Joshua 3–5

CHAPTER 3

Israel Crosses the Jordan

¹Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and he and all the sons of Israel set out from ^aShittim and came to the Jordan, and they lodged there before they crossed.

^2aNow it happened that at the end of three days the officers went through the midst of the camp;

³and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ^aark of the covenant of Yahweh your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

⁴“However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about ¹2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”

⁵Then Joshua said to the people, “^aSet yourselves apart as holy, for tomorrow Yahweh will do wondrous deeds among you.”

⁶And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Carry the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

⁷Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to ^amagnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.

⁸“Moreover, you shall command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

⁹Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Come near, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.”

¹⁰And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that ^athe living God is among you, and that He will assuredly ^bdispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite.

¹¹“Behold, the ark of the covenant of ^athe Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan.

¹²“So now, ^atake for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe.

¹³“And it will be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are ¹flowing down from above ²will ^astand in one heap.”

¹⁴So it happened that when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying ^athe ark of the covenant before the people,

¹⁵and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the ^aJordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest),

^16athe waters which were ¹flowing down from above stood and rose up in ^bone heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were ²flowing down toward the sea of the ^cArabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho.

¹⁷And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm ^aon dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground until all the nation had completed crossing the Jordan.

CHAPTER 4

Memorial Stones from the Jordan

¹Now it happened when all the nation had completed crossing the ^aJordan, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,

²“^aTake for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe,

³and command them, saying, ‘Carry for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in ^athe lodging place where you will lodge tonight.’”

⁴So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe;

⁵and Joshua said to them, “¹Cross again before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you carry a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel,

⁶in order that this would be a sign among you, so that ^awhen your children ask ¹later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’

⁷then you shall say to them, ‘Because the ^awaters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a ^bmemorial to the sons of Israel forever.”

⁸Thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded and carried twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to ^athe lodging place and laid them down there.

⁹But Joshua set up twelve ^astones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day.

¹⁰Now the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that Yahweh had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed.

¹¹And it happened when all the people had completed crossing, that the ark of Yahweh and the priests crossed before the people.

^12aAnd the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them;

¹³about 40,000 equipped for war crossed for battle before Yahweh to the desert plains of Jericho.

^14aOn that day, Yahweh magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, so that they ¹feared him, just as they had ²feared Moses all the days of his life.

¹⁵Then Yahweh said to ¹Joshua,

¹⁶“Command the priests who carry ^athe ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.”

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

¹⁸So it happened when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were ¹lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went over all its banks as before.

¹⁹Now the people came up from the Jordan on the ^atenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.

^201aAnd those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up ^bat Gilgal.

²¹Then he said to the sons of ¹Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean?’

²²then you shall make your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on ^adry land.’

²³“For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as Yahweh your God had done to the ¹Red Sea, ^awhich He dried up before us until we had crossed,

²⁴that ^aall the peoples of the earth may know that the ^bhand of Yahweh is strong, so that you may ^1cfear Yahweh your God ²forever.”

CHAPTER 5

The Men of Israel Circumcised

¹Now it happened when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the ^aCanaanites who were by the sea, ^bheard how Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until ¹they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

²At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make for yourself ^aflint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.”

³So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at ¹Gibeath-haaraloth.

⁴Now this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: ^aall the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way when they came out of Egypt.

⁵For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

⁶For the sons of Israel had walked ^aforty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, were completely destroyed because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh, ^bto whom Yahweh had sworn that He would not let them see the land which Yahweh had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁷And their sons whom He raised up in their place, Joshua ¹circumcised; for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them along the way.

⁸Now it happened that when they had completed circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were ¹healed.

⁹Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away ^athe reproach of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is called ¹Gilgal to this day.

¹⁰Then the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal and ^acelebrated the Passover on the evening of the ^bfourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho.

¹¹And on the ¹day after the Passover, on ²that very day, they ate some of the yield of the land, unleavened cakes and roasted grain.

^12aThen the manna ceased on the ¹day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the produce of the land of Canaan during that year.

Commander of Yahweh’s Host

¹³Now it happened when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, ^aa man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”

¹⁴He said, “No! Rather I indeed come now as commander of the host of Yahweh.” And Joshua ^afell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his slave?”

¹⁵The commander of the host of Yahweh said to Joshua, “^aRemove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.