Beginning
1 Moses served the Eternal One faithfully until the end of his days. After his death, the Eternal singled out Joshua, the son of Nun, who had walked at the right hand of Moses during the wilderness wanderings.
Eternal One (to Joshua): 2 Since My servant Moses is now dead, you and the Israelites must prepare to cross over the Jordan River to enter the land I have given you. 3 I will give you every place you walk, wherever your feet touch, just as I promised Moses.[a] 4 From the southern deserts to the northern mountains in Lebanon, from the great Euphrates River in the east—including all the land of the Hittites—to the great Mediterranean Sea in the west, all of it is yours. 5 No one will be able to oppose you for as long as you live. I will be with you just as I was with Moses, and I will never fail or abandon you.
6 So be strong and courageous, for you will lead this people as they acquire and then divide the land I promised to their ancestors. 7 Always be strong and courageous, and always live by all of the law I gave to my servant Moses, never turning from it—even ever so slightly—so that you may succeed wherever you go. 8 Let the words from the book of the law be always on your lips. Meditate on them day and night so that you may be careful to live by all that is written in it. If you do, as you make your way through this world, you will prosper and always find success.
9 This is My command: be strong and courageous. Never be afraid or discouraged because I am your God, the Eternal One, and I will remain with you wherever you go.
Joshua is following in the footsteps of the famous prophet, Moses, who led the people of Israel out of Egypt. It is a journey that will lead them where God wants them—in the lands He has long ago promised to the descendants of the patriarch Abraham. Although mighty people occupy the lands, God tells the Israelites that the land will be theirs, if they only believe. Joshua is reminded often enough of the wanderings in the desert following Moses. It’s an intimidating thing to follow a legend, but the charge God gives Joshua also gives him what he needs to succeed: Be strong and courageous, and keep the words of God always in front of you. If you do those things, then you can’t go wrong. And if you do those things, God says He will be with you.
10 When Joshua had heard God’s commands, he gathered the leaders of the people of Israel and gave them their instructions.
Joshua (to all the leaders): 11 Go through the camp and tell your people, “Gather whatever you need because in three days you will pass over the Jordan into the land the Eternal One, your God, has given you to possess. Soon it will be ours.”
12 Then Joshua spoke to the leaders of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Joshua: 13 Remember what Moses, the servant of the Eternal, told you: “The Eternal One, your God, is making a place for you to settle and will give you this land as your own.”
14 Your wives, your children, and your livestock will stay on this side of the Jordan in this land that Moses awarded you. But all of you who can fight must lead your brothers in battle formation over the Jordan and help them 15 until the Eternal gives them rest from their enemies, as He has given rest to you. Fight with them until they, too, occupy the land your God, the Eternal One, is setting aside for them. Then you may cross the Jordan again and return to this land that Moses, His servant, has given you east of the Jordan and live here.
Leaders (agreeing): 16 We will do all you have commanded, and we will go wherever you send us. 17 We will follow your orders just as we obeyed Moses in all he told us. May the Eternal One, your God, be with you as He was with Moses. 18 Anybody who rebels against or disobeys your words—all you command—will be put to death. Always be strong and courageous!
Joshua has the promise of God that the Israelites will succeed, and the people have taken to his leadership with enthusiasm. They have begun well, and their faith will keep them strong. But in the conquest story they cannot expect God to do everything. A prayer from the Christian and Jewish traditions reminds us: Pray as if everything depends upon God; work as if everything depends upon us. Throughout the story of God’s people, the partnership between human beings’ faith and God’s power leads to God’s purposes being fulfilled in human lives.
2 Then Joshua, the son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim to the western side of the Jordan.
Joshua: Go in, and see what you can find out about the people in that area. Pay special attention to the city of Jericho.
The men crossed the river, and when they entered Jericho, they stayed at the home of a prostitute named Rahab.
2-3 Somehow word reached the king of Jericho that Israelite spies had slipped into the area and might be visiting Rahab. That night the king sent soldiers to Rahab’s house with a message.
Messengers: The king commands you to turn over the Israelite men who are staying with you because they are here to spy on all the land and its defenses.
