With the Lord’s anger turned away, the stage is set for a second attempt to take Ai. The Lord encourages Joshua by telling him to go up again to attack Ai, and even promises victory in advance. The Lord instructs Joshua to do to Ai and its king exactly as he did to Jericho and its king; however, he allows livestock to be kept this time as spoil for the Israelites. As for military strategy, the Lord commands an ambush (8:1–2). Here again, the author chooses not to disclose all the detailed instructions concerning the ambush in the Lord’s speech to Joshua. It is only at the end of Joshua’s instructions to the thirty thousand warriors chosen for the mission, when Joshua charges them to do what the Lord has commanded (8:8), that it becomes clear that the entire plan must have originated direc…