BSB(i)
15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.
16 Then all the men of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they followed Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
17 Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, leaving the city wide open while they pursued Israel.
18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out your battle lance toward Ai, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out his battle lance toward Ai,
19 and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.
20 When the men of Ai turned and looked back, the smoke of the city was rising into the sky. They could not escape in any direction, and the troops who had fled to the wilderness now became the pursuers.
21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai.
22 Meanwhile, those in the ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the Israelite forces on both sides. So Israel struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained.
23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and put it to the sword as well.
25 A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.
26 Joshua did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction all who lived in Ai.
27 Israel took for themselves only the cattle and plunder of that city, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.
28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.
29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And over it they raised a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.