Joshua 1-4

New Life Version

God Tells Joshua to Go and Take the Land

1 After the death of the Lord’s servant Moses, the Lord said to Moses’ helper, Joshua the son of Nun, ² “My servant Moses is dead. So you and all these people get up and cross the Jordan River to the land I am giving to the people of Israel. ³ I have given you every place where the bottom of your foot steps, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your land will be from the desert and from Lebanon as far as the big Euphrates River. It will be all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea on the west. ⁵ No man will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. I will be with you just as I have been with Moses. I will be faithful to you and will not leave you alone. ⁶ Be strong and have strength of heart. For you will bring the people in to take this land which I promised to their fathers to give them. ⁷ Only be strong and have much strength of heart. Be careful to obey all the Law which My servant Moses told you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. Then all will go well with you everywhere you go. ⁸ This book of the Law must not leave your mouth. Think about it day and night, so you may be careful to do all that is written in it. Then all will go well with you. You will receive many good things. ⁹ Have I not told you? Be strong and have strength of heart! Do not be afraid or lose faith. For the Lord your God is with you anywhere you go.”

Joshua Tells the People to Go

¹⁰ Then Joshua told the leaders of the people, ¹¹ “Go among the tents and tell the people, ‘Gather together the things you will need. For within three days you will cross this Jordan to go in to take the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’”

¹² To the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-family group of Manasseh, Joshua said, ¹³ “Remember what the Lord’s servant Moses told you, saying, ‘The Lord your God gives you rest, and will give you this land.’ ¹⁴ Your wives, your children and your cattle will stay in the land Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you and all your strong-hearted soldiers will cross the river dressed for battle in front of your brothers. You will help them ¹⁵ until the Lord gives your brothers rest, as He has given you. Help them until they own the land the Lord your God is giving them. Then you will return to your own land. You will own what the Lord’s servant Moses gave you on the east side of the Jordan.” ¹⁶ They answered Joshua, saying, “We will do all that you have told us. And we will go anywhere you send us. ¹⁷ We will obey you in all things just as we obeyed Moses. Only may the Lord your God be with you as He was with Moses. ¹⁸ Anyone who goes against what you say, and does not obey all that you tell him to do, will be put to death. Only be strong and have strength of heart.”

2 Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men from Shittim to go in secret to learn about the land. He said to them, “Go and spy out the land, and Jericho.” So they went and came to the house of Rahab, a woman who sold the use of her body, and they stayed there. ² Then the king of Jericho was told, “See, men of Israel have come here to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you and have gone into your house. For they have come to spy out all the land.” ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me. But I did not know where they were from. ⁵ When it was time for the gate to be shut after dark, the men went out. I do not know where they went. Be quick to go after them, for you will catch them.” ⁶ But she had brought them up to the roof and had hidden them under the grain she had put up there. ⁷ The men went after them on the road to the Jordan as far as the river crossing. As soon as those going after them had gone out, they shut the gate.

⁸ Before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof. ⁹ And she said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land. The fear of you has come upon us. All the people living in the land have become weak with fear because of you. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. We have heard how you destroyed the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, on the other side of the Jordan. ¹¹ When we heard it, our hearts became weak. No man had strength of heart any more because of you. For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. ¹² Now I have shown you kindness. So I beg of you, promise me by the Lord that you will show kindness to those of my father’s house. Give me something to show that you will be faithful. ¹³ Do not kill my father and mother and my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them. Save us from death.” ¹⁴ So the men said to her, “Our life for yours! If you do not tell anyone what we are doing, we will be faithful and show you kindness when the Lord gives us the land.”

¹⁵ Then she let them down by a rope through the window. She lived in her house that was built on top of the city wall. ¹⁶ She said to them, “Go to the hill country, or those who are looking for you might find you. For three days hide yourselves there until those who are looking for you return. Then you may go on your way.” ¹⁷ The men said to her, “We will be free from this promise you have made us swear ¹⁸ unless, when we come into the land, you tie this red rope in the window you let us down through. Bring your father and mother, your brothers and all those of your father’s house into your house. ¹⁹ If anyone goes out through the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head. We will not be guilty for his death. But if a hand is laid upon anyone who is with you in the house, his blood will be on our head. ²⁰ And we will be free from the promise you made us swear if you tell anyone what we are doing.” ²¹ She said, “Let it be as you have said.” Then she sent them away, and tied the red rope in the window.

