Joshua 1; Joshua 2; Joshua 3; Joshua 4

Joshua 1

1 Now it came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Josue, the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and said to him:

2 Moses my servant is dead: arise, and pass over this Jordan, thou and thy people with thee, into the land which I will give to the children of Israel.

3 I will deliver to you every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, as I have said to Moses.

4 From the desert, and from Libanus unto the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hethites, unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.

5 No man shall be able to resist you all the days of thy life: as I have been with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee.

6 Take courage, and be strong: for thou shalt divide by lot to this people the land for which I swore to their fathers, that I would deliver it to them.

7 Take courage therefore, and be very valiant: that thou mayst observe and do all the law, which Moses my servant hath commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayst understand all things which thou dost.

8 Let not the book of this law depart from thy mouth: but thou shalt meditate on it day and night, that thou mayst observe and do all things that are written in it: then shalt thou direct thy way, and understand it.

9 Behold I command thee, take courage, and be strong. Fear not, and be not dismayed: because the Lord thy God is with thee in all things whatsoever thou shalt go to.

10 And Josue commanded the princes of the people, saying: Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, and say:

11 Prepare your victuals: for after the third day you shall pass over the Jordan, and shall go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God will give you.

12 And he said to the Rubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasses:

13 Remember the word, which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying: The Lord your God hath given you rest, and all this land.

14 Your wives, and children; and cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan: but pass you over armed before your brethren all of you that are strong of hand, and fight for them,

15 Until the Lord give rest to your brethren, as he hath given you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God will give them: and so you shall return into the land of your possession, and you shall dwell in it, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun.

16 And they made answer to Josue, and said: All that thou hast commanded us, we will do: and whither soever thou shalt send us, we will go.

17 As we obeyed Moses in all things, so will we obey thee also: only be the Lord thy God with thee, as he was with Moses.

18 He that shall gainsay thy mouth, and not obey all thy words, that thou shalt command him, let him die: only take thou courage, and do manfully.

Joshua 2

1 And Josue, the son of Nun, sent from Setim two men, to spy secretly: and said to them: Go, and view the land, and the city of Jericho. They went, and entered into the house of a woman that was a harlot, named Rahab, and lodged with her.

2 And it was told the king of Jericho, and was said: Behold there are men come in hither, by night, of the children of Israel, to spy the land.

3 And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying: Bring forth the men that came to thee, and are entered into thy house: for they are spies, and are come to view all the land.

4 And the woman taking the men, hid them, and said: I confess they came to me, but I knew not whence they were:

5 And at the time of shutting the gate in the dark, they also went out together. I know not whither they are gone: pursue after them quickly, and you will overtake them.

6 But she made the men go up to the top of her house, and covered them with the stalks of flax, which was there.

7 Now they that were sent, pursued after them, by the way that leadeth to the fords of the Jordan: and as soon as they were gone out, the gate was presently shut.

8 The men that were hid were not yet asleep, when behold the woman went up to them, and said:

9 I know that the Lord hath given this land to you: for the dread of you is fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land have lost all strength.

10 We have heard that the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea, at your going in, when you came out of Egypt: and what things you did to the two kings of the Amorrhites, that were beyond the Jordan, Sehon and Og whom you slew.

11 And at the hearing these things, we were affrighted, and our heart fainted away, neither did there remain any spirit in us, at your coming in: for the Lord your God he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath.

12 Now, therefore, swear ye to me by the Lord, that as I have shewed mercy to you, so you also will shew mercy to my father’s house: and give me a true token.

13 That you will save my father and mother, my brethren and sisters, and all things that are theirs, and deliver our souls from death.

14 They answered her: Be our lives for you unto death, only if thou betray us not. And when the Lord shall have delivered us the land, we will shew thee mercy and truth.

15 Then she let them down with a cord out of a window: for her house joined close to the wall.

16 And she said to them: Get ye up to the mountains, lest perhaps they meet you as they return: and there lie ye hid three days, till they come back, and so you shall go on your way.

17 And they said to her: We shall be blameless of this oath, which thou hast made us swear,

18 If, when we come into the land, this scarlet cord be a sign, and thou tie it in the window, by which thou hast let us down: and gather together thy father and mother, and brethren, and all thy kindred into thy house.

19 Whosoever shall go out of the door of thy house, his blood shall be upon his own head, and we shall be quit. But the blood of all that shall be with thee in the house, shall light upon our head, if any man touch them.

20 But if thou wilt betray us, and utter this word abroad, we shall be quit of this oath, which thou hast made us swear.

21 And she answered: As you have spoken, so be it done: and sending them on their way, she hung the scarlet cord in the window.

22 But they went and came to the mountains, and stayed there three days, till they that pursued them were returned. For having sought them through all the way, they found them not.

