Genesis 12:6 And Abram passed through the land
unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of
Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said,
Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there
builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared
unto him.
8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on
the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having
Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and
there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and
called upon the name of the Lord.
10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and
went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11 And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went
up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north
side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.
12 And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush
between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
13 And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the
north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city,
Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and
rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to
battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain;
but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the
city.
15 And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them,
and fled by the way of the wilderness.
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And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after
them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.
17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after
Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.
18 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy
hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched
out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.
19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon
as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city, and
took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.
20 And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the
smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee
this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned
back upon the pursuers.
21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the
city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again,
and slew the men of Ai.
22 And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in
the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they
smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.
23 And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.
24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the
inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased
them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they
were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it
with the edge of the sword.
25 And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women,
were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.
26 For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the
spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey
unto themselves, according unto the word of the Lord which he commanded
Joshua.
28 And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation
unto this day.
29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as
the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase
down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city,
and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.
30 Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in mount Ebal,
31 As Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as
it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones,
over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt
offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.
32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which
he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.
33 And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges,
stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the
Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the
stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against
mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the
servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the
people of Israel.
34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and
cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read
not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the
little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.
• Exactly 2520 years from the exile
of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.
•
The first tribe to be
conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh,
in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.
• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant,
(A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt
- page 25
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