JOSHUA
THE BOOK OF
33
CHAPTER 1
1 And after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it happened that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and he said to him:
2 “Moses, my servant, has died. Rise up, and cross this Jordan, you and all the people with you, into the land which I will give to the sons of Israel.
3 I will deliver to you every place that the step of your foot will tread upon, just as I said to Moses.
4 From the desert and from Lebanon, even to the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, as far as the great sea opposite the setting of the sun, shall be your border.
5 No one will be able to resist you during all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so will I be with you. I will not leave you, nor will I forsake you.
6 Be strengthened and be steadfast. For you shall divide by lot, to this people, the land about which I swore to their fathers that I would deliver it to them.
7 Therefore, be strengthened and be very steadfast, so that you may observe and accomplish the entire law, which Moses, my servant, instructed to you. You may not turn aside from it to the right, nor to the left. So may you understand all that you should do.
8 The book of this law shall not depart from your mouth. Instead, you shall meditate upon it, day and night, so that you may observe and do all the things that are written in it. Then you shall direct your way and understand it.
9 Behold, I am instructing you. Be strengthened, and be steadfast. Do not dread, and do not fear. For the Lord your God is with you in all things, wherever you may go.”
10 And Joshua instructed the leaders of the people, saying: “Cross through the midst of the camp, and command the people, and say:
11 ‘Prepare your food supplies. For after the third day, you shall cross the Jordan, and you shall enter so as to possess the land, which the Lord your God will give to you.’ ”
12 Likewise, he said to the Reubenites and to the Gadites, and to the one half tribe of Manasseh:
13 “Remember the words, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, instructed to you, saying: ‘The Lord your God has given you rest, and has given you all the land.’
14 Your wives and sons, as well as the cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses delivered to you beyond the Jordan. But as for you, pass over with weapons, before your brothers, all you who are strong of hand, and fight on their behalf,
15 until the Lord gives rest to your brothers, just as he has given to you, and until they also possess the land, which the Lord your God will give to them. And so shall you be returned to the land of your possession. And you shall live in the land, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave to you beyond the Jordan, opposite the rising of the sun.”
16 And they responded to Joshua, and they said: “All that you have instructed to us, we shall do. And wherever you will send us, we shall go.
17 Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so shall we obey you also. But may the Lord your God be with you, just as he was with Moses.
18 Whoever will contradict your mouth, and whoever will not obey all of your words, which you will instruct to him, let him die. But may you be strengthened, and may you act manfully.”
CHAPTER 2
1 And so Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men from Shittim to explore in secret. And he said to them, “Go and consider the land and the city of Jericho.” And while traveling, they entered into the house of a harlot woman named Rahab, and they rested with her.
2 And it was reported to the king of Jericho, and it was said: “Behold, men have entered to this place in the night, from the sons of Israel, so that they might explore the land.”
3 And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying: “Bring out the men who came to you, and who entered into your house. For certainly they are spies, and they have arrived to consider the entire land.”
4 And the woman, taking the men, hid them. And she said: “I admit that they came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
5 And when the gate was closed, they went out together in the darkness. I do not know where they have gone. Pursue them quickly, and you will overtake them.”
6 But she caused the men to ascend to the roof of her house, and she covered them with the stalks of flax that were there.
7 But those who had been sent pursued after them along the way that leads to the ford of the Jordan. And as soon as they went out, the gate was closed.
8 Those who were hiding had not yet fallen asleep, and behold, the woman went up to them, and she said:
9 “I know that the Lord has given this land to you. For the terror of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land have languished.
10 We have heard that the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea upon your arrival, when you were departing from Egypt, and we heard of the things that you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put to death.
11 And upon hearing these things, we were very afraid, and our heart languished. Neither did there remain in us any spirit at your arrival. For the Lord your God is the very God in heaven above and on earth below.
12 Now, therefore, swear to me by the Lord that in the same way that I have acted with mercy toward you, so also shall you act toward the house of my father. And may you give me a true sign
13 that you will save my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all that is theirs, and that you may rescue our souls from death.”
14 They responded to her: “May our lives be yours unto death, if only you do not betray us. And when the Lord will have delivered the land to us, we will act toward you with mercy and truth.”
15 Therefore, she sent them down from a window with a rope. For her house was joined to the wall.
16 And she said to them: “Climb up to the mountains; otherwise, they may meet you as they are returning. And lay hidden there for three days, until they return. And then you will go on your way.”
17 And they said to her: “We shall be innocent of this oath, to which you have sworn us,
18 if, when we enter into the land, this scarlet cord has been placed as a sign, and you have tied it at the window by which you let us down. And so, gather your father, and mother, and brothers, and all your family into your house.
