Top of Page
Page Style
the next morning Joshua set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they travelled as far as the Jordan, where they stayed before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 and they commanded the people: “When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and ark. Do not go near it, so you can see the way to go, since you have never journeyed through here before.”
5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will perform wonders among you.”
6 Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went ahead of them.
7 The Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they will know that just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you also. 8 You are to command the priests who are carrying the Ark of the Covenant: ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, go and stand in the Jordan itself’.”
9 So Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” 10 Joshua said, “By this you will know that the living God is among you, and that He shall certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. 11 See, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go ahead of you into the Jordan. 12 Now then, choose for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. 13 And as soon as the soles of the feet of priests who bear the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—come to rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off from the waters that come down from upstream, and they will stand up in a single heap.”
14 So when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant went before the people. 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks during the entire season of the harvest. But when those who carried the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, 16 the waters which were flowing down from upstream stood still, rising up in one heap as far away as Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those down to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea were completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
17 The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, until the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan.