In the clause So Joshua sent them out, it may be beneficial to remind the reader that them refers back to the thirty thousand of his best troops mentioned in verse 3. One may then translate “So Joshua sent out the thirty thousand men.” Assuming that the information of this clause is clearly implicit, one may also translate “According to Joshua’s instructions, they went….”

Because of the two appositional statements (west of Ai and between Ai and Bethel) it may be to the reader’s advantage if the sentence is divided into two parts and somewhat restructured: “So Joshua sent the men out to their hiding place, which was west of Ai in the direction of Bethel. The men went there and waited all night.” Joshua spends the night “among the people” (Revised Standard Version), that is, in camp (Good News Translation).The Hebrew for “the people” is haam; some scholars believe this should be emended to haemeq “the valley,” as in verse 13. So New American Bible.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .