A New Way to Love Your Neighbor

Horizon Church April Bible Reading Plan - Strengthened by Grace: A Journey Through 1 & 2 Peter

The Shift: Part 3

The Transformed Life – a Call to Consecration

SIMPLE: Returning to the Essence of Easter

Redeeming Anger: Turning Pain Into Purpose

Financial Discipleship – the Bible on Restitution

Purpose in the Pause: Finding Hope in the Waiting

Priceless

Daily Bible Reading— April 2025, God’s Strengthening Word: Assurance of Hope in Christ Jesus

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
   <div class="book bkJOS">
      <div class="chapter ch8" data-usfm="JOS.8">
         <div class="label">8</div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">Ai Destroyed</span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v1" data-usfm="JOS.8.1"><span class="label">1</span><span class="content">Then the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> said to Joshua, &#8220;Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. </span></span><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="JOS.8.2"><span class="label">2</span><span class="content">You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v2" data-usfm="JOS.8.2"></span><span class="verse v3" data-usfm="JOS.8.3"><span class="label">3</span><span class="content">So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night </span></span><span class="verse v4" data-usfm="JOS.8.4"><span class="label">4</span><span class="content">with these orders: &#8220;Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don&#8217;t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. </span></span><span class="verse v5" data-usfm="JOS.8.5"><span class="label">5</span><span class="content">I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. </span></span><span class="verse v6" data-usfm="JOS.8.6"><span class="label">6</span><span class="content">They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, &#8216;They are running away from us as they did before.&#8217; So when we flee from them, </span></span><span class="verse v7" data-usfm="JOS.8.7"><span class="label">7</span><span class="content">you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> your God will give it into your hand. </span></span><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="JOS.8.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.&#8221;</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="JOS.8.8"></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="JOS.8.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai&#8212;but Joshua spent that night with the people.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="JOS.8.9"></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="JOS.8.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. </span></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="JOS.8.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. </span></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="JOS.8.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. </span></span><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="JOS.8.13"><span class="label">13</span><span class="content">So the soldiers took up their positions&#8212;with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v13" data-usfm="JOS.8.13"></span><span class="verse v14" data-usfm="JOS.8.14"><span class="label">14</span><span class="content">When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. </span></span><span class="verse v15" data-usfm="JOS.8.15"><span class="label">15</span><span class="content">Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. </span></span><span class="verse v16" data-usfm="JOS.8.16"><span class="label">16</span><span class="content">All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. </span></span><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="JOS.8.17"><span class="label">17</span><span class="content">Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v17" data-usfm="JOS.8.17"></span><span class="verse v18" data-usfm="JOS.8.18"><span class="label">18</span><span class="content">Then the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> said to Joshua, &#8220;Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.&#8221; So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand. </span></span><span class="verse v19" data-usfm="JOS.8.19"><span class="label">19</span><span class="content">As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v19" data-usfm="JOS.8.19"></span><span class="verse v20" data-usfm="JOS.8.20"><span class="label">20</span><span class="content">The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. </span></span><span class="verse v21" data-usfm="JOS.8.21"><span class="label">21</span><span class="content">For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. </span></span><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="JOS.8.22"><span class="label">22</span><span class="content">Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. </span></span><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="JOS.8.23"><span class="label">23</span><span class="content">But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="JOS.8.23"></span><span class="verse v24" data-usfm="JOS.8.24"><span class="label">24</span><span class="content">When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. </span></span><span class="verse v25" data-usfm="JOS.8.25"><span class="label">25</span><span class="content">Twelve thousand men and women fell that day&#8212;all the people of Ai. </span></span><span class="verse v26" data-usfm="JOS.8.26"><span class="label">26</span><span class="content">For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class="body"><span class="fr">8:26 </span><span class="ft">The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, often by totally destroying them.</span></span></span><span class="content"> all who lived in Ai. </span></span><span class="verse v27" data-usfm="JOS.8.27"><span class="label">27</span><span class="content">But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> had instructed Joshua.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v27" data-usfm="JOS.8.27"></span><span class="verse v28" data-usfm="JOS.8.28"><span class="label">28</span><span class="content">So Joshua burned Ai</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class="body"><span class="fr">8:28 </span><span class="fq">Ai </span><span class="ft">means </span><span class="fqa">the ruin.</span></span></span><span class="content"> and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. </span></span><span class="verse v29" data-usfm="JOS.8.29"><span class="label">29</span><span class="content">He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.</span></span></div><div class="s1"><span class="heading">The Covenant Renewed at Mount Ebal</span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v29" data-usfm="JOS.8.29"></span><span class="verse v30" data-usfm="JOS.8.30"><span class="label">30</span><span class="content">Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content">, the God of Israel, </span></span><span class="verse v31" data-usfm="JOS.8.31"><span class="label">31</span><span class="content">as Moses the servant of the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses&#8212;an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. </span></span><span class="verse v32" data-usfm="JOS.8.32"><span class="label">32</span><span class="content">There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. </span></span><span class="verse v33" data-usfm="JOS.8.33"><span class="label">33</span><span class="content">All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content">, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v33" data-usfm="JOS.8.33"></span><span class="verse v34" data-usfm="JOS.8.34"><span class="label">34</span><span class="content">Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law&#8212;the blessings and the curses&#8212;just as it is written in the Book of the Law. </span></span><span class="verse v35" data-usfm="JOS.8.35"><span class="label">35</span><span class="content">There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.</span></span></div>
      </div>
   </div>
</div>

