And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Bethel. And he spoke to them, saying, Go up and look over the country. And the men went up and spied out Ai.
And he moved from there to a mountain on the east of Bethel. And he pitched his tent with Bethel toward the sea and Hai on the east. And he built an altar there to Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah.
Wail, O Heshbon; Ai is spoiled! Cry, daughters of Rabbah; clothe yourselves with sackcloth, mourn, and run to and fro by the hedges! For their king shall go into exile; his priests and his rulers together.
And their border on the north side was from Jordan. And the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north side, and went up through the mountains westward. And their boundary was at the wilderness of Beth-aven.
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go look over the land, even Jericho. And they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab. And they stayed there.
And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Let not all the people go up. But let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Do not make all the people labor there, for they are few.
And the Philistines gathered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people like the sand on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Beth-aven.