God Chooses Joshua to Lead Israel

1 Moses was the Lord’s servant. Joshua son of Nun was Moses’ helper. After Moses died, the Lord spoke to Joshua. The Lord said, ²“My servant Moses is dead. Now you and these people must go across the Jordan River. You must go into the land I am giving to you, the people of Israel. ³I promised Moses that I would give you this land. So, I will give you that land wherever you go. ⁴All the land of the Hittite people, from the desert and Lebanon all the way to the Great River (that is, the Euphrates River) will be yours. And all the land from here to the Mediterranean Sea in the west (that is, the place where the sun sets) will be within your borders. ⁵I will be with you the same as I was with Moses. No person will be able to stop you all your life. I will not abandon you. I will never leave you. ⁶“Joshua, you must be strong and brave! You must lead these people so they can take their land. I promised their fathers that I would give them this land. ⁷But you must also be strong and brave about another thing. You must be sure to obey the commands my servant Moses gave you. If you follow his teachings exactly, then you will be successful in everything you do. ⁸Always remember the things written in that book of law. Study that book day and night. Then you can be sure to obey the things that are written there. If you do this, then you will be wise and successful in everything you do. ⁹Remember, I commanded you to be strong and brave. So don’t be scared, because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Joshua Takes Command

¹⁰So Joshua gave orders to the leaders of the people. He said, ¹¹“Go through the camp and tell the people to get ready. Say to the people, ‘Get some food ready. Three days from now we will go across the Jordan River. We will go and take the land that the Lord your God is giving you.’” ¹²Then Joshua spoke to the family groups of Reuben, Gad, and half of the family group of Manasseh. Joshua said, ¹³“Remember what the Lord’s servant Moses told you. He said that the Lord your God would give you a place to rest. The Lord will give you that land! ¹⁴In fact, the Lord has already given you this land east of the Jordan River. Your wives and children can stay in this land with your animals. But your fighting men must cross the Jordan River with your brothers. You must be ready for war and help them {take their land}. ¹⁵The Lord gave you a place to rest, and he will do the same for your brothers. But you must help them until they get the land that the Lord their God is giving them. Then you can come back to your own land, the land east of the Jordan River. The Lord’s servant Moses gave you that land.” ¹⁶Then the people answered Joshua, “We will do whatever you command us to do! We will go wherever you tell us to go! ¹⁷We will obey whatever you say, the same as we obeyed Moses. We only ask one thing from the Lord. We ask that the Lord your God will be with you the same as he was with Moses. ¹⁸Then, if any person refuses to obey your commands or if any person turns against you, that person will be killed. Just be strong and brave!”

