25 Twelve thousand men and women died that day, all the people of Ai.
26 Joshua didn’t pull back the hand that was stretched out holding a dagger until he had wiped out the whole population of Ai as something reserved for God.
27 However, Israel did take the cattle and other booty of that city as plunder for themselves, in agreement with the command that the Lord had given Joshua.
28 Then Joshua burned Ai. He made it a permanently deserted mound. That is still the case today.
29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. At sundown, Joshua gave an order, and they took his body down from the tree. They threw it down at the opening of the city gate. Then they raised over it a great pile of stones that is still there today.
30 Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel.
31 This was exactly what Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. It is what is written in the Instruction scroll from Moses: "an altar of crude stones against which no iron tool has swung." On it they offered entirely burned offerings to the Lord and sacrificed well-being offerings.