19 Whoever will have exited from the door of your house, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be uninvolved. But the blood of all who will be with you in the house shall fall back upon our own head, if anyone touches them.
20 But if you will have betrayed us, so that you spread this word in their midst, we will be free from this oath, to which you have sworn us.”
21 And she responded, “Just as you have spoken, so let it be done.” And sending them to travel on, she hung the scarlet cord at the window.
22 And truly, walking on, they arrived at the mountains, and they stayed there for three days, until those who had been pursuing them returned. For having sought them along the entire way, they did not find them.
23 And when they returned and entered the city, the explorers descended from the mountain. And crossing the Jordan, they went to Joshua, the son of Nun, and they reported to him all that had happened to them.
24 And they said, “The Lord has delivered this entire land into our hands, and all its inhabitants have been struck down by fear.”
CHAPTER 3
1 And so, Joshua arose in the night, and he moved the camp. And they departed from Shittim, and they went to the Jordan: he, and all the sons of Israel, and they remained there for three days.
2 After these things unfolded, announcers passed through the midst of the camp,
3 and they began to proclaim: “When you will see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the stock of Levi carrying it, you also shall rise up and follow those who are going before you.
4 And let there be, between you and the ark, the space of two thousand cubits, so that you may be able to see it from far away, and to know along which way you should advance. For you have not walked this way before. And be careful that you do not approach the ark.”
5 And Joshua said to the people: “Be sanctified. For tomorrow the Lord will accomplish miracles among you.”
6 And he said to the priests: “Take up the ark of the covenant, and go before the people.” And they fulfilled the orders, and they took it and walked before them.
7 And the Lord said to Joshua: “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that, just as I was with Moses, so also am I with you.
8 Now instruct the priests, who are carrying the ark of the covenant, and say to them, ‘When you will have entered into a part of the water of the Jordan, stand still in it.’ ”
9 And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Approach to here, and listen to the word of the Lord your God.”
10 And again, he said: “By this shall you know that the Lord, the living God, is in your midst, and that he shall scatter in your sight, the Canaanite and the Hittite, the Hivite and the Perizzite, likewise the Girgashite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite.
11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you through the Jordan.
12 Prepare twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.
13 And when the priests who are carrying the ark of the Lord, the God of the entire earth, will have placed the steps of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are lower will run down and pass away, and those that are approaching above will stand together in a mass.”
14 And the people departed from their tents, so that they might cross the Jordan. And the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant were advancing before them.
15 And as soon as they entered into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in a portion of the water, (now the Jordan, since it was the time of the harvest, had filled the banks of its channel,)
16 the descending waters stood still in one place, and, swelling up like a mountain, they were seen from far away, from the city that is called Adam, even as far as the place of Zarethan. But those that were lower ran down into the Sea of the Wilderness, (which is now called the Dead Sea,) until they entirely passed away.
17 Then the people advanced opposite Jericho. And the priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord were standing, fully-dressed, upon dry soil in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over, through the channel that was dried up.
CHAPTER 4
1 And when they had crossed over, the Lord said to Joshua:
2 “Choose twelve men, one from each tribe,
3 and instruct them so that they may take from the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood still, twelve very hard stones, which you shall station in the place of the camp, where you will pitch your tents this night.”
4 And Joshua called twelve men, whom he had chosen from the sons of Israel, one from each tribe,
5 and he said to them: “Go before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and let each one carry from there one stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the sons of Israel,
6 so that it may be a sign among you. And when your sons will ask you, tomorrow, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’
7 you shall respond to them: ‘The waters of the Jordan failed before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when the ark crossed over it. For this reason, these stones were placed as a monument for the sons of Israel, even forever.’ ”
8 Therefore, the sons of Israel did as Joshua instructed them, carrying twelve stones from the midst of the channel of the Jordan, just as the Lord had ordered him, according to the number of the sons of Israel, as far as the place where they made camp, and there they stationed them.
9 Similarly, Joshua positioned another twelve stones in the middle of the channel of the Jordan, where the priests stood who were carrying the ark of the covenant; and they are there, even to the present day.
10 Now the priests who were carrying the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan, until everything was accomplished which the Lord had instructed Joshua to speak to the people and which Moses had said to him. And the people hurried, and they passed over.
11 And when they had all crossed, the ark of the Lord also crossed, and the priests advanced before the people.
12 Likewise, the sons of Reuben, and of Gad, and of the one half tribe of Manasseh advanced with weapons before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had instructed them.
13 And forty thousand fighters, by companies and divisions, advanced through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho.
14 In that day, the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, so that they would fear him, just as they ha...
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