¹⁹ On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal^(A) on the eastern border of Jericho. ²⁰ And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones^(B) they had taken out of the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’^{(C) 22} tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’^{(D) 23} For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea^[a] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.^{(E) 24} He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know^(F) that the hand of the Lord is powerful^(G) and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.^(H)”

5 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast^(I) heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they^[b] had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear^(J) and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

¹⁰ On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month,^(A) while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover.^{(B) 11} The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land:^(C) unleavened bread^(D) and roasted grain.^{(E) 12} The manna stopped the day after^[a] they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.^(F)

The Fall of Jericho

¹³ Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man^(G) standing in front of him with a drawn sword^(H) in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

¹⁴ “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown^(I) to the ground^(J) in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord^[b] have for his servant?”

¹⁵ The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.”^(K) And Joshua did so.