Joshua 4-6

Complete Jewish Bible

4 After the whole nation had finished crossing the Yarden, Adonai said to Y’hoshua, ² “Take for yourselves from the people twelve men, a man from every tribe; ³ and give them this order: ‘Take twelve stones from the middle of the Yarden riverbed, where the cohanim are standing, carry them over with you and set them down in the place where you will camp tonight.’” ⁴ Y’hoshua called the twelve men whom he had chosen from the people of Isra’el, a man from every tribe, ⁵ and said to them, “Go on ahead of the ark of Adonai your God into the riverbed of the Yarden. Then, each of you take a stone on his shoulder, corresponding to the number of tribes of the people of Isra’el. ⁶ This will be a sign for you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do you mean by these stones?’ ⁷ you will answer them, ‘It’s because the water in the Yarden was cut off before the ark for the covenant of Adonai; when it crossed the Yarden, the water in the Yarden was cut off; and these stones are to be a reminder for the people of Isra’el forever.’”

⁸ The people of Isra’el did just as Y’hoshua had ordered. They took twelve stones out of the Yarden riverbed, as Adonai had said to Y’hoshua, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the people of Isra’el, carried them over with them to the place where they were camping, and set them down there. ⁹ Y’hoshua also set up twelve stones in the Yarden River itself, in the place where the feet of the cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant had stood. They are there to this day. ¹⁰ The cohanim carrying the ark stood in the Yarden riverbed until Y’hoshua had finished saying to the people everything that Adonai had ordered him to say, in keeping with everything that Moshe had ordered Y’hoshua; then the people hurried across. ¹¹ When all the people had finished crossing, the ark of Adonai passed on, and the cohanim, ahead of the people. ¹² The descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh went on, armed, ahead of the people of Isra’el, as Moshe had said to them; ¹³ some 40,000 armed soldiers ready for battle crossed in the presence of Adonai to the plains of Yericho.

¹⁴ That day Adonai made Y’hoshua great in full view of all Isra’el. They were in awe of him, just as they had been in awe of Moshe all his life.

¹⁵ Adonai said to Y’hoshua, ¹⁶ “Order the cohanim carrying the ark for the testimony to come up out of the Yarden.” ¹⁷ So Y’hoshua ordered the cohanim, “Come up out of the Yarden!” ¹⁸ The cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant of Adonai came up from the Yarden riverbed, and as soon as the soles of the feet of the cohanim touched dry ground, the water of the Yarden returned to its place and the river overflowed its banks as it had before.

¹⁹ The people came up out of the Yarden on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal, by the eastern boundary of Yericho. ²⁰ Those twelve stones which they took out of the Yarden, Y’hoshua piled up at Gilgal. ²¹ Then he said to the people of Isra’el, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers what these stones mean, ²² you are to explain it to them by saying, ‘Isra’el came over this Yarden on dry land. ²³ For Adonai your God dried up the water in the Yarden from in front of you, until you had crossed, just as Adonai your God did to the Sea of Suf, which he dried up from in front of us, until we had crossed. ²⁴ From this all the peoples of the earth can know that the hand of Adonai is strong, and you can fear Adonai your God forever.’”

5 When all the kings of the Emori on the west side of the Yarden and all the kings of the Kena‘ani near the sea heard how Adonai had dried up the Yarden River ahead of the people of Isra’el until they had crossed it, their hearts failed them, and they fell into depression because of the people of Isra’el.

² It was at that time that Adonai said to Y’hoshua, “Make yourself knives of flint, and circumcise the people of Isra’el again, a second time. ³ So Y’hoshua made himself knives of flint and circumcised the people of Isra’el at Giv‘at-Ha‘Aralot [the hill of foreskins]. ⁴ The reason Y’hoshua circumcised was that all the people who had left Egypt who were males, all the fighting men, had died in the desert along the way after leaving Egypt. ⁵ For although all the people who left Egypt had been circumcised, all those who had been born in the desert on the way as they went on from Egypt had not been circumcised; ⁶ because the people of Isra’el walked forty years in the desert until the whole nation, that is, the fighting men who had left Egypt, had died out; because they had not heeded what Adonai said. Adonai had sworn that he would not allow them to see the land which Adonai swore to their ancestors that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷ So he raised up their children to take their place, and it was these whom Y’hoshua circumcised; till then they had been uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised while traveling.

