¹² Joshua had taken about five thousand men and had them hide between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. ¹³ All the troops were positioned. The main camp was north of the city, and the other troops were hiding west of the city. That night Joshua went down into the middle of the valley.

¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw the main camp, he and all his troops got up early in the morning. They rushed out toward the plains to meet Israel for battle, just where Joshua expected. However, the king didn’t know there were troops behind the city waiting to attack him.