Joshua 3
Christian Standard Bible
Crossing the Jordan
3 Joshua started early the next morning and left the Acacia Grove[a] with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing. 2 After three days the officers went through the camp(A) 3 and commanded the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical priests,(B) you are to break camp and follow it. 4 But keep a distance of about a thousand yards[b] between yourselves and the ark. Don’t go near it, so that you can see the way to go, for you haven’t traveled this way before.”
5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves,(C) because the Lord will do wonders(D) among you tomorrow.” 6 Then he said to the priests, “Carry the ark of the covenant and go on ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of them.
7 The Lord spoke to Joshua: “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel,(E) so they will know that I will be with you just as I was with Moses.(F) 8 Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant: When you reach the edge of the water,[c] stand in the Jordan.”
9 Then Joshua told the Israelites, “Come closer and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” 10 He said, “You will know that the living God is among you(G) and that he will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hethites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites(H) 11 when the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth(I) goes ahead of you into the Jordan. 12 Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe.(J) 13 When the feet[d] of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of the whole earth, come to rest in the Jordan’s water, its water will be cut off. The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.”(K)
14 When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant(L) ahead of the people. 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season.(M) But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge 16 and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as[e] Adam, a city next to Zarethan. The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah(N)—the Dead Sea—was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan,(O) while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
Joshua 3
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
3 And Josue rose before daylight, and removed the camp: and they departed from Setim, and came to the Jordan, he, and all the children of Israel, and they abode there for three days.
2 After which, the heralds went through the midst of the camp,
3 And began to proclaim: When you shall see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the race of Levi carrying it, rise you up also, and follow them as they go before:
4 And let there be between you and the ark the space of two thousand cubits: that you may see it afar off, and know which way you must go: for you have not gone this way before: and take care you come not near the ark.
5 And Josue said to the people: Be ye sanctified: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
6 And he said to the priests: Take up the ark of the covenant, and go before the people. And they obeyed his commands, and took it up and walked before them.
7 And the Lord said to Josue: This day will I begin to exalt thee before Israel: that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I am with thee also.
8 And do thou command the priests that carry the ark of the covenant, and say to them: When you shall have entered into part of the water of the Jordan, stand in it.
9 And Josue said to the children of Israel: Come hither and hear the word of the Lord your God.
10 And again he said: By this you shall know that the Lord the living God is in the midst of you, and that he shall destroy before your sight the Chanaanite and the Hethite, the Hevite and the Pherezite, the Gergesite also and the Jebusite, and the Amorrhite.
11 Behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you into the Jordan.
12 Prepare ye twelve men of the tribes of Israel, one of every tribe.
13 And when the priests, that carry the ark of the Lord the God of the whole earth, shall set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are beneath shall run down and go off: and those that come from above, shall stand together upon a heap.
14 So the people went out of their tents, to pass over the Jordan: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant. went on before them.
15 And as soon as they came into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in part of the water, (now the Jordan, it being harvest time, had filled the banks of its channel,)
16 The waters that came down from above stood in one place, and swelling up like a mountain, were seen afar off from the city that is called Adom, to the place of Sarthan: but those that were beneath, ran down into the sea of the wilderness (which now is called the Dead Sea) until they wholly failed.
17 And the people marched over against Jericho: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood girded upon the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over through the channel that was dried up.
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