Spies in Jericho

2 Joshua son of Nun and all the people were camped at Acacia.* Joshua sent out two spies. No one knew that Joshua sent out these men. Joshua said to the men, “Go and look at the land, especially the city of Jericho.” So the men went to the city of Jericho. They went to the house of a prostitute and stayed there. This woman’s name was Rahab. ²Someone told the king of Jericho, “Last night some men from Israel came to look for weaknesses in our country.” ³So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Don’t hide those men that came and stayed in your house. Bring them out. They have come to spy on our country.” ⁴The woman had hidden the two men. But the woman said, “Those two men did come here, but I didn’t know where they came from. ⁵In the evening, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know where they went. But if you go quickly, maybe you can catch them.” ⁶(Rahab said those things, but really, she had taken the men up to the roof,* and she was hiding them in the hay* she had piled up there.) ⁷So the king’s men went out of the city, and the people closed the city gates. The king’s men went to look for the two men from Israel. They went to the Jordan River and looked at all the places where people cross the river. ⁸The two men were ready to sleep for the night. But Rahab went to the roof and talked to them. ⁹Rahab said, “I know that the Lord has given this land to your people. You frighten us. All the people living in this country are afraid of you. ¹⁰We are afraid because we have heard about the ways that the Lord helped you. We heard that he dried the water at the Red Sea when you came out of Egypt. We also heard what you did to the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og. We heard how you destroyed those kings living east of the Jordan River. ¹¹We heard about those things and we became very afraid. And now, none of our men are brave enough to fight you. Why? Because the Lord your God rules the heavens above and the earth below! ¹²So now, I want you to make a promise to me. I was kind to you and helped you. So promise before the Lord that you will be kind to my family. Please tell me that you will do this. ¹³Tell me that you will allow my family to live—my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all of their families. Promise that you will save us from death.” ¹⁴The men agreed. They said, “We will trade our lives for yours. Don’t tell anyone what we are doing. Then, when the Lord gives us our land, we will be kind to you. You can trust us.” ¹⁵The woman’s house was built into the city wall. It was part of the wall. So the woman used a rope to let the men down through a window. ¹⁶Then the woman said to them, “Go {west} into the hills so the king’s men will not accidentally find you. Hide there for three days. After the king’s men come back you can go on your way.” ¹⁷The men said to her, “We made a promise to you. But you must do one thing or we will not be responsible for our promise. ¹⁸You are using this red rope to help us escape. We will come back to this land. At that time, you must tie this red rope in your window. You must bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your family into your house with you. ¹⁹We will protect every person who stays in this house. If anyone in your house is hurt, then we will be responsible. But if any person goes out of your house, then that person might be killed. We will not be responsible for that person. It will be his own fault. ²⁰We are making this agreement with you. But if you tell anyone about what we are doing then we are free from this agreement.” ²¹The woman answered, “I will do exactly what you said.” The woman said goodbye, and the men left her house. Then the woman tied the red rope in the window. ²²The men left her house and went into the hills. They stayed there for three days. The king’s men looked all along the road. After three days, the king’s men gave up and went back to the city. ²³Then the two men went back to Joshua. The men left the hills and crossed the river. They went to Joshua son of Nun. They told Joshua everything that they had learned. ²⁴They said to Joshua, “The Lord really has given us all of the land. All of the people in that country are afraid of us.”

Acacia Or, “Shittim,” a town east of the Jordan River. roof In Israel, the roofs were flat and people used them like an extra room to store things. hay Literally, “flax,” a plant used to make linen.

Miracle at the Jordan River

3 Early the next morning, Joshua and all the people of Israel got up and left Acacia.* They traveled to the Jordan River and camped there before they went across. ²After three days, the leaders went through the camp. ³The leaders gave orders to the people. They said, “You will see the priests and Levites* carrying the Box of the Agreement* of the Lord your God. At that time, you must follow them. ⁴But do not follow too closely. Stay about 1,000 yards* behind them. You have not been here before. But if you follow them, then you will know where to go.” ⁵Then Joshua told the people, “Make yourselves pure. Tomorrow the Lord will use you to do amazing things.” ⁶Then Joshua said to the priests, “Take the Box of the Agreement* and go across the river in front of the people.” So the priests lifted the Box and carried it in front of the people. ⁷Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you a great man for all the people of Israel to see. Then the people will know that I am with you the same as I was with Moses. ⁸The priests will carry the Box of the Agreement.* Tell the priests this, ‘Walk to the shore of the Jordan River and stop just before you step into the water.’” ⁹Then Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come and listen to the words of the Lord your God. ¹⁰Here is proof that the living God is truly with you. Here is proof that he will truly defeat your enemies. He will defeat the Canaanite people, the Hittite people, the Hivite people, the Perizzite people, the Girgashite people, the Amorite people, and the Jebusite people, he will force them to leave that land. ¹¹Here is the proof. The Box of the Agreement* of the Master of the whole world will go before you as you cross the Jordan River. ¹²Now, choose twelve men. Choose one man from each of the twelve family groups of Israel. ¹³The priests will carry the Box of the Lord.* The Lord is the Master of the whole world. They will carry that Box in front of you into the Jordan River. When they enter the water, the water of the Jordan River will stop flowing. The water will stop and fill behind that place like a dam.” ¹⁴The priests carried the Box of the Agreement* and the people left the place they had camped. The people started going across the Jordan River. ¹⁵(During harvest time the Jordan River overflows its banks. So the river was at its fullest.) The priests who were carrying the Box came to the shore of the river. They stepped into the water. ¹⁶And immediately, the water stopped flowing. {The water filled behind that place like a dam.} The water piled high a long way up the river—all the way to Adam (a town near Zarethan). The people crossed the river near Jericho. ¹⁷The ground at that place became dry, and the priests carried the Box of the Agreement* of the Lord to the middle of the river and stopped. The priests waited there while all the people of Israel walked across the Jordan River on dry land.

