Joshua 3:1–5:15

Israel Crosses the Jordan

3Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out ^afrom ¹Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. ²So it was, ^bafter three days, that the officers went through the camp; ³and they commanded the people, saying, ^c“When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, ^dand the priests, the Levites, ²bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. ^4eYet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”

⁵And Joshua said to the people, ^f“Sanctify ³yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” ⁶Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, ^g“Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.”

So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

⁷And the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to ^hexalt ⁴you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, ⁱas I was with Moses, so I will be with you. ⁸You shall command ^jthe priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, ^kyou shall stand in the Jordan.’ ”

⁹So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” ¹⁰And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that ^lthe living God is among you, and that He will without fail ^mdrive out from before you the ⁿCanaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: ¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of ^othe Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. ¹²Now therefore, ^ptake for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. ¹³And it shall come to pass, ^qas soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, ^rthe Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they ^sshall stand as a heap.”

¹⁴So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ^tark of the covenant before the people, ¹⁵and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and ^uthe feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the ^vJordan overflows all its banks ^wduring the whole time of harvest), ¹⁶that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away ⁵at Adam, the city that is beside ^xZaretan. So the waters that went down ^yinto the Sea of the Arabah, ^zthe Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; ^aand all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

The Memorial Stones

4And it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed ^aover the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying: ^2b“Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, ³and command them, saying, ‘Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where ^cthe priests’ feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in ^dthe lodging place where you lodge tonight.’ ”

⁴Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; ⁵and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, ⁶that this may be ^ea sign among you ^fwhen your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷Then you shall answer them that ^gthe waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for ^ha memorial to the children of Israel forever.”

⁸And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. ⁹Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.

¹⁰So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and crossed over. ¹¹Then it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over, that the ⁱark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people. ¹²And ^jthe men of Reuben, the men of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them. ¹³About forty thousand ¹prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho. ¹⁴On that day the Lord ^kexalted ²Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life.

¹⁵Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, ¹⁶“Command the priests who bear ^lthe ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁷Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁸And it came to pass, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place ^mand overflowed all its banks as before.

¹⁹Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped ⁿin Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. ²⁰And ^othose twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. ²¹Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: ^p“When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ ²²then you shall let your children know, saying, ^q‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on ^rdry land’; ²³for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, ^swhich He dried up before us until we had crossed over, ^24tthat all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is ^umighty, that you may ^vfear the Lord your God ³forever.”

The Second Generation Circumcised

5So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites ^awho were by the sea, ^bheard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until ¹we had crossed over, that ²their heart melted; ^cand there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel.

²At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make ^dflint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” ³So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and circumcised the sons of Israel at ³the hill of the foreskins. ⁴And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: ^eAll the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. ⁵For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. ⁶For the children of Israel walked ^fforty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were ⁴consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that ^gHe would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, ^h“a land flowing with milk and honey.” ⁷Then Joshua circumcised ⁱtheir sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.

⁸So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp ^jtill they were healed. ⁹Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away ^kthe reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called ^lGilgal ⁵to this day.

¹⁰Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover ^mon the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. ¹¹And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and ⁶parched grain, on the very same day. ¹²Then ⁿthe manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

The Commander of the Army of the Lord

¹³And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, ^oa Man stood opposite him ^pwith His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”

¹⁴So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

And Joshua ^qfell on his face to the earth and ^rworshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”

¹⁵Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ^s“Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.