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.

²After which, the heralds went through the midst of the camp,

³And 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:

⁴And 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.

⁵And Josue said to the people: Be ye sanctified: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

⁶And 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.

⁷And 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.

⁸And 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.

⁹And Josue said to the children of Israel: Come hither, and hear the word of the Lord your God.

¹⁰And 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.

¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you into the Jordan.

¹²Prepare ye twelve men of the tribes of Israel, one of every tribe.

¹³And 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.

¹⁴So 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.

¹⁵And 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,)

¹⁶The 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.

¹⁷And 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.

Chapter 4

And when they were passed over, the Lord said to Josue:

²Choose twelve men, one of every tribe:

³And command them to take out of the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall set in the place of the camp, where you shall pitch your tents this night.

⁴And Josue called twelve men, whom he had chosen out of the children of Israel, one out of every tribe,

⁵And he said to them: Go before the ark of the Lord your God to the midst of the Jordan, and carry from thence every man a stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel,

⁶That it may be a sign among you: and when your children shall ask you tomorrow, saying: What means these stones?

⁷You shall answer them: The waters of the Jordan ran off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over the same: therefore were these stones set for a monument of the children of Israel forever.

⁸The children of Israel therefore did as Josue commanded them, carrying out of the channel of the Jordan twelve stones, as the Lord had commanded him according to the number of the children of Israel unto the place wherein they camped, and there they set them.

⁹And Josue put other twelve stones in the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the priests stood that carried the ark of the covenant: and they are there until this present day.

¹⁰Now the priests that carried the ark, stood in the midst of the Jordan, till all things were accomplished, which the Lord had commanded Josue to speak to the people, and Moses had said to him. And the people made haste, and passed over.

¹¹And when they had all passed over, the ark also of the Lord passed over, and the priests went before the people.

¹²The children of Ruben also, and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses, went armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had commanded them.

¹³And forty thousand fighting men by their troops and bands, marched through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho.

¹⁴In that day the Lord magnified Josue in the sight of all Israel, that they should fear him, as they had feared Moses, while he lived.

¹⁵And he said to him:

¹⁶Command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan.

¹⁷And he commanded them, saying: Come ye up out of the Jordan.

¹⁸And when they that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, were come up, and began to tread on the dry ground, the waters returned into their channel, and ran as they were wont before.

¹⁹And the people came up out of the Jordan, the tenth day of the first month, and camped in Galgal, over against the east side of the city of Jericho.

²⁰And the twelve stones, which they had taken out of the channel of the Jordan, Josue pitched in Galgal,

²¹And said to the children of Israel: When your children shall ask their fathers tomorrow, and shall say to them: What mean these stones?

²²You shall teach them, and say: Israel passed over this Jordan through the dry channel,

²⁴The Lord your God drying up the waters thereof in your sight, until you passed over: As he had done before in the Red Sea, which he dried up till we passed through:

²⁵That all the people of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of the Lord, that you also may fear the Lord your God for ever.

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