20 The men of Ai turned around and looked, and there from the city came smoke rising to the sky! They could not flee in any direction, and the people who had fled into the wilderness had turned back toward their pursuers.
21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that smoke rose from it, they turned and struck down the men of Ai.
22 Then the men in the city came out to engage them in battle, so they were now in the middle, with Israel on each side. Israel struck them down until neither survivors nor escapees were left.
23 They took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
24 When Israel completed killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they had pursued them, and when all of them had finally fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
25 All who had fallen that day, men and women, numbered twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
26 Joshua did not draw back his hand with the stretched-out sword until he destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.