Joshua 1-4

Joshua 1

¹Now after the death of His servant Moses, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying,

²“Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore arise, you and all these people, and cross over the Jordan into the land that I am giving to the children of Israel.

³I have given you every place where the sole of your foot will tread, just as I promised to Moses.

⁴Your territory shall extend from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great River Euphrates—all the land of the Hittites—and west as far as the Great Sea.

⁵No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

⁶Be strong and courageous, for you shall give these people the inheritance of the land that I swore to their fathers I would give them.

⁷Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

⁸This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

⁹Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

¹⁰Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people:

¹¹“Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you will cross the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.’”

¹²But to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said,

¹³“Remember what Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you when he said, ‘The LORD your God will give you rest, and He will give you this land.’

¹⁴Your wives, your young children, and your livestock may remain in the land that Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But all your mighty men of valor must be armed for battle to cross over ahead of your brothers and help them,

¹⁵until the LORD gives them rest as He has done for you, and your brothers also possess the land that the LORD your God is giving them. Then you may return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of that which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the east side of the Jordan.”

¹⁶So they answered Joshua, “Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go.

¹⁷Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. And may the LORD your God be with you, as He was with Moses.

¹⁸Anyone who rebels against your order and does not obey your words, all that you command him, will be put to death. Above all, be strong and courageous!”

Joshua 2

¹Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

²And it was reported to the king of Jericho: “Behold, some men of Israel have come here tonight to spy out the land.”

³So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.”

⁴But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from.

⁵At dusk, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I do not know which way they went. Pursue them quickly, and you may catch them!”

⁶(But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)

⁷So the king’s men set out in pursuit of the spies along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they had gone out, the gate was shut.

⁸Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof

⁹and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.

¹⁰For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

¹¹When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

¹²Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD that you will indeed show kindness to my family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign

¹³that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will deliver us from death.”

¹⁴“Our lives for your lives!” the men agreed. “If you do not report our mission, we will show you kindness and faithfulness when the LORD gives us the land.”

¹⁵Then Rahab let them down by a rope through the window, since the house where she lived was built into the wall of the city.

¹⁶“Go to the hill country,” she said, “so that your pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there for three days until they have returned; then go on your way.”

¹⁷The men said to her, “We will not be bound by this oath you made us swear

¹⁸unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother and brothers and all your family into your house.

¹⁹If anyone goes out the door of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be innocent. But if a hand is laid on anyone with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads.

²⁰And if you report our mission, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

²¹“Let it be as you say,” she replied, and she sent them away. And when they had gone, she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

²²So the spies went out into the hill country and stayed there three days, until their pursuers had returned without finding them, having searched all along the road.

²³Then the two men started back, came down from the hill country, and crossed the river. So they came to Joshua son of Nun and reported all that had happened to them.

²⁴“The LORD has surely delivered the entire land into our hands,” they said to Joshua. “Indeed, all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of us.”

Joshua 3

¹Early the next morning Joshua got up and left Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.

²After three days the officers went through the camp

³and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, you are to set out from your positions and follow it.

⁴But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between yourselves and the ark. Do not go near it, so that you can see the way to go, since you have never traveled this way before.”

⁵Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

⁶And he said to the priests, “Take 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.

⁷Now the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.

⁸Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the waters, stand in the Jordan.’”

⁹So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.”

¹⁰He continued, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that He will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.

¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go ahead of you into the Jordan.

¹²Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.

¹³When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”

¹⁴So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.

¹⁵Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,

¹⁶the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

¹⁷The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation had crossed the Jordan.

Joshua 4

¹When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,

²“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,

³and command them: ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing, carry them with you, and set them down in the place where you spend the night.’”

⁴So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,

⁵and said to them, “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel,

⁶to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’

⁷you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”

⁸Thus the Israelites did as Joshua had commanded them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each tribe of Israel, just as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them to the camp, where they set them down.

⁹Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.

¹⁰Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across,

¹¹and after everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the LORD crossed in the sight of the people.

¹²The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over before the Israelites, armed for battle as Moses had instructed them.

¹³About 40,000 troops armed for battle crossed over before the LORD into the plains of Jericho.

¹⁴On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.

¹⁵Then the LORD said to Joshua,

¹⁶“Command the priests who carry the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.”

¹⁷So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up from the Jordan.”

¹⁸When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up out of the Jordan and their feet touched the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their course and overflowed all the banks as before.

¹⁹On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

²⁰And there at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.

²¹Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’

²²you are to tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

²³For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as He did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over.

²⁴He did this so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and so that you may always fear the LORD your God.”