⁸ When all the nation had been circumcised, every one of them, they stayed where they were in camp until they had healed. ⁹ Adonai said to Y’hoshua, “Today I have rolled off from you the stigma of Egypt.” This is why the place has been called Gilgal [rolling] ever since. ¹⁰ The people of Isra’el camped at Gilgal, and they observed Pesach on the fourteenth day of the month, there on the plains of Yericho. ¹¹ The day after Pesach they ate what the land produced, matzah and roasted ears of grain that day. ¹² The following day, after they had eaten food produced in the land, the man ended. From then on the people of Isra’el no longer had man; instead, that year, they ate the produce of the land of Kena‘an.

¹³ One day, when Y’hoshua was there by Yericho, he raised his eyes and looked; and in front of him stood a man with his drawn sword in his hand. Y’hoshua went over to him and asked him, “Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?” ¹⁴ “No,” he replied, “but I am the commander of Adonai’s army; I have come just now.” Y’hoshua fell down with his face to the ground and worshipped him, then asked, “What does my lord have to say to his servant?” ¹⁵ The commander of Adonai’s army answered Y’hoshua, “Take your sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy.” And Y’hoshua did so.

6 Yericho had completely barricaded its gates against the people of Isra’el — no one left, and no one entered. ² Adonai said to Y’hoshua, “I have handed Yericho over to you, including its king and his warriors. ³ You are to encircle the city with all your soldiers and march around it once. Do this for six days. ⁴ Seven cohanim are to carry seven shofars in front of the ark. On the seventh day you are to march around the city seven times, and the cohanim will blow the shofars. ⁵ Then they are to blow a long blast on the shofar. On hearing the sound of the shofar, all the people are to shout as loudly as they can; and the wall of the city will fall down flat. Then the people are to go up into the city, each one straight from where he stands.”

⁶ Y’hoshua the son of Nun called the cohanim and told them, “Take up the ark for the covenant, and have seven cohanim carry seven shofars ahead of the ark of Adonai.” ⁷ To the people he said, “Move on, encircle the city, and have the army march ahead of the ark of Adonai.” ⁸ When Y’hoshua had spoken to the people, the seven cohanim carrying the seven shofars before Adonai passed on and blew on the shofars, with the ark for the covenant of Adonai following them. ⁹ The fighting men went ahead of the cohanim blowing the shofars, while the rearguard marched after the ark, with incessant blowing on the shofars. ¹⁰ Y’hoshua gave this order to the people: “Don’t shout, don’t let your voice be heard, don’t let a single word out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout; then you will shout.”

¹¹ So he had the ark of Adonai make a circle around the city, going around it once; then they returned to camp and stayed in the camp. ¹² The next morning Y’hoshua got up early, and the cohanim took up the ark of Adonai. ¹³ The seven cohanim carrying the seven shofars ahead of the ark of Adonai went on, continually blowing on their shofars, with the fighting men marching ahead of them and the rearguard following after the ark of Adonai; all the while the blowing on the shofars was incessant. ¹⁴ The second day, they went around the city once and returned to camp. They did the same for six days.

¹⁵ On the seventh day, they got up early, at sunrise, and went around the city in the same way seven times. That was the only day they encircled the city seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time, when the cohanim blew on their shofars, Y’hoshua said to the people, “Shout! because Adonai has given you the city! ¹⁷ But the city and everything in it is to be set aside for Adonai and therefore to be destroyed completely; only Rachav the prostitute is to be spared, she and everyone with her in her house, because she hid the messengers we sent. ¹⁸ So you, keep clear of everything reserved for destruction. If you bring a curse on yourselves by taking anything set aside to be destroyed, you will bring a curse on the whole camp of Isra’el and cause great distress there. ¹⁹ All the silver and gold, and all the brass and iron utensils are to be separated out for Adonai and added to the treasury of Adonai.”

²⁰ So the people shouted, with the shofars blowing. When the people heard the sound of the shofars, the people let out a great shout; and the wall fell down flat; so that the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead of him; and they captured the city. ²¹ They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword — men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

²² Y’hoshua said to the two men who had reconnoitered the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring the woman out with all that she has, as you swore to her.” ²³ The young men, the spies, went in and brought out Rachav with her father, mother, brothers and all she had; they brought out all her relatives and put them safely outside the camp of Isra’el.

²⁴ Then they burned the city to ashes with everything in it, except for the silver, the gold and the brass and iron utensils, which they put in the treasury of the house of Adonai. ²⁵ But Y’hoshua spared Rachav the prostitute, her father’s household and everything she had; and she has continued living with Isra’el from then until now; because she hid the messengers Y’hoshua had sent to reconnoiter Yericho. ²⁶ Y’hoshua then made the people take this oath: “A curse before Adonai on anyone who rises up and rebuilds this city of Yericho: he will lay its foundation with the loss of his firstborn son and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son.” ²⁷ So Adonai was with Y’hoshua, and people heard about him throughout the land.