23 And when they were gone back into the city, the spies returned, and came down from the mountain: and passing over the Jordan, they came to Josue, the son of Nun, and told him all that befell them,

24 And said: the Lord hath delivered all this land into our hands, and all the inhabitants thereof are overthrown with fear.

Joshua 3

1 And Josue rose before daylight, and removed the camp: and they departed from Setim, and came to the Jordan: he, and all the children of Israel, and they abode there for three days.

2 After which, the heralds went through the midst of the camp,

3 And began to proclaim: When you shall see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the race of Levi carrying it, rise you up also, and follow them as they go before:

4 And let there be between you and the ark the space of two thousand cubits: that you may see it afar off, and know which way you must go: for you have not gone this way before: and take care you come not near the ark.

5 And Josue said to the people: Be ye sanctified: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

6 And he said to the priests: Take up the ark of the covenant, and go before the people. And they obeyed his commands, and took it up, and walked before them.

7 And the Lord said to Josue: This day will I begin to exalt thee before Israel: that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I am with thee also.

8 And do thou command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, and say to them: When you shall have entered into part of the water of the Jordan, stand in it.

9 And Josue said to the children of Israel: Come hither, and hear the word of the Lord your God.

10 And again he said: By this you shall know, that the Lord, the living God, is in the midst of you, and that he shall destroy, before your sight, the Chanaanite and the Hethite, the Hevite and the Pherezite, the Gergesite also, and the Jebusite, and the Amorrhite.

11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth shall go before you into the Jordan.

12 Prepare ye twelve men of the tribes of Israel, one of every tribe.

13 And when the priests, that carry the ark of the Lord the God of the whole earth, shall set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters that are beneath shall run down and go off: and those that come from above, shall stand together upon a heap.

14 So the people went out of their tents, to pass over the Jordan: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant, went on before them.

15 And as soon as they came into the Jordan, and their feet were dipped in part of the water, (now the Jordan, it being harvest time, had filled the banks of its channel,)

16 The waters that came down from above stood in one place, and swelling up like a mountain, were seen afar off, from the city that is called Adom, to the place of Sarthan: but those that were beneath, ran down into the sea of the wilderness, (which now is called the Dead Sea) until they wholly failed.

17 And the people marched over against Jericho: and the priests that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood girded upon the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the people passed over, through the channel that was dried up.

Joshua 4

1 And when they were passed over, the Lord said to Josue:

2 Choose twelve men, one of every tribe:

3 And command them to take out of the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, twelve very hard stones, which you shall set in the place of the camp, where you shall pitch your tents this night.

4 And Josue called twelve men, whom he had chosen out of the children of Israel, one out of every tribe,

5 And he said to them: Go before the ark of the Lord your God to the midst of the Jordan, and carry from thence every man a stone on your shoulders, according to the number of the children of Israel,

6 That it may be a sign among you: and when your children shall ask you tomorrow, saying: What means these stones?

7 You shall answer them: The waters of the Jordan ran off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over the same: therefore were these stones set for a monument of the children of Israel forever.

8 The children of Israel therefore did as Josue commanded them, carrying out of the channel of the Jordan twelve stones, as the Lord had commanded him according to the number of the children of Israel unto the place wherein they camped, and there they set them.

9 And Josue put other twelve stones in the midst of the channel of the Jordan, where the priests stood that carried the ark of the covenant: and they are there until this present day.

10 Now the priests that carried the ark, stood in the midst of the Jordan, till all things were accomplished, which the Lord had commanded Josue to speak to the people, and Moses had said to him. And the people made haste, and passed over.

11 And when they had all passed over, the ark also of the Lord passed over, and the priests went before the people.

12 The children of Ruben also, and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasses, went armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had commanded them.

13 And forty thousand fighting men by their troops and bands, marched through the plains and fields of the city of Jericho.

14 In that day the Lord magnified Josue in the sight of all Israel, that they should fear him, as they had feared Moses, while he lived.

15 And he said to him:

16 Command the priests, that carry the ark of the covenant, to come up out of the Jordan.

17 And he commanded them, saying: Come ye up out of the Jordan.

18 And when they that carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, were come up, and began to tread on the dry ground, the waters returned into their channel, and ran as they were wont before.

19 And the people came up out of the Jordan, the tenth day of the first month, and camped in Galgal, over against the east side of the city of Jericho.

20 And the twelve stones, which they had taken out of the channel of the Jordan, Josue pitched in Galgal,

21 And said to the children of Israel: When your children shall ask their fathers tomorrow, and shall say to them: What mean these stones?

22 You shall teach them, and say: Israel passed over this Jordan through the dry channel,

23 The Lord your God drying up the waters thereof in your sight, until you passed over: (4-24) As he had done before in the Red Sea, which he dried up till we passed through:

24 (4-25) That all the people of the earth may learn the most mighty hand of the Lord, that you also may fear the Lord your God for ever.