4 But Rahab had already hidden the two spies before she received the king’s messengers.
Rahab: It’s true that two men have been to see me. But I didn’t take the time to ask them where they came from. 5 All I know is that when it was getting dark outside and the gate was about to close, they got up and left. I don’t know where they went from here. If you hurry, you might still catch up to them.
6 She was lying, because the two men lay where she had hidden them beneath the stalks of flax laid out on her roof.
7 The soldiers ordered the gate opened long enough for them to pass through; then the gate was closed. They took the road that went straight toward the narrowest parts of the Jordan, which would be the easiest place for the spies to cross.
8 But the two spies were still on Rahab’s roof. She came up and found them awake.
Rahab: 9 I know the Eternal has given your people this land. Your coming has paralyzed us all with fear. 10 We have heard how the Eternal held back the Red Sea so you could escape from Egypt on dry land and how you completely destroyed the Amorite kings, Sihon and Og—and their kingdoms—on the far side of the Jordan. 11 As soon as this news reached us, our hearts melted like wax and none of us had an ounce of courage left. The Eternal One, your God, is truly God of the heavens above and the earth below.
12 Because I know all these things, this is my request: Since I have treated you kindly and have protected you, please promise me by the Eternal that you will do the same for my family. Give me some sign of good faith 13 that when you destroy this city you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and their families from death.
Spies: 14 You had the power to turn us in, but you saved us. Now we will do the same for you. If you will promise not to tell anyone what we were doing here, then you have our word: we will treat you with kindness and faithfulness when the Eternal One gives us the land.
15 Since the rear wall of her house was actually part of the great city wall, she helped the men escape by simply lowering a rope for them from her window. 16 Before they climbed down, she advised them to go into the mountains.
Rahab: That way you won’t be where the soldiers expect you to be. If you’ll hide there for three days, the pursuers should have returned here by then and you can go back safely.
Spies: 17 We will keep the oath we have sworn to you, but 18 only if you will follow these instructions: Gather all of your family here in this house, and tie this scarlet cord in the window where you let us down. 19 If anyone goes out of the house and into the streets, then we can’t be responsible for what happens to them. They will be killed, and their blood will be on their hands, not on ours. We will be responsible if anything should happen to anyone you gather in here. 20 But remember—all of this depends on you keeping your word. If you tell anyone our business, you will free us from our oath.
Rahab: 21 Agreed.
The men climbed down and escaped into the night, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
The story of Rahab reminds us that throughout the history of Israel, unexpected people have stepped to the foreground to be used by God. Rahab is a woman in a male-centered world; and she is a prostitute, the kind of person we typically vilify. But if she doesn’t rescue these men—and help them escape with the information they have gained—this first campaign in the land of Canaan will fail, and the larger outcome may be complicated—or worse. Her reward is life for herself and those she loves, which tells us that even in a war story like this one, God can be merciful.
22 The spies climbed into the mountains, just as Rahab had advised them, and they stayed for three days. During that time Jericho’s soldiers combed the countryside and watched the road heading east looking for them. Finally they went back to the city. 23 So the two spies came down from their hiding place, crossed over the Jordan, and returned to Joshua (son of Nun), where they told him what had happened.
Spies: 24 There is no doubt that the Eternal One has delivered all the land and its citizens into our hands. Everyone there is scared to death about our coming.
3 Early the next morning, with Joshua leading them, the Israelites broke camp, left Shittim, and traveled to the eastern bank of the Jordan to set up camp again before crossing the river. 2 Three days later, the leaders went through the camp 3-4 and gave the Israelites their marching orders.
They camped where Balaam had come to curse Israel and where the men of Israel had gone after the Moabite prostitutes (Numbers 22–25).
Leaders: Tomorrow, you will know it is time to go when you see the Levite priests carrying the covenant chest of the Eternal One, your God. Follow the chest so that you will know where you’re supposed to go because you have not been this way before. But stay about half a mile away from it. Don’t come any nearer than that as you march.
Joshua (to the people): 5 Do all the ritual purifications and prepare yourselves because tomorrow the Eternal will show you wonders.
6 Joshua told the priests from the tribe of Levi to pick up the covenant chest and to walk in front of the people, so the priests lifted the chest and carried it to the front of the procession.
