Encouragement of Joshua

1 After the death of Moses^(A) the Lord’s servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun,^(B) Moses’s assistant: ² “Moses my servant is dead.^(C) Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan^(D) to the land I am giving the Israelites. ³ I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads,^(E) just as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon^(F) to the great river, the Euphrates River—all the land of the Hittites^(G)—and west to the Mediterranean Sea.^{(H) 5} No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live.^(I) I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or abandon you.^(J)

⁶ “Be strong and courageous,^(K) for you will distribute the land I swore to their ancestors to give them as an inheritance.^{(L) 7} Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you.^(M) Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. ⁸ This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth;^(N) you are to meditate on^[a] it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.^{(O) 9} Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous?^(P) Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

² “Moses my servant is dead.^(A) Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan^(B) to the land I am giving the Israelites.

Rahab and Her Family Spared

²² Joshua said to the two men who had scouted the land, “Go to the prostitute’s house and bring the woman out of there, and all who are with her, just as you swore to her.”^{(A) 23} So the young men who had scouted went in and brought out Rahab and her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel.

²⁴ They burned the city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. ²⁵ However, Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, and all who belonged to her, because she hid the messengers Joshua had sent to spy on Jericho, and she still lives in Israel^(B) today.^(C)