Acacia Or, Shittim. A town east of the Jordan River. Levites People from the tribe of Levi. The Levites helped the priests in the temple and also worked for the civil government. Box of the Agreement Or, “ark of the Covenant,” the box containing the flat stones with the Ten Commandments written on them and other things that proved God was with the people of Israel during their time in the Sinai desert. 1,000 yards Literally, “2,000 cubits.” Box of the Lord Also called the Box of the Agreement.

Rocks to Remind the People

4 After all the people had crossed the Jordan River the Lord said to Joshua, ²“Choose twelve men. Choose one man from each family group. ³Tell them to look in the river where the priests were standing. Tell them to find twelve rocks in that place. Carry those twelve rocks with you. Put the twelve rocks in the place where you stay tonight.” ⁴So Joshua chose one man from each family group. Then he called the twelve men together. ⁵Joshua said to the men, “Go out into the river where the Holy Box* of the Lord your God is. Each of you must find one rock. There will be one rock for each of the twelve family groups of Israel. Carry that rock on your shoulder. ⁶These rocks will be a sign for you. In the future, your children will ask you, ‘What do these rocks mean?’ ⁷You will tell the children that the Lord stopped the water from flowing in the Jordan River. When the Holy Box of the Lord’s Agreement crossed the river, the water stopped flowing. Those rocks will help the people of Israel remember this thing forever.” ⁸So the people of Israel obeyed Joshua. They carried twelve rocks from the middle of the Jordan River. There was one rock for each of the twelve family groups of Israel. They did this the way the Lord commanded Joshua. The men carried the rocks with them. Then they put the rocks at the place where they made their camp. ⁹(Joshua also put twelve rocks in the middle of the Jordan River. He put them at the place where the priests stood while carrying the Lord’s Holy Box.* Those rocks are still at that place today.) ¹⁰The Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people what to do. Those were the things Moses had said Joshua must do. So the priests carrying the Holy Box* continued standing in the middle of the river until all those things were done. The people hurried across the river. ¹¹The people finished crossing the river. After that, the priests carried the Box of the Lord to the front of the people. ¹²The men from the family groups of Reuben, Gad, and half of the family group of Manasseh obeyed Moses. These men crossed the river in front of the other people. These men were prepared for war. They were going to help the rest of the people of Israel {take the land God had promised to give them}. ¹³About 40,000 soldiers, prepared for war, passed before the Lord. They were marching toward the plains of Jericho. ¹⁴That day the Lord made Joshua a great man to all the people of Israel. The people respected Joshua from that time on. They respected Joshua all his life, the same as they respected Moses. ¹⁵While the priests carrying the Box were still standing in the river, the Lord said to Joshua, ¹⁶“Command the priests to come out of the river.” ¹⁷So Joshua commanded the priests. He said, “Come out of the Jordan River.” ¹⁸The priests obeyed Joshua. They carried the Box with them and came out of the river. When the priests’ feet touched the land on the other side of the river, the water in the river began flowing again. The water again overflowed its banks as it had before the people crossed. ¹⁹The people crossed the Jordan River on the tenth day of the first month. The people camped at Gilgal, east of Jericho. ²⁰The people carried with them the twelve rocks that they had taken from the Jordan River. And Joshua set up those rocks at Gilgal. ²¹Then Joshua told the people, “In the future, your children will ask their parents, ‘What do these rocks mean?’ ²²You will tell the children, ‘Those rocks help us remember the way the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry land.’ ²³The Lord your God caused the water in the Jordan River to stop flowing so you could cross it on dry land—just like the time the Lord stopped the water at the Red Sea so that we could cross it on dry land. ²⁴The Lord did this so that all the people in this country would know that the Lord is very powerful. Then those people will always be afraid of the Lord your God.”

Holy Box Also called the Box of the Agreement.