Eternal One (to Joshua): 7 Today I will do wonders that will begin to show the Israelites that you have My special favor, that I am with you just as I was with Moses before you. 8 At your command, the priests will carry the covenant chest into the edge of the Jordan water and they are to stand there in the Jordan, waiting.
9 So Joshua called the Israelites together.
Joshua: Come closer, and hear what your God, the Eternal, has to say: 10 Today you will see a sign that the one, true living God is present among you, the God who will without doubt drive out all this land’s inhabitants: Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. 11 The covenant chest of the Lord of all the earth will pass in front of you into the Jordan River. 12 Now select twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel. 13 When the priests who bear the covenant chest of the Eternal, who is Lord over all the earth, step into the river, then you will see the waters of the Jordan stop as if behind a wall.
14 So the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the covenant chest before them. 15 During harvest time the Jordan is swollen, running over its banks; but when the priests stepped into the river’s edge, 16-17 the waters stopped, piling upstream at the city of Adam, near Zarethan, while the water flowing downstream toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, ran out. Then the Israelites crossed the Jordan opposite the city of Jericho, walking on dry land just as Moses had led their ancestors from Egypt. While the Israelites crossed on the dry riverbed, the priests who carried the covenant chest stood firmly in the middle of the Jordan until the last Israelite had crossed over.
4 When the last one had crossed the Jordan, the Eternal One spoke to Joshua.
Eternal One: 2 Summon the twelve men you chose from the people, one representing each tribe, 3 and tell them to take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan riverbed where the priests stand with the covenant chest. Tell them to carry these stones this day, and when the people make camp tonight, to lay them down.
4 Joshua did just as He instructed and summoned the twelve men, who had been chosen from the Israelites to represent the twelve tribes, 5 to give them instructions.
Joshua: Go back into the Jordan riverbed to the covenant chest of the Eternal your God, and each carry a stone upon your shoulder, (twelve stones for the twelve tribes of the Israelites) 6 so that we may build a memorial of this day. Someday when your children ask you, “Why are these stones piled up here?” 7 you will tell them how the waters of the Jordan parted as the covenant chest of the Eternal One crossed the river, and these stones will fix that memory for the Israelites forever.
Memory is important in the Book of Joshua and in the stories that follow. When the people of Israel remember God’s promises—and His goodness—good things happen. But when they forget, they turn to other things for meaning; they put their trust in other gods—money, power, position, and possessions. It’s been a problem for the people of God up to the present day, so these attempts to remember can remind us about God’s great works. It has always been true that when God’s people take their eyes off Him, they forget the lessons of the past. We honor God through our worship, and we are reminded of significant lessons learned when we praise Him.
8 The Israelites did as the Eternal commanded through Joshua. They carried twelve stones from the riverbed that day, one for each Israelite tribe, and laid them down that night when they made their camp. 9 Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who had carried the covenant chest stood, and the stones remain there to this day.
10 The priests who carried the chest stood in the Jordan until all the people had hurried across, until all had been accomplished that the Eternal and Moses had commanded Joshua to tell the people.
11 Only then, when all of the people had passed, did the priests bearing the chest of the Eternal cross over into the presence of the people.
12-13 On the western side of the Jordan stood about 40,000 men ready for battle, including fighters from the people of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh who had crossed onto the plains of Jericho in the presence of the Eternal, as they had been commanded by Moses. 14 That day the Eternal exalted Joshua in the eyes of the people, and they looked up to him (as they had looked up to Moses before him) for the rest of his life.
15 Then the Eternal One told Joshua,
Eternal One: 16 Command the priests who are carrying the covenant chest to come out of the Jordan.
17 Joshua gave the order.
18 As the people watched, the priests carried the chest of the Eternal up out of the Jordan; and as soon as they had stepped out of the riverbed, the river was filled and overflowing, just as it had been before.
19 The Israelites crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. 20 This was where Joshua set up the twelve stones from the Jordan riverbed. 21 He summoned the people of Israel.
Joshua: Someday your children will ask you, “What do these stones mean?” 22 And you will tell them, “Israel crossed the Jordan here on dry ground.” 23 For the Eternal One, your God, dried up the waters of the Jordan until you crossed over (just as He held back the Red Sea for our parents until they crossed) 24 so that everyone on earth would know how powerful the Eternal is and so that you would reverence your God, the Eternal, forever.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.