Beginning
God tells Joshua what to do
1 The Lord's servant, Moses, had died.[a] Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, son of Nun, who had helped Moses in his work. 2 The Lord said to Joshua,
‘Moses, my servant, is dead. Now you and all these people must get ready to cross the Jordan River. Lead the people of Israel into the land that I am giving to them. 3 I have given to you every part of the ground that you walk on. I promised Moses that I would do this. 4 You will have all the land from the desert in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north. It will be from the river Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea on the west. You will have all the land of the Hittite people. 5 No one can stop you from taking this land as long as you live. As I was with Moses, I will always be with you. I will never leave you alone.
6 Be strong and do not be afraid. You will lead these people to take the land. That is the land that I promised to give to their ancestors. 7 Be strong and do not be afraid. Be very careful to do all the things that Moses commanded you to do. Then everything will go well with you, everywhere that you go. 8 You must keep on speaking about the words of God's law. Think about what it says, all the time. Be careful to obey it. Then you will do well, and you will win. 9 Remember that I have told you this: Be strong and do not be afraid. Do not be weak but be brave. I, the Lord your God, will be with you, everywhere that you go.’
Joshua speaks to the Israelites
10 So Joshua commanded the leaders of the people, 11 ‘Go through all the places where the people live. Tell them to get food ready for a journey. In three days, you will cross the Jordan River. You will begin to take the land for yourselves. This is the land that the Lord your God is ready to give to you.’
12 Joshua said to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, 13 ‘Remember what Moses, the Lord's servant, told you. The Lord your God is giving to you a place to rest safely.[b] He has given this land to you. 14 Your wives, children and animals can stay in this land that Moses gave to you, on the east side of the Jordan River. But your strong men must cross the river, with their weapons. They must go in front of the other Israelite tribes. You must help them 15 until the Lord gives them a place to rest, as he has already given to you. When all the other tribes are safe in the land, you may return to the land east of the Jordan. Moses gave this land to you.’
16 The people said to Joshua, ‘We will do whatever you tell us. And we will go wherever you send us. 17 As we always obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. The Lord your God was with Moses. So we pray that the Lord will be with you too. 18 If anyone turns against you and he does not obey your commands, we will make sure that he dies. You must be very strong and brave.’
Rahab helps two men of Israel
2 Then Joshua sent two men to go out from Shittim. He sent them in secret to see what the land was like. He told them, ‘Go! Look at all the land. Look very carefully at Jericho city.’
When they came to Jericho city, they arrived at the house of a prostitute. Her name was Rahab. They stayed there.[c]
2 Some people told the king of Jericho, ‘Look! Some Israelite men have come here tonight to see what our land is like.’ 3 So the king of Jericho sent a message to Rahab. He said, ‘Bring out the men who are staying in your house. They have come secretly to see what all our land is like!’
4 But Rahab had hidden the two men. She replied, ‘Yes, some men did come to me. I did not know where they had come from. 5 When it was nearly time to close the gate of the city for the night, they left. I do not know where they went. If you chase after them quickly, you may catch them.’ 6 But she had taken the men up to the roof. She had hidden them under some straw that she had put there.
7 So the king's officers went out of the city to try to find the two Israelite men. They went along the road to the Jordan River, to the place where the road crosses the river. As soon as they had left, people shut the city gate.
8 Rahab went up to the roof of her house. She spoke to the men as they prepared to sleep. 9 She said to them, ‘I know that the Lord has given this land to you. Everyone here is afraid of you Israelites. Everyone who lives in this land is very frightened. 10 We heard how the Lord caused the water of the Red Sea to become dry. In that way he brought you out of Egypt. We heard what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites. We heard how you destroyed them completely on the east side of the Jordan River. 11 When we heard what you had done, we were very frightened. We know that we are not strong enough to fight against you because the Lord, your God, is God. He rules everything in heaven and on earth.
12 Now, please use the Lord's name to make a strong promise. I have been kind to you. So promise me that you will be kind to my family. Show me that you will certainly do what you have promised. 13 When you attack this city, do not kill my family. Save the lives of my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.’
14 The men replied, ‘We promise to do that. If anyone kills you or your family, may we die too! Do not tell anyone about us. When the Lord gives us this land, we will be kind to you. We will save your lives.’
15 So Rahab put a rope out through the window of her house. (The house that she lived in was part of the city wall.) The men climbed down the rope. 16 Rahab told them, ‘Go to the hills. The men who are chasing you will not find you there. Hide there for three days until they return to this city. Then you can go back to your people.’
17 The men said to her, ‘If you do what we say, we will do what we have promised. 18 We will soon attack this land. So tie this red string in the window that we came through.[d] Bring your father, your mother, your brothers and sisters and all your family into your house. 19 If any of them leaves your house, they may die. If that happens, we will not be guilty. We will only be guilty if our soldiers hurt anyone who is in your house. 20 But if you tell anyone about us, we do not have to do what we have promised to you.’
21 Rahab said, ‘I agree with what you have said.’ She sent the men away. When they had gone, she tied the red string in her window.
