But the children of Israel did wrong about the cursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the family of Judah, took of the cursed thing, moving the Lord to wrath against the children of Israel.

Then they came back to Joshua and said to him, Do not send all the people up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and make an attack on Ai there is no need for all the people to be tired with the journey there, for it is only a small town.

The men of Ai put to death about thirty-six of them, driving them from before the town as far as the stoneworks, and overcoming them on the way down: and the hearts of the people became like water.

And Joshua said, O Lord God, why have you taken us over Jordan only to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our destruction? If only it had been enough for us to keep on the other side of Jordan!

For when the news comes to the Canaanites and all the people of the land, they will come up, shutting us in and cutting off our name from the earth: and what will you do for the honour of your great name?

Israel has done wrong, sinning against the agreement which I made with them: they have even taken of the cursed thing acting falsely like thieves they have put it among their goods.

Up! make the people holy say to them, Make yourselves holy before tomorrow, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, There is a cursed thing among you, O Israel, and you will give way before your attackers in the fight till the cursed thing has been taken away from among you.

Then the man who is taken with the cursed thing is to be burned, with everything which is his because he has gone against the agreement of the Lord and has done an act of shame in Israel.

Then he made Judah come forward, and the family of the Zerahites was taken and he made the family of the Zerahites come forward man by man and Zabdi was taken

And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel give me word now of what you have done, and keep nothing back from me.

When I saw among their goods a fair robe of Babylon and two hundred shekels of silver, and a mass of gold, fifty shekels in weight, I was overcome by desire and took them and they are put away in the earth in my tent, and the silver is under it.

And they took them from the tent and came back with them to Joshua and the children of Israel, and put them before the Lord.

And Joshua said, Why have you been a cause of trouble to us? Today the Lord will send trouble on you. And all Israel took part in stoning him they had him stoned to death and then burned with fire.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear and do not be troubled: take with you all the fighting-men and go up against Ai: for I have given into your hands the king of Ai and his people and his town and his land:

So Joshua and the fighting-men got ready to go up against Ai and Joshua took thirty thousand men of war, and sent them out by night.

And I and all the people with me will come near the town, and when they come out against us as they did before, we will go in flight from them

Then you will get up from your secret position and take the town, for the Lord your God will give it up into your hands.

So Joshua sent them out: and they took up a secret position between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua kept with the people that night.

And all the fighting-men who were with him went up and came near the town, and took up a position on the north side of Ai facing the town, with a valley between him and the town.

So all the people were in their places, the army on the north side of the town and the secret force on the west and that night Joshua went down into the valley.

Then Joshua and all Israel, acting as if they were overcome before them, went in flight by way of the waste land.

There was not a man in Ai and Beth-el who did not go out after Israel and the town was open and unwatched while they went after Israel.

Then the secret force came quickly from their place, and running forward when they saw his hand stretched out, went into the town and took it, and put fire to it straight away.

And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the town had been taken by the surprise attack, and that the smoke of the town had gone up, turning round they overcame the men of Ai.

But the king of Ai they made prisoner, and took him to Joshua.

On that day twelve thousand were put to death, men and women, all the people of Ai.

But the cattle and the goods from that town, Israel took for themselves, as the Lord had given orders to Joshua.

And he put the king of Ai to death, hanging him on a tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it in the public place of the town, covering it with a great mass of stones, which is there to this day.

In the way ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, as it is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, untouched by any iron instrument: and on it they made burned offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord.

And all Israel, those who were Israelites by birth, as well as the men from other lands living with them, and their responsible men and their overseers and judges, took their places round the ark, in front of the priests, the Levites, whose work it was to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement half of them were stationed in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, in agreement with the orders for the blessing of the children of Israel which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given.

Reading to all the meeting of Israel, with the women and the children and the men from other lands who were living among them, every word of the orders which Moses had given.

Now on hearing the news of these things, all the kings on the west side of Jordan, in the hill-country and the lowlands and by the Great Sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,

And the men of Gibeon, hearing what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

And put old stitched-up shoes on their feet, and old clothing on their backs and all the food they had with them was dry and broken up.

And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, It may be that you are living among us how then may we make an agreement with you?

And they said to him, Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of the Lord your God: for the story of his great name, and of all he did in Egypt has come to our ears,

So the responsible men and all the people of our country said to us, Take food with you for the journey and go to them, and say to them, We are your servants: so now make an agreement with us.

And these wine-skins were new when we put the wine in them, and now they are cracked as you see and our clothing and our shoes have become old because of our very long journey here.

So Joshua made peace with them, and made an agreement with them that they were not to be put to death: and the chiefs of the people took an oath to them.

And the children of Israel went forward on their journey, and on the third day came to their towns. Now their towns were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim.

But all the chiefs said to the people, We have taken an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and so we may not put our hands on them.

Keep them living, and let them be servants, cutting wood and getting water for all the people. And all the people did as the chiefs had said to them.

Now because of this you are cursed, and you will for ever be our servants, cutting wood and getting water for the house of my God.

And now we are in your hands: do to us whatever seems good and right to you.

And that day Joshua made them servants, cutting wood and getting water for the people and for the altar of the Lord, in the place marked out by him, to this day.

Then after three days he sent for the chief men of the Jews: and when they had come together, he said to them, My brothers, though I had done nothing against the people or the ways of our fathers, I was given, a prisoner from Jerusalem, into the hands of the Romans.

But when the Jews made protest against it, I had to put my cause into Caesar's hands not because I have anything to say against my nation.

And they said to him, We have not had letters from Judaea about you, and no one of the brothers has come to us here to give an account or say any evil about you.

And when a day had been fixed, they came to his house in great numbers and he gave them teaching, giving witness to the kingdom of God, and having discussions with them about Jesus, from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning till evening.

And they went away, for there was a division among them after Paul had said this one thing: Well did the Holy Spirit say by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers,

For the heart of this people has become fat and their ears are slow in hearing and their eyes are shut for fear that they might see with their eyes and give hearing with their ears and become wise in their hearts and be turned again to me, so that I might make them well.

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Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ without fear, and no orders were given that he was not to do so.