⁴ with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. ⁵ I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. ⁶ They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, ⁷ you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand.^{(A) 8} When you have taken the city, set it on fire.^(B) Do what the Lord has commanded.^(C) See to it; you have my orders.”

⁹ Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush^(D) and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people.

¹⁰ Early the next morning^(E) Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel^(F) marched before them to Ai. ¹¹ The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. ¹² Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³ So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah.^(G) But he did not know^(H) that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back^(I) before them, and they fled toward the wilderness.^{(J) 16} All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away^(K) from the city. ¹⁷ Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin^(L) that is in your hand,^(M) for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand.^{(N) 19} As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly^(O) from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.^(P)

²⁰ The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky,^(Q) but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. ²¹ For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around^(R) and attacked the men of Ai. ²² Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives.^(S)

²⁹ Then Israel set an ambush^(A) around Gibeah. ³⁰ They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and took up positions against Gibeah as they had done before. ³¹ The Benjamites came out to meet them and were drawn away^(B) from the city. They began to inflict casualties on the Israelites as before, so that about thirty men fell in the open field and on the roads—the one leading to Bethel^(C) and the other to Gibeah. ³² While the Benjamites were saying, “We are defeating them as before,”^(D) the Israelites were saying, “Let’s retreat and draw them away from the city to the roads.”

³³ All the men of Israel moved from their places and took up positions at Baal Tamar, and the Israelite ambush charged out of its place^(E) on the west^[a] of Gibeah.^{[b] 34} Then ten thousand of Israel’s able young men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The fighting was so heavy that the Benjamites did not realize^(F) how near disaster was.^{(G) 35} The Lord defeated Benjamin^(H) before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. ³⁶ Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten.

Now the men of Israel had given way^(I) before Benjamin, because they relied on the ambush^(J) they had set near Gibeah. ³⁷ Those who had been in ambush made a sudden dash into Gibeah, spread out and put the whole city to the sword.^{(K) 38} The Israelites had arranged with the ambush that they should send up a great cloud of smoke^(L) from the city,^{(M) 39} and then the Israelites would counterattack.

The Benjamites had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites (about thirty), and they said, “We are defeating them as in the first battle.”^{(N) 40} But when the column of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the whole city going up in smoke.^{(O) 41} Then the Israelites counterattacked,^(P) and the Benjamites were terrified, because they realized that disaster had come^(Q) on them. ⁴² So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness, but they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the towns cut them down there. ⁴³ They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them and easily^[c] overran them in the vicinity of Gibeah on the east.

Further Opposition to the Rebuilding

6 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah,^(A) Geshem^(B) the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— ² Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages^[a] on the plain of Ono.^(C)”

But they were scheming to harm me; ³ so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” ⁴ Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

⁵ Then, the fifth time, Sanballat^(D) sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter ⁶ in which was written:

⁸ I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

⁹ They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

¹⁰ One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple^(F), and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”

¹¹ But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” ¹² I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me^(G) because Tobiah and Sanballat^(H) had hired him. ¹³ He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.^(I)

¹⁴ Remember^(J) Tobiah and Sanballat,^(K) my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet^(L) Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets^(M) have been trying to intimidate me. ¹⁵ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

Opposition to the Completed Wall

¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

¹⁷ Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. ¹⁸ For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shekaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. ¹⁹ Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.