22 The two Israelite men went into the hills and they hid there. The king's officers looked along the road for them for three days. They did not find them, so they returned to Jericho. 23 Then the two men came down from the hills and they crossed the Jordan River. They went back to Joshua. They told him everything that had happened. 24 They said to him, ‘We are sure that the Lord has given us the whole land. All the people there are very frightened of us.’
The people cross the Jordan
3 Early the next morning, Joshua and all the Israelites left Shittim. They put up their tents beside the Jordan River. They waited to cross the river.
2 Three days later, the Israelite leaders went to every tent. 3 They commanded the people, ‘The Levite priests will carry the Covenant Box of the Lord your God. When you see them, you must leave here and you must follow them. 4 They will show you the way to go because you have never been here before. But do not go too near to the Covenant Box. Stay about 1,000 metres behind it.’
5 Joshua said to the people, ‘Make yourselves ready to serve the Lord as his holy people. Tomorrow, the Lord will do great miracles among you.’
6 He said to the priests, ‘Pick up the Covenant Box, and carry it in front of the people.’ So they picked it up, and they went on in front of the people.
7 Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I will begin to make all the Israelite people respect you. They will know that I am with you, in the same way that I was with Moses. 8 The priests that are carrying the Covenant Box must go to the shore of the Jordan River. Tell them to go into the water and to stand there.’
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, ‘Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 The God who lives for ever is with you. He will certainly chase the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites out from this land.[e] Then you will have their land. The Lord will show you that he will certainly do this. 11 Look now! The Covenant Box of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan River in front of you. 12 Now choose 12 men, one from each tribe of Israel's family. 13 Watch the priests who are carrying the Covenant Box. As soon as their feet touch the water of the river, you will see that the water stops running. It will rise up like a wall.’
14 So the Israelite people prepared to leave their tents. The priests carried the Covenant Box towards the Jordan River. The people followed them. 15 It was the time of the harvest and there was a lot of water coming down the river. But when the priests reached the shore of the river with the Covenant Box and their feet touched the water, 16 the water stopped. It stopped a long way up the river, at a town called Adam. That is near Zarethan. The water going down to the Salt Sea stopped completely. So the people crossed the river near Jericho city. 17 The priests stood in the middle of the river on dry ground, with the Lord's Covenant Box. While they stood there, all the Israelite people walked across the river on dry ground. In that way, the whole nation arrived on the other side of the river.
4 When the whole Israelite nation had crossed the Jordan River, the Lord spoke to Joshua. 2 He said, ‘Choose 12 men from the people, one from each tribe. 3 Tell them, “Pick up 12 stones from the middle of the river. Take them from the place where the priests are standing. Carry the stones with you to the shore. Put them in the place where you stay tonight.” ’
4 So Joshua called the 12 men that he had chosen, one from each Israelite tribe. 5 He said to them, ‘Go into the middle of the river, beyond the Lord's Covenant Box. Each of you must pick up a stone and put it on his shoulder. There will be one stone for each of the Israelite tribes. 6 The heap of stones will help you to remember what happened today. In future years, your children will ask you, “What do these stones mean?” 7 Then you will tell them that the water in the Jordan River stopped where the Lord's Covenant Box was. When the priests carried the Covenant Box into the river, the water stopped. These stones will help the people of Israel to remember this for ever.’
8 So the 12 men obeyed Joshua's command. They took 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan River, as the Lord had told Joshua. There was one stone for each Israelite tribe. They carried the stones to the place where the people had put their tents. They put the stones down there. 9 Joshua also made a heap of 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan River. He put them in the place where the priests with the Covenant Box had stood. Those stones are still there today.[f]
10 The priests had carried the Covenant Box into the middle of the river. They stood there while the people did everything that the Lord had told Joshua. That is what Moses had also told Joshua.
The people crossed over the river quickly. 11 As soon as everybody was on the other side, the priests also took the Covenant Box to the other side. The people watched them as they did this. 12 The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh led the people across. They were all ready to fight, as Moses had told them.[g] 13 About 40,000 men who had weapons crossed to the flat land near Jericho. They marched past the Lord's Covenant Box.
14 That day the Lord caused all the Israelite people to respect Joshua. They respected him all his life, as they had respected Moses.
15 Then the Lord said to Joshua, 16 ‘Tell the priests who are carrying the Covenant Box to come up out of the Jordan River.’
17 So Joshua told the priests, ‘Come up out of the Jordan.’ 18 So the priests came up from the middle of the river. They were carrying the Lord's Covenant Box. As soon as their feet touched the dry ground on the shore, the water of the Jordan ran again. There was so much water that it made a flood, like before.
19 On the tenth day of the first month, the people left the shore of the Jordan River. They put up their tents at a place called Gilgal. That was on the east side of Jericho city. 20 At Gilgal, Joshua made a heap with the 12 stones that they had taken out of the Jordan River. 21 He said to the Israelite people, ‘In future years, your children will ask you, “What do these stones mean?” 22 Then you must tell them, “We Israelites went across the Jordan River on dry ground.” 23 Yes, you have seen what the Lord your God has done. He made the Jordan River become dry, so that you could cross over it. That was like he did to the Red Sea, so that we could cross it when we left Egypt. 24 The Lord has done this so that all the nations of the world can see how powerful he is. He did it so that you would always obey him, the Lord your God.’
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