Yahusha Ba'Nun (Joshua) — 8

The Yasharalym Defeat Ah

1 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Dabar to Yahusha Ba'Nun, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ah, for I have given you the king of Ah, his people, his town, and his land. 

2 You will destroy them as you destroyed Yarichu and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.”

3 So Yahusha and all the fighting men set out to attack Ah. Yahusha chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night 

4 with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action. 

5 When our main army attacks, the men of Ah will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them. 

6 We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Yasharalym are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running from them, 

7 you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH  your 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH will give it to you. 

8 Set the town on fire, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH has commanded. You have your orders.”

9 So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bathal and the west side of Ah. But Yahusha remained among the people in the camp that night. 

10 Early the next morning Yahusha roused his men and started toward Ah, accompanied by the elders of Yashar'AL. 

11 All the fighting men who were with Yahusha marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ah, with a valley between them and the town. 

12 That night Yahusha sent about five thousand men to lie in ambush between Bathal and Ah, on the west side of the town. 

13 So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Yahusha himself spent that night in the valley.

14 When the king of Ah saw the Yasharalym across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Yasharalym at a place overlooking the Yurdan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town. 

15 Yahusha and the Yasharalym army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten. 

16 Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town. 

17 There was not a man left in Ah or Bathal who did not chase after the Yasharalym, and the town was left wide open.

18 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Dabar to Yahusha, “Point the spear in your hand toward Ah, for I will hand the town over to you.” Yahusha did as he was commanded.

19 As soon as Yahusha gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.

20 When the men of Ah looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Yasharalym who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers. 

21 When Yahusha and all the other Yasharalym saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ah. 

22 Meanwhile, the Yasharalym who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ah were caught in the middle, with Yasharalym fighters on both sides. Yashar'AL attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped. 

23 Only the king of Ah was taken alive and brought to Yahusha.

24 When the Yasharalym army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ah in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside. 

25 So the entire population of Ah, including men and women, was wiped out that day, twelve thousand in all. 

26 For Yahusha Ba'Nun kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ah was completely destroyed. 

27 Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Yasharalym kept these as plunder for themselves, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH had commanded Yahusha. 

28 So Yahusha Ba'Nun burned the town of Ah, and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.

29 Yahusha impaled the king of Ah on a sharpened pole and left him there until evening. At sunset the Yasharalym took down the body, as Yahusha commanded, and threw it in front of the town gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today.

YAHUAH’s Covenant Renewed

30 Then Yahusha built an altar to  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, the 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH of Yashar'AL, on Mount Albal. 

31 He followed the commands that Musha  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s servant had written in the Book of Instruction: “Make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools.” Then on the altar they presented burnt offerings and Shalum offerings to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. 

32 And as the Yasharalym watched, Yahusha copied onto the stones of the altar the instructions Musha had given them.

33 Then all the Yasharalym, foreigners and native-born alike, along with the elders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood in front of Mount Garizim, the other in front of Mount Albal. Each group faced the other, and between them stood the Lauym and Kuhanym carrying the Ark of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s Covenant. This was all done according to the commands that Musha, the servant of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, had previously given for Barakah on the people of Yashar'AL.

34 Yahusha then read to them all the Barakah and curses Musha had written in the Book of Instruction. 

35 Every word of every command that Musha had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Yashar'AL, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them.