New International Version

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
   <div class="book bkEXO">
      <div class="chapter ch20" data-usfm="EXO.20.22+EXO.20.23+EXO.20.24">
         <div class="p"><span class="verse v22" data-usfm="EXO.20.22"><span class="label">22</span><span class="content">Then the </span><span class="nd"><span class="content">Lord</span></span><span class="content"> said to Moses, &#8220;Tell the Israelites this: &#8216;You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: </span></span><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="EXO.20.23"><span class="label">23</span><span class="content">Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.</span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v23" data-usfm="EXO.20.23"></span><span class="verse v24" data-usfm="EXO.20.24"><span class="label">24</span><span class="content">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. </span></span></div>
      </div>
   </div>
</div>

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
   <div class="book bkHEB">
      <div class="chapter ch8" data-usfm="HEB.8.8+HEB.8.9+HEB.8.10+HEB.8.11+HEB.8.12">
         <div class="p"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="HEB.8.8"><span class="label">8</span><span class="content">But God found fault with the people and said</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class="body"><span class="fr">8:8 </span><span class="ft">Some manuscripts may be translated </span><span class="fqa">fault and said to the people.</span></span></span><span class="content">:</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="HEB.8.8"><span class="content">&#8220;The days are coming, declares the Lord,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="HEB.8.8"><span class="content">when I will make a new covenant</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="HEB.8.8"><span class="content">with the people of Israel</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="HEB.8.8"><span class="content">and with the people of Judah.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v8" data-usfm="HEB.8.8"></span><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"><span class="label">9</span><span class="content">It will not be like the covenant</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"><span class="content">I made with their ancestors</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"><span class="content">when I took them by the hand</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"><span class="content">to lead them out of Egypt,</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"><span class="content">because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"><span class="content">and I turned away from them,</span></span></div><div class="q4"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"><span class="content">declares the Lord.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v9" data-usfm="HEB.8.9"></span><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="HEB.8.10"><span class="label">10</span><span class="content">This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="HEB.8.10"><span class="content">after that time, declares the Lord.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="HEB.8.10"><span class="content">I will put my laws in their minds</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="HEB.8.10"><span class="content">and write them on their hearts.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="HEB.8.10"><span class="content">I will be their God,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="HEB.8.10"><span class="content">and they will be my people.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v10" data-usfm="HEB.8.10"></span><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="HEB.8.11"><span class="label">11</span><span class="content">No longer will they teach their neighbor,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="HEB.8.11"><span class="content">or say to one another, &#8216;Know the Lord,&#8217;</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="HEB.8.11"><span class="content">because they will all know me,</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="HEB.8.11"><span class="content">from the least of them to the greatest.</span></span></div><div class="q1"><span class="verse v11" data-usfm="HEB.8.11"></span><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="HEB.8.12"><span class="label">12</span><span class="content">For I will forgive their wickedness</span></span></div><div class="q2"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="HEB.8.12"><span class="content">and will remember their sins no more.&#8221;</span><span class="note f"><span class="label">#</span><span class="body"><span class="fr">8:12 </span><span class="ft"><span class="ref" usfm="JER.31.31+JER.31.32+JER.31.33+JER.31.34">Jer. 31:31-34</span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="p"><span class="verse v12" data-usfm="HEB.8.12"></span></div>
      </div>
   </div>
</div>

Breakthrough: JoshuaSample

Scripture

About this Plan

Related Plans