And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, on the east of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the land. And the men went up and spied out Ai.
And he moved from there to a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and stretched his tent with Beth-el toward the sea, and Ai on the east. And he built an altar there to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah.
Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is devastated! Cry, daughters of Rabbah, gird yourselves with sackcloth; mourn, and run to and fro in the walls. For their king shall go into exile, his priests and his rulers together.
And their border was at the north side from the Jordan, and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the hills westward; and its boundary line was at the wilderness of Beth-aven;
And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men out of Shittim to spy secretly, saying, Go look over the land, and Jericho. And they went and came into the house of a woman, a harlot; and her name was Rahab. And they lay down there.
And they returned to Joshua, and said to him, Do not let all the people go up. Let about two thousand men, or three thousand men, go up, and they shall strike Ai. Do not cause all the people to labor there, for they are few.
And the Philistines gathered to fight with Israel, with thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the lip of the sea for multitude. And they came up and pitched in Michmash, east of Bethaven.