²² They left and came to the hill country and stayed there for three days until those who were looking for them returned. The men had looked for them all along the road, but had not found them. ²³ Then the two men came down from the hill country, crossed over the Jordan, and came to Joshua the son of Nun. They told him all that had happened to them. ²⁴ They said to Joshua, “For sure the Lord has given all the land into our hands. All the people living in the land have become weak with fear because of us.”

3 Joshua got up early in the morning. He and all the people of Israel left Shittim and came to the Jordan. And they stayed there before they crossed. ² After three days the leaders went among the tents. ³ They told the people, “When you see the special box of the agreement of the Lord your God with the religious leaders carrying it, leave your places and follow it. ⁴ Then you may know the way to go, for you have not passed this way before. But stay about 1,000 long steps away from it. Do not come near it.”

⁵ Then Joshua said to the people, “Make yourselves holy. For tomorrow the Lord will do powerful works among you.” ⁶ Joshua said to the religious leaders, “Take up the special box of the agreement and cross over in front of the people.” So they took up the special box of the agreement and went in front of the people.

⁷ The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to give you honor in the eyes of all Israel. Then they may know that I will be with you just as I have been with Moses. ⁸ Tell the religious leaders who are carrying the special box of the agreement, ‘When you come to the water of the Jordan River, stand still in it.’” ⁹ Then Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here. Listen to the words of the Lord your God.” ¹⁰ And Joshua said, “You will know that the living God is among you because He will be sure to drive away from in front of you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite and the Jebusite. ¹¹ See, the special box of the agreement of the Lord of All the earth is crossing over in front of you in the Jordan. ¹² Now choose twelve men from the families of Israel, one man for each family. ¹³ The religious leaders who carry the special box of the agreement of the Lord of All the earth, will rest their feet in the water of the Jordan. Then the water of the Jordan will be cut off. The water flowing down from above will gather together in one place.”

¹⁴ So the people left their tents to cross the Jordan. The religious leaders carried the special box of the agreement in front of the people. ¹⁵ They carried it to the Jordan and put their feet in the water. (For the Jordan water floods during the time of gathering grain.) ¹⁶ Then the water flowing down from above stood and rose up in one place far away at Adam, the city beside Zarethan. The water flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, was all cut off. So the people crossed beside Jericho. ¹⁷ The religious leaders who carried the special box of the agreement of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan. And all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had crossed the Jordan.

4 When all the nation had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, ² “Choose twelve men from the people, one man from each family. ³ Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan. Take them from the place where the religious leaders’ feet are standing. Carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you stay tonight.’” ⁴ So Joshua called the twelve men he had chosen from the sons of Israel, one man from each family. ⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan in front of the special box of the agreement of the Lord your God. Each of you take a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the twelve family groups of Israel. ⁶ Let this be something special among you. Your children will ask you later, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ Then you will tell them that the water of the Jordan was cut off before the special box of the agreement of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan was cut off. So these stones will become something to remember to the people of Israel forever.”

⁸ The sons of Israel did as Joshua told them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the Lord told Joshua. There was one stone for each family group of the sons of Israel. They carried them over with them to the place where they stayed, and put them down there. ⁹ Then Joshua set up twelve stones at the place where the feet of the religious leaders who carried the special box of the agreement were standing in the middle of the Jordan. They are there to this day. ¹⁰ The religious leaders who carried the special box of the agreement stood in the middle of the Jordan. They stood there until everything was finished that the Lord told Joshua to tell the people, all that Moses had told Joshua.

The people crossed in a hurry. ¹¹ When all the people were over, they watched the religious leaders carry the special box of the agreement to the other side. ¹² The sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-family group of Manasseh crossed over ready for battle before the people of Israel, just as Moses had told them. ¹³ About 40,000 soldiers ready for battle crossed before the Lord to the desert plains of Jericho. ¹⁴ On that day the Lord gave Joshua honor in the eyes of all Israel. So they honored him as a great man just as they had honored Moses all the days of his life.

¹⁵ The Lord said to Joshua, ¹⁶ “Tell the religious leaders who carry the special box of the agreement to come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁷ So Joshua told the religious leaders to come up from the Jordan. ¹⁸ The religious leaders who carried the special box of the agreement of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan. When their feet stepped on dry ground, the water of the Jordan returned to its place. It flowed over its sides as before.

¹⁹ The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they stayed at Gilgal on the east side of Jericho. ²⁰ Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the people of Israel, “Your children will ask their fathers some time in the future, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²² Then let your children know that Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground. ²³ For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you until you had crossed. It was just as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed. ²⁴ Now all the